… on being 28

twenty-eight flickr photo by erix

I turn 29 today! If we want to get technical, at 3:40pm CST I will be twenty-nine. I think it’s interesting how people are about age and birthdays. There’s quite a spectrum of people who love celebrating their birthdays and people who don’t, as well as a continuum of people who are freaked out about getting older and those who are not. I’ve never really been an extremest. I am pretty far on the spectrum of people who love to celebrate birthdays, my own and others around me BUT I’m not really freaked out about being 29. Although it does seem a bit weird to think next year at this time I will be 30. Thirty! Thirty?!

I wrote a guest post on Doniree.com, the internet home of the fabulous Doniree Walker. In my guest post (on 2011 being my year to Belong) I wrote:

When I started blogging I was in the midst of the omgee-now-I-see-why-they-call-it-a-quarterlife-crisis phase in life. At that time I thought about what it would be like to turn 30. For some reason I had made up in my mind that the 20s were the time of figuring life out and magically *poof* at age 30 I’d have all the answers. I never thought about the process it would take to get to that. What specifically 28 or 29 would look like.

And so I thought I’d revisit what exactly (at least what I can remember of it) 28 looked like for me:

February 2010:

  • I started out my 28th birthday with a large group of (at least the ones who live in town) my favorite people. We had Tex-Mex and Margaritas and then moved onto a Karaoke bar where much singing and quite possibly some more drinking continued.

    picture of me and (some) of my girls at my apartment before we went out
  • a few days after my birthday, celebrated my mom’s snowy birthday. It’s so fun that our birthdays are in the same week, we always get to celebrate together!

    my mom and I celebrating our birthdays a few years ago feature boa style!
  • Flew to Las Vegas to speek in a conference on Social Media and the Youth Markets.

March (crazy busy month)

  • I flew to Memphis to partake in a client meeting. This trip was my first adventure in semi-traveling alone. I had a coworker meet me there but didn’t arrive for several hours after I did. So I got to explore Memphis by myself for the greater part of the first afternoon I arrived.
  • I drove to Austin (3 hour drive from Dallas) to speak on a panel (the ultimate nerd dream!) at SXSW with Sydney Owen, Ben Smithee, Ryan Paugh and Nisha Chittal. It was everything, and more, I could have dreamed of!!

    SXSW 2010! left to right: Ben Smithee, Sydney Owen, me, Nisha Chittal, & Ryan Paugh
  • I was mentioned as number 9 on Top 10 Influencers at SXSW!
  • I was on the NEWS! They did a feature on GenPink and me as a local blogger. It was quite fun. *sad to say the video link doesn’t currently work so it only lives on my mom’s DVR.

April

    • Took a roadtrip with several coworkers to a conference in Houston (5 hour drive). Lots of work. Not much sleep. And also fun was had.
    • Attended a “Nerd Prom” for said conference.

May

  • I flew to Boston for a client meeting and then spent Memorial Day weekend on Cape Cod playing Maid of Honor for a fun Bachelorette weekend for my friend of 14 years.

June

  • Traveled to NYC to attend The World Innovation Forum with 2 of my (then) bosses.
  • After spending 3 nights at home following NYC I flew to Chicago to speak in a student housing conference on Marketing to Gen Y.
  • Four days after returning from Chicago, I flew to New Orleans for another work conference/trade show. I do NOT recommend New Orleans at this time of year it was muy sweaty and smelly.

July (busiest month ever)

  • I accepted a job offer for a job that I hadn’t applied for. Which then required that I give my two weeks notice on my job that I was excelling in.
  • I took my last business trip for that job – traveled to Connecticut to speak on How Apartments Could Utilize Facebook to Market to Residents.
  • From Connecticut, I took a bus into Boston to meet up with my friend (the Memorial Day Bachelorette) for her wedding weekend!

    wedding party after Kaity & Keith’s wedding in Cape Cod!
  • Let’s see if I can easily break down how this last week in July panned out: Kaity got married in Cape Cod on Saturday, I flew from Boston airport to NYC late Monday night, I trained for my NEW JOB! on Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday, my flight from NYC mid-day Thursday was canceled because of weather after much traveling hassle I made it to DFW airport (home!) at 1:30am Friday “morning”, less than 7 hours later movers showed up at my apartment at 8am, I spend all day Friday with my mom unpacking and getting my new apartment set up (oh yeah I moved in my boyfriend), Saturday morning I took a 5 hour roadtrip with my dad and  boyfriend to my cousin’s wedding (I ended up having to wear my bridesmaid shoes because I hadn’t unpacked all my shoes or purses yet), Sunday afternoon we drove back to Dallas and spent that evening unpacking more, Monday I started my first day on the job in Texas (after training in NYC). makes me tired just thinking about it again!

August

September

October

November

    • can’t remember anything major I’m sure there was lots of eating and family/holiday adventures. pretty sure this tweet sums up November.

December

January 2011

  • attended, as well as helped plan, a fabulous beginning of the year SMCDallas (Social Media Club) Event

    The Fabulous Leadership Team of SMCDallas

February 2011

  • the silly weather decided to house arrest us because of Snowpacolypse for 4 days!
  • got invited as a VIP to a Pre-Super Bowl Party for GMC!

    the boyfriend and I on the red carpet at GMC Super Bowl Party
  • I decided to ring in 29 with sushi and sake – 18 people came out to eat, drink and celebrate with me!

    few friends and family that were at my birthday gathering
  • AND yesterday there was a Super Bowl in my city!

Here’s to 29!

Birthday Cinnamon Rolls made by BF: Pink Icing + Sprinkles + Pink Candles!

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