Catch–Up Post #1: I Turned Thirty on 12/22/06

On December 22, I turned the big 3-0. Which is cool to me. Rather than a milestone to freak out about and second-guess how I’ve spent my time, I view as a good solid benchmark. When you’re thirty, I feel you officially enter the “adult” stage, if not in your own eyes (‘cause I still feel like a kid), but in society’s view. I’ve had a lot of jobs where I was by far the youngest person on staff and sometimes struggled to be taken seriously, rather than just the “kid-sidekick” of an older coworker (perfect example: Madison County Cultural Center- my boss Mark McCrary treated me very well, as did most folks I encountered, but several times I feel like people would write me off as just a kid). I enjoy getting older because it gets me deeper into the “Grown-Up Club” (I originally typed “adult club” here but that sounded too much like a strip club). So I’m digging the thirties so far.

So I celebrated this milestone with some of my favorite people: my lovely wife Katie, my parents (who came up from Mississippi to join us for Christmas in Cape May, NJ) and Aden and Mohamed, two Somali teenagers. We ate at Al Amir, my favorite restaurant, and a place where I thought Aden and Mohamed would really enjoy since it is Muslim run and Middle Eastern cuisine. Turns out they both enjoyed it, but I don’t think they’d ever been to a “sit-down” restaurant with menus and such. Though they enjoyed the meal and meeting my folks, Mohamed was so nervous he barely said a word and after going over the menu, he finally settled on chicken fingers and French fries. Cracked me up. After dinner, I took the boys hoe and we had some family time of opening birthday gifts and Christmas presents (opened early to make sure we had room in the car for the trip to Jersey).


Dad, Mom, and the Kate-ster


Aden, Glow-in-the-Dark Man, and Mohamed (I tried to correct this photo but I am so washed out there was no contrast to even work with!)


This was sweet.