I left town when I turned 30. But had a lovely birthday in Ashland at the Shakespeare fest with my then girlfriend eventually-to-be Emmett's Mom.

My relationship with her dominated my 30s, and that didn't turn out so well. But I got an Emmett out of it. I had way more fun in my 20s, and my 40s have been far more productive but also much more stressful.

I cruised through the first half of my thirties. The second half was Parenting and then Divorce.

My 30th was spent in an absolute dive of a bar in Detroit's Cass corridor. One of the actors in the theatre company shared the same birthday (he was turning 30, too) so the whole company just took over the back room of this bar. We brought in our own music, scared away a few regulars (I think it was the boas and tiaras) and had a great time.

I don't think I've even celebrated a birthday since then beyond buying myself some ice cream on the way home from work.

This article really tickles the X-phile in me [link] but I think my favorite part has to be this

Loren Coleman, a Portland, Maine, cryptozoologist -- one who studies creatures that may not exist... His other specialty is suicides among baseball players.

How do you make a resume for that?

I turned 30 8 days after giving birth to my first child. I really have no memory of it at all.

30 was no big deal, I can't even remember what I did for it. I do remember sitting in the caf at work with some friends, and one of them saying that the "Oh God I'm OLD" feeling didn't hit until you turned 31. Which was true for me. At 30 I still felt young. At 31 I broke my leg playing paintball and felt old.

Oddly, after 35 I started feeling young again.

I can't remember anything at all specific about my 30th, but then my birthdays usually suck -- a hasty afterthought to my family's Xmas celebration.

Now I'm depressing myself, which I didn't want to do first thing in the morning!

For my 30th birthday, a friend who was dying of AIDS took me and two other friends out to eat at an expensive SF restaraunt. At this point the dying friend was a very bitter and angry person, and could be a very critical and demanding customer, so, um... it was a stressful dinner.

OK, off I go to the eye clinic thingie....

Loved my 30th birthday, loved being 30, continuing to love my 30s.

Good luck today, Jesse!

Happy 30th, Dana!

Well, I'm so excited that the beautiful weather is TODAY, while I am stuck inside my office, rather than this weekend. I am truly grateful for resembling a drowned rat while doing all my errands and not being able to sleep all weekend because of fear that the rainwater would push into the basement again. YAY NEW ENGLAND JUNE!!!!

The week before my 30th birthday, I reconnected with my mother who had abandoned me to my pedophile father 27 years before...and confronted said father. Drama of the highest order.

But on the actual day, my boyfriend of that era executed the most extraordinary treasure hunt all over Pittsburgh. He'd worked on it for months, setting up tasks and events at businesses from Victoria Secret (the manager squealed "Oh, YOU'RE the special one! when I showed up with the little poem I was to recite for my prezzie. The BF was a huge hero.), to a local florist, a funky coffee house and my favorite restaurant. We ended up dancing to 'our song' on the banks of a river at 3am.

The 30's were a time of tremendous change. The 40s have been much more contented and happy.