The Big 3-0

I'm thirty!

Holy crap. How did that happen?!

In all seriousness, 30 has been pretty great so far. For my actual birthday, Bo and I went to dinner at Sotto Sotto, an Italian restaurant right down the street from us that had been on our must-go-to list for far too long. It exceeded all our expectations which is saying a lot since we had it pretty hyped up. And to top it off, they offered a complimentary birthday dessert - the way to my heart.

A few of my favorite things: wine, meats & cheeses, tuna, seafood risotto, duck ragu, and veal chop. Delicious!

It's no secret, I love birthdays. Mine, yours, anyone's. And really any excuse for any kind of celebration. My twenties were filled with mostly keg parties and big group dinners with girlfriends and fancy dinners with Bo to celebrate my birthday. I've spent almost every birthday of the past decade (plus a few more) with Adrienne, my birthday buddy. We are exactly one week apart so we've had many joint birthday parties over the years. Last year, we closed out our twenties on her golden birthday when I visited her in Chicago. Lucky for me she moved to Atlanta a few months ago so this time neither of us had to travel. And as much as we would have loved another big birthday blow-out to ring in our thirties, we instead decided to have a small family-style weekend. How mature. We must be thirty after all. 

The Atlanta Winter Beerfest at the Masquerade was over the weekend in between our birthdays, which we clearly took as a sign that we must attend. It is not to be confused with the Winter Beer Carnival where we nearly died of frostbite two years ago, since it was held outside (they finally wised up and moved that one to the springtime this year). I promised Leslie this one was different and that it would be better, so I crossed my fingers and it turned out to be pretty awesome. They had a great setup in all the different rooms inside, with tented/heated areas outside, plenty of beer for everyone, and live music. It was such a fun day.

Adrienne's cousins flew in for the weekend, as well as my siblings and their significant others. I didn't realize it until later but it was actually the first time Leslie, Mike, Paul, Sarah, Bo and I were all in Atlanta together. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday crew! (Leslie took the only group photo of us so I'll add that in later otherwise I'll never get around to posting this! hint, hint, darling sister, last minute notice I know, pleaseandthankyou)

Leslie has visited me in Atlanta every year around my birthday, and almost every year it happens to be the coldest weekend of the entire year. I'm not sure why she keeps coming back, but I'm glad that she does. Thankfully this year it was a pretty mild weekend before all the snowstorms came through (that would have been epically disastrous for these Floridians...). And hopefully by next year she will once again forget that it's winter in January.

We also ran into a bunch of Chi O girlfriends from college, and as the birthday song goes "may you drink a hundred beers..." Obviously.  No coincidence that we always seem to reunite at these beer festivals. Cheers, ladies!

After the beerfest, we came home and ordered pizza before heading out to Highland Tap. They make great martinis and it was definitely a "thirties" bar as compared to our regular spots here in town. It was a welcome change. 

Shots! Ummm sorry kids, I'm not 21 anymore... haha

Our last stop of the night was to the Clermont Lounge , a classy landmark establishment in Atlanta. No pictures are allowed, which is unfortunate because we had a celebrity sighting! Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth were also there that night (clearly to wish us a happy birthday! kidding). But it's probably a good thing we have no pictures from this point on. *Some* of us may have had a few too many beverages...and some others didn't quite make it the entire night... I won't name any names, but in the end we all survived.  :)  And it was glaringly obvious to me that I am definitely the oldest in the family. Seeing as I am the only one to have learned my limits over the years, I made sure to have a water in between each drink, and was the least hungover the next day. Dear 30, I am ready for you!

Every other year people wish a generic happy birthday. This year, most people wished me a happy thirtieth birthday and seemed to have something to say about it - opinions, stories, advice, etc. The funniest thing to me was that generally, everyone under 30 told me I was getting old and asked if I was sad to no longer be in my twenties, and everyone who was 30+ told me how my thirties will be even better than my twenties. I have a feeling the best is yet to come :)