So I am 31 years old now. Yesterday, I was sitting at the nail salon next to two high school girls who were primping for a dance. I tried to imagine what I looked like in their eyes. Because I don’t feel old. I feel vibrant and lively and ambitious and comfortable and wiser. But I was thinking that they probably looked at me and thought “I like that lady’s nail color” or “that woman seemed nice.” I refer to them as girls. They surely refer to me as a woman or lady. In their eyes, I am ancient. It made me laugh to think about it in that way.

My birthday week has been pretty fantastic. It started with a wonderful birthday dinner with my parents who made me a Paleo-approved dinner and got me amazing presents. I also got some really personal and creative gifts from my friends:

I had drinks with my coworkers. JD took me to dinner at St. Elmo’s and bought me a stunning bracelet. And on Friday night, we went to an awesome concert (Andrew Combs and Cheyenne Marie Mize).

But the big celebration was Saturday night. The morning of the party, I met the Perfect Strangers for our first indoor run on Saturday. The weather was unforgivingly cold. Eighteen degrees with 20 MPH winds meant it felt like two degrees with a thin layer of snow on the ground. We just weren’t having it. So we met at the Monon Center in Carmel where there is an indoor track open to the public. It’s only a 200 meter track so 8 laps = 1 mile. I was supposed to do 18 miles (144 laps!) but committed to just going as long as possible given the fact that I would be spinning circles for hours. Jaime, Kelly, Karen, Christi and I took over the track the same way we do the Monon Trail. We did our best not to run 5 wide as the track was very crowded (clearly we weren’t the only ones who said HELL NO to the weather). I have always thought running that many laps indoors would be mundane and that I’d rather deal with any conditions than to subject myself to such boredom. But with these girls by my side, the first hour flew by. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep track of the laps so we went by time instead. After timing our laps we figured out our pace and determined that by running just a bit more than two hours, we could get in 13 miles or so. An indoor half marathon (104 laps!) was good enough for us. And the best part of it all was running without layers and layers of clothing on. I felt free and light and it was the best long run I have had this entire year.

Jaime and Kelly started earlier so at the end, it was just me, Christi and Karen. At one point, I noticed this gorgeous blonde running on the track. She had a perfect body, perfect hair and I immediately didn’t like her. Why? Because she was pretty. When I told Christi and Karen this, Christi immediately said “Oh my gosh I know. I saw her stretching earlier. What the hell?” We died laughing about how typical it is for girls to get like this. We decide we don’t like someone based on something as shallow as the fact that they are pretty and we immediately hate everything about them.

One of the things we didn’t like was how she ran – it was a bit frantic, kind of like how Phoebe runs in that episode of Friends. We were determined to pass her. With only 2 laps to go, the three of us were kicking up our heels. Gone was the conversation – we were just running. And as we approached Phoebe & Friends, I said “ladies – it’s time to make our move.” And we did. We overtook their group with long strides and didn’t let up our pace the rest of our run. We even lifted our arms in the air like Rocky after accomplishing our mission. Poor thing. All she did was show up looking gorgeous.

And after our run, we primped for my party. I had the honor of dining with my favorite people last night. People from all avenues of my life. We laughed. We drank. My friends became friends with each other. We took over the jukebox at the Metro and loudly sang along to “God Bless the USA.” Martha passed out nametags to everyone in sight. We shook our tailfeathers. We wore sparkles. It was the perfect night, the perfect party. And I was reminded just how blessed I am to have such amazing people in my world.

I think 31 is going to be a pretty fabulous year.