So I was standing in the bathroom this morning and I was thinking about all the people this month who are having birthdays. Especially the people that are my age. I wasn’t one of those people that was completely freaked out about turning 30. I knew people that had been, and others had warned me about it, which made me think that by not caring about turning 30, I wasn’t taking it seriously enough. Fact is, I love being in my 30’s. I feel like right now, in this very moment, I’m happy with where I’m at. I couldn’t say that in my 20’s. My 20’s were stressful, turbulent, and haphazard. They were also exciting, chaotic, and a lot of fun. I can honestly say that I’m glad I had those experiences, but I’m even more happy to have left them behind. My 30’s to me are all about stability. For the first time in my life, I feel that I’m truly stable, in pretty much all aspects of life.
For starters, I’m in an amazing relationship with a wonderful guy. He gets me in ways that I never thought possible, and in being with him, I understand how important that really is. Of course there are compromises, but finding someone that accepts me for who I am no matter what, and is willing to put up with the majority of my baggage and eccentricities (pugs, shoes, giant boisterous family) is more important to me than being with someone who is extremely good looking (of course, I think he is anyway) or has a lot of money (how much money really contributes to happiness anyway?). Before Simon, I did the exhausting dating thing...I dated old college flames, volleyball teammates, coworkers, friends of friends, friends of family, high school buddies...you name it, I’ve probably dated it. I even dabbled in online dating. None of it felt quite right, but throughout all those bad dates and awkward breakups, I learned what was most important to me, what I was willing to compromise on, and more importantly, what I was not. Finding Simon was like a breath of fresh air. We’re both just eccentric enough to enjoy each other’s odd behaviors. And for those of you that think I’m the only odd one in the relationship, you are mistaken. We are both quite odd. But it works for us. When something doesn’t work, we fix it or get over it. It’s almost scary how similar our minds work. We’re on the same page with religion (don’t have one), marriage (not in a hurry), and children (don’t want any), which I think is a huge accomplishment. Those are three things that I feel can make or break any relationship. Simon and I both agree that we met each other at exactly the right times in our lives. We had experienced enough of life to know and accept ourselves pretty well, and to be honest to both ourselves and each other in regards where our coupled lives were going to take us.
I have a stable job. I know that working for only three months at a time and moving across the country 3-4 times a year might not sound stable to most people, but somehow it is for me. To be honest, I only intended to do this whole travel bit for a year or two, three at the very most. And now here I am, over 5 years into it and really with no intention to stop any time soon. The money is good, the locations are mostly ideal, and I’m learning a lot about this country I live in. Some of the jobs have been more difficult than others, but like finding a partner, working in multiple hospitals has given me an idea of what I want to look for when I decide to stay in one place for any length of time. My first job as a nurse was at the Mayo Clinic, and I never really questioned any of their policies...if Mayo does it, that’s how it should be done, right? Well, I’ve found out that people are able to get better in hospitals other than just Mayo. Granted, Mayo is still one of the best hospitals that I’ve ever worked in, but there are plenty of other hospitals out there that do it just as well, sometimes even a little bit better. It all depends on where you’re at and what your problem is. I do know that when I decide to settle in at one health system, I’d like it to be a teaching institution. I like working with residents. I like their curiosity, their availability, and their willingness to learn, even from us nurses. Residents are also able to provide a physical presence to patients at all hours of the day, which is so much better than having to tell a patient that they have to wait until morning to see a doctor. I also think that hospitals that are teaching institutions have to up their game a little bit to stay competitive, which provides a better work environment for everyone. I would also like to work for a health system that provides parking for all its employees (hint hint Mayo).
Despite making less money than your average non-tenured teacher in the last year, my financial situation is looking pretty good. I know a good chunk of that has to do with having no living expenses, which is a definite perk to my type of occupation. When I had a house, I was dead broke. It took me years to pay off the debt I had accrued during home ownership. I did exactly what my parents said I shouldn’t, which meant I got in over my head and didn’t adequately estimate my expenses beyond my monthly house payment. The house payment was the easy part! It was the utilities and the maintenance and the furnishing and the decorating that got me...oy! So not having a house payment has been a real help in becoming almost debt free. I have a student loan that’s just lingering around...at 3% interest I can’t really be bothered to make extra payments towards it. At this point I’ve probably paid off the majority of the interest on it anyway, so what’s the rush? It’s a nice tax write-off, if nothing else. The government was nice to me this year with my tax return, and despite all the grumbling I hear about the government using my tax return for the interest all year, I don’t really care...I just don’t enjoy paying in. Minnesota did take a nice little bite of out of my return. Apparently they feel it’s worth $500 of my hard earned money to have a permanent address there. Perhaps I should move to a state with no state taxes, eh?
I feel like I’ve been making better choices when it comes to eating and exercise. I’m trying to kick my Doritos habit, I really am. I think I’ve been Doritos free for just over a week...hahaha! Eating better was a tentative New Year’s resolution this year. I always break my resolutions so I don’t actually make them, but I still think about resolutions I would make, were I the resolution making type. :) My goal for this year is to eat more fruits and veggies, and to start taking a multivitamin every day. I was doing pretty good with the vitamin, then I fell off the wagon. I’m still terrible with veggies, even though I like them. For some reason I just don’t think about them, and I don’t crave them, and I don’t take the time to prepare them. It’s an effort. Fruits are easier. I eat a banana or two everyday, and try to sneak some other fruits in throughout the day. I’ve lately been obsessed with pears. I’m by no means doing well, but I’m doing better than I was. Part of my problem with food is that I don’t take the time to cook. I cooked spaghetti the other night, and that was my first time cooking anything in over a week (and it didn’t taste like Mom’s, so I was very disappointed). What do I eat? Pieces of fruit, wheat thins, cottage cheese, yogurt, and cereal. Seriously. Tonight Simon and I are going to make shrimp enchiladas, so that’ll be something good. As for the exercise, well...I hate exercising. I have decided that I am not a runner, and will therefore quit trying. It’s not that I can’t do it, it’s just that I can’t breathe while I’m doing it. Makes me panic a bit. I’ve had asthma for most of my life, and while it rarely bothers me, I can’t help but feel like I’m having an asthma attack when I’m running. I’m probably not, but that’s what it feels like and it makes me panic. I don’t know if it’s just mind-over-matter or if I really do have sports-induced asthma. At any rate, I don’t like to be in a state of panic for any reason, so I’ve been doing a lot of walking instead. I usually walk about four miles a day, sometimes five or more and that’s been going all right. I carry little water bottles with me to use as hand weights...hahaha! I’m up to about 16 miles a week, which is really good for me. Add into that about 1-2 paddle boarding days a week, and I think that’s pretty good for exercise, for someone of my motivational stature. I’m not doing any of this for weight-loss either; in fact, I don’t even know what I weigh right now because I don’t own a scale. I’m probably the only person I know that lies upwards when I give someone my weight. I have this thing about nice rounded numbers, so when I give my weight the number has to either end in a 0 or a 5. The last time I weighed myself I was between a 5 and a 0, so I rounded up to the 0. I never, ever round down. I feel like a weight-obsessed toolbox giving a weight that ends in any other number than 0 or 5, so there you go. And here’s some of my logic behind it: I basically have a 5lb margin of error, so when I do get around to weighing myself, I’ll have either lost weight, or be right where I kept saying I was. I figure it’s a win-win, even if it only makes sense to me.
So that pretty much sums up my 30-something sense of euphoria today. And for those you wondering why I was just standing in the bathroom thinking about all this stuff...well, I was pondering over a new crop of pimples that seemed to have materialized overnight, and wondered why they couldn’t have stayed in my 20’s with all those ex-boyfriends. :)
