Maybe 30 ain’t so bad after all.

My eventual move in to the ranks of 30 plus has been the topic of much conversation over the last 6 months or so – and for a while, I wondered if I’d feel any different. Over the last year, I’ve weighed the value of anniversaries, reflected on what social media has done for me, and suffered through the hardest days of my whole life. And after all this, being alive, no matter what I was started to feel more like a blessing than ever before. The number 30 lost all substantive meaning.

But, there was still cause for celebration, as with all things in life, sweetness follows (listen).

I was lucky and blessed enough to share a birthday celebration with 14 of my most favorite people in the world, and I’d like to take a minute and thank them all for coming out to share in dinner and some rock (both real and plastic) and helping to make the night a very special one, at at much needed time. And even though my actual birthday isn’t until Thursday, it just became time to ROCK.

Some of the highlights:

Marissa Lerer‘s live rendition of “Livin’ On a Prayer”:

Dueling Banjos, courtesy of Michael Gruen and Mike Davis

Awesome gifts, including…

• an entire CASE of Kidrobot Simpsons Figures

  

• A Susana Schroeder original painting, which I’ve dubbed “The Sledgehammer” and proudly mounted on my wall:

  

And, finally, just a great night spent with some of my favorite people in the whole world. I’d like to give them all a quick shoutout:

Whitney Hess
Brett Petersel
Alexander Gordon
Marissa and Geoff Lerer
Susana Schroeder
Diana and John Liquori
Michael Gruen
Maureen (Mo) Puia
Rebecca Schlachter
Mike Davis
Matt Zarzecki

Thanks guys. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.