At 31, More Flavor Than a Baskin Robbins

Any time I've ever seen someone write about crossing over into their 30's, it has been a lamentation, a eulogy to dreams and social relevance.  You've discovered that work is nothing more, nothing less than the term "work" implies.  You've stopped talking in idealistic tones about what you are trying to become.  You spend as much time looking for good 401(k) investments as you do checking sports scores.  Women no longer chatter about you in tones normally reserved for a Team Jacob vs. Team Edward debate.  Now, IF they even know who you are, and IF they are inclined to talk about you, it is only to sharpen their claws as Team Damaged Goods vs. Team Gay.  And just the thought of staying out past midnight makes you a little sleepy. 

These observances aren't lost on me.  You cross over into a different phase of life.  But I don't lament any of it.  It's just different, with different things to learn.  I've really enjoyed my first year in this new decade.  I'm in better shape than I've ever been, I feel like I have a more clear view of life, and thanks in some perverse way to this Humungus thing, I feel like I've uncluttered a lot of my thought processes.  I feel positively about this phase of my life.  So for my first anniversary of reaching 30, I'd like to drop a list of things I love on y'all, some with explanation/comment, some without.  These are not in any particular order. This is not a countdown, just an enumeration of things I like.  So here goes.

1.  My family.  Seriously, top to bottom, I love these guys.  My parents have been such great examples to me, and my siblings have all given me pieces of themselves to build from.  I can't imagine what I would have turned out like without any one of them.

2. Dogs.  Just about any breed. 

3.  Summer BBQs.  Something about the combination of sun, good friends/family, and charred meat.

4.  Hyperbole.  I love it more than life itself.

5.  Lips on my neck.  Something I have in common with Kenyon Martin.

6.  Rage Against The Machine concerts.


7.  The suffix "ish".  The verbal equivalent of rounding to the nearest tenth.  What a great little additive.

8.  Latin food.  When I moved here from out west, I bewailed the lack of decent Mexican food.  The dearth of any passable Latin food back home is equally regrettable.  Nobody does pork like the Cubans.

9.  Playing hockey. 

10.  Dancing to James Brown tunes. 

11.  Key lime cheesecake. 

12.  Morning wood.  Makes it impossible to feel like you didn't get a good night's sleep.

13.  Rodeos.  So many fond memories from my childhood involve being at the rodeo with my dad.  Still love going.  One day, I hope to score tickets to the NFR in Vegas.

14.  Close friends.  Over the years, I've lost track of so many people I knew.  In all honesty, I don't feel the loss.  The reality is, most people are the packing peanuts of my life, surrounding the true precious cargo that are my closest friends.

15.  Muscle cars.  Cliched meathead favorite.  Awesome nonetheless.

16.  Bohemian Rhapsody. 

17.  Swimming with the ocean.

18.  Baby Suri.  I know she's Tom Cruise's, which apparently isn't cool to like anything associated with him anymore because he worships Xenu and hates glibness, but I can't help myself.  She's adorable.  Weird?  Weird.  Maybe one day I'll be able to get a woman with child that turns out that well.

19.  Baseball games at Camden Yards. 

20.  New terms learned through political scandals.  Client 9.  Hiking the Appalachian Trail.  Wide Stance.  Snorkling.  Such creativity.

21.  Running.  I never thought I'd say that.  All my life, I've hated few things as much as running.  But I've somehow tapped into all that "me and the road, clearing my mind" zen garbage you always hear runners yammering about.  To clarify, I am not "a runner."  I just understand them now. 

22.  Back rubs from pretty ladies.  Do I really need to explain this one at all?

23.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  The book.  R.P. McMurphy is my kind of bull goose loony. 

24.  Jon Stewart.  One of my favorite media people.  And in the subcategory of media Jews, Stewart is my #1.

25.  Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood.  He taught me everything I know about drinking other people's milkshakes.

I love many more things than this.  But it's almost 2 am.  At this point I can't remember what I wrote at the beginning and am too tired to proof read this thing.  So twenty five is all you're getting out of me.  Happy first day of spring.