29. Already?!

Today I turn 29. The last year of my third decade of life. Many have said that their 29th year has been their best year. I'm excited. Really, I am. Seriously!
This year I plan to:

• Make some serious money
• Date an amazing man
• Finish my collection of stories
• Own (and look fabulous in) a dress from Anthropologie
• Read 20 books
• Minimize my Diet Coke intake
• Run the marathon
• Fold my laundry immediately when it comes out of the dryer
• Follow the election campaigns
• Take a trip out of the state. Maybe two...or three...or seven.

That's not the entire list, but that's all my brain could come up with at 11:17 pm on a weeknight.

In case you were wondering (and because I tend to forget easily), here's some things that I recieved for my birthday:

• A book called The Family Who Couldn't Sleep, by D.T. Max. It's about prion disease, and how this tiny malformed protein has afflicted an Italian family for the past 300 years. I've started it and am already hooked. My mom gave this to me.
• My mom also ordered me the new Harry Potter book.
• A bright pink Boston Red Sox watch and a David Ortiz poster. My department at work set up a banner and balloons in my lab and gave me these awesome gifts.
• Toby Keith concert tickets (14th row)! Adrianne, a co-worker, is going to take me. I'm not a big country music fan, but I think Toby is a little bit of a bad-ass in the country genre. I'm pumped to go.
• I requested that, for my bithday, Natalie post another entry on her blog because I am always entertained by her clever wit and massive nerdiness (is that the correct spelling for that word? Hmm). She came through beautifully. Thank you Natalie.
• Ashley and Stefan gave me a large skillet. A Rachel Ray skillet nontheless. I was in desperate need of one, they saw the need, and filled it. Thank you Stef and Ash.
• My section at work was unable to throw me the usual birthday lunch on my actual birthday, so we had one a few days later. There, they presented me with a Red Sox apron and Red Sox oven mits. Fantastic.
• Also, (I forgot to mention this earlier) the man that I'm interested in came into work wearing the shirt that I love most on him. It's this baby blue T-shirt with the Analog snowboarding logo on it. It makes his skin and eyes look incredible. I love it when he wears that shirt. Happy Birthday to me!
• I recieved a belated present from a favorite friend, Shanna. After reading this blog, she wanted to contribute to one of my goals for this year. She gave me gift certificate to Anthropologie for that dress that I am soon going to own and look fabulous in! This is so great! Thanks Shan!

So yeah, needless to say, I am spoiled. I have wonderfully generous friends and family. Ahhh, it's good to be me.