Greetings from La Crosse, Wisconsin!  Where the heck is La Crosse, you ask?  A four-hour drive west of Green Bay, Wisconsin, which, turns out, is also relatively in the middle-of-nowhere.  Adventures of a Midwestern 30-something, indeed.  Last night, I ate dinner at a place that serves burgers wrapped in parchment paper and water in those tiny OJ-sized cafeteria cups.  Tonight’s dinner was a step-up at the local Grizzly’s.  Yep, I’m in the Midwest.

And yes, I had cheese curds with dinner last night.

But I digress.  The actual subject of this post is, once again, my 30th birthday!  I would be remiss if I didn’t dedicate a post to the perfection that was my 30th birthday celebration.  It started around 6 PM on “birthday eve”, as my mother would say, when my freshman year roommate and bff Nash arrived at my apartment from Cincinnati for the celebration.  We then met up with friends and family at Bareburger, a NYC burger chain that has happily made its way to the Midwest.  One of those friends was a surprise – my dear friend Cullen, who lives in Charleston, WV and whom I thought was at a wedding and therefore unable to make it.  What a pleasant surprise! 

My main cbus crew plus my parents and two like-family friends all piled around a big table and proceeded to gorge in glorious burgers and to-die-for french fries, washed down with fancy cocktails (Bareburger will only make cocktails off their menu – no dirty martini for the birthday girl).  But even better than the food (and you know how much I love food) was how special everyone made me feel.  My mom read aloud a poem she wrote about me (strikingly accurate and tear-jerking), and my friends all wrote haikus.  It was a poem-filled night!  Topped with tasty cupcakes and dancing the night away. 

Perhaps the funniest part of the evening where these ridiculous signs that Ashley made of my face on a wooden stick.  These signs kept popping up all night – in the center of the dinner table, in my friends’ back pockets, in inappropriate places (yep, they went there).  They even ended up dancing with strangers.  One couple told me that dancing with my face was “the most excitement [her] marriage has had in years”.  No comment.    

So, you see, it was the best 30th birthday celebration a girl could ask for.  Great food, great friends, great family, great feelings.   My actual birthday was spent running the Girls on the Run 5K, eating another burger on Karen’s back patio, and writing my first blog post.  I’m a lucky gal!