Thirty and a Week

I have ascended into the ranks of thirtydom. This theoretically qualifies me as an "adult" at least insofar as I am now allowed to scoff at the peevish fripperies of twentysomethings with a sliver less hypocrisy. As milestones go, it's one I've anticipated for some time. Have I pondered and reflected on this milestone? Well... no, actually. Maybe because I am thirty. And as a thirty year old (albeit not technically a thirtysomething until I pass this first year of plain-out thirty), I'm kind of busy working and planning a wedding and watching my friends have kids and doing other things that detract from the pondering I may have achieved when I was attaining twenty, had neither a job nor a plan, except to jump the next car trip off to Montreal to listen to Nirvana and stutter through my rusty french and maybe compose maudlin livejournal articles about people who were reading the posts.

But well, let me try to go a little reflective: I'm finally - finally! - leaving the desolation and discombobulation of my twenties and entering the "new adulthood."I think I'm ready for it. I've got a meager little retirement account, a savings account, a regular schedule, a real job and a general approach to life that lacks the adrenaline soaked clueless histrionics of young adulthood. I'm ready for this. There's that marriage and kids nonsense that may be coming up. But nobody's actually ready for that, so I think I'm covered there. Not deep pondering, but there you go.

Ok. That was fun. But no, it was a really nice birthday. There were some distinct themes in my birthday gifting that pretty much got me: socks, earrings, and kitchen-stuff. Oh an chocolate and desserty gum (apple pie and sherbet, which are in my estimation, quite the pinnacle of the dessert flavored gum milieu). That's nearly me in a nutshell. Add some dance stuff and my beautiful little samsung tablet for enhanced compulsive internetting and you've got me entirely.

Andrew was up and also knows just how to give me gifts - namely a little bit at a time throughout the day. He even managed to subtly convince me to buy myself a necklace that matched some fabulous earrings he got me. Who knew my little engineer was so crafty?

My actual birthday fell (lightly and like that darned flowing feather on the Forrest Gump intro) on a Saturday, so I got to savor the experience without deferral. The savoring starting with a run at Lake Padden and ending with a milonga. So, physical activities that often center around shoes and benefit from focus on form and breathing. And which both leave me flush and buzzed with endorphins.On a tango versus running blow by blow, I might say that tango will probably cause me more blisters and sorer calves on whole. But I digress. Yeah that tendency didn't go away with the passing of my twenties.

The milonga in question was Tango Popolare's monthly tango experience, which I was hosting .. ish. David, the actual host pretty much relieved me of hosting duties other than letting me tyrannize the evening with my music mix of scratchy old fashioned stuff, histrionic new stuff, and tangoable-non-tango stuff. I do love the Golden Age music (it's an acquired taste for many, as a lot of newbies would rather refer to it as "silent film cartoon music"), but I am also fairly partial to the platinum, spandex and digital ages of music as well, darnit.. I insisted on being dj, because I love dj-ing "special occasions" like Christmas and so on, and working themes into my tandas and cortinas. Also, it had been a few months of very excellent but very traditional djs doing all old-school music and I felt the need to tamper with the status quo.

Going back to the "I'm thirty and I'm busy" theme, I didn't quite have time for any particularly clever mixing up of specific themes and motifs or elaborate cortina. Instead I just revamped a playlist I'd used about a year ago, added some tandas that I'd just been playing with in the last few months, and switched up some orders. I also considered going the three song tanda route, as apparently it's the new en vogue thing in Bellingham, but abandoned the idea. I'll admit partially I did this to get to the right length for my list, but also I do actually enjoy having extra time with my dance partners to get the perfect flow. And I did, at least, make my new favorite cortina ever - Party Rock Anthem - feasible by drastically remastering the volume when I cropped it. I am sure nobody came remotely close to my level of enjoyment of this choice, but I sure well enjoyed it. And I have to say, it was a bit of a list of favorites. I came away humming airs from about five of my tandas for the rest of the week, so I am pleased with the list. And others indicated they were as well, so I'll pat myself on the back a bit.

Attendance was initially quite sparse, because one of our local leads (my Harry Potter) is going to Buenos Aires for a quarter and was throwing his going away party on the same night. I thought for sure nobody would come, which would have been dismal. Blissfully, I was quite mistaken. First, my long time friend from Seattle finally took me up on my standing invitation and appeared! We haven't seen each other in months, and i do rather fancy his dancing. He can maybe get a little too carried away with talking and forget he's dancing, but when he's dancing, it's just like a nice fresh breath of air. Nothing painfully elaborate, but perfectly musical and with that deep care and attention of a lead whose first priority and concern is his follow's comfort and enjoyment.

The rest of the going away party sobered up enough to make their way to our milonga in time for my birthday dance. I hadn't wanted one, because frankly I kind of hate them. I think they're a bit of a chance for others to use you to show off. But even that aside, there's a reason that most people dance in tandas of three to four songs at a time. I am rarely completely adjusted to a partner within the first song. It takes that extra couple to fall into perfect synch. So switching between multiple partners at tiny intervals doesn't tend to lend to a really transcendent experience with any of them. That said, it turned out pretty well. After much prodding, I threw on Fragilidad by Medialuna Tango Project, one of my favorites, and danced with Harry Potter, the female college instructor in town (who turns out to be a fantastic lead), and a few of my favorites. Sure I got to bed after midnight, which far exceeds my grown-up bedtime and was completely wrecked the next morning, since I got up at my grown up wake up time. But some things are worth the loss of sleep.

So anyways, there you are. I filled the space that may have gone to self-reflection with self-reporting. I am thirty hear me continue to drivel about music and tango and maybe some running and things like that.

The goal for this coming fall will be to figure out new and exciting ways to use my new birthday gifts. The socks and earrings I've figured out fairly well. And the kitchen stuff... I'm starting with peanutbutter. Home made peanut butter. Holy crap, is all I can say to that!