Right around three weeks ago now, I turned 30, on Thanksgiving day. Every day since has been a struggle, as I deal with the constraints that old age brings. I’ve had to deal with a myriad of physical ailments throughout my thirties, including a pretty serious sinus infection with accompanying fever, a pulled muscle in my back, which does seem to happen periodically, but has lingered longer now that I’m officially old, and, potentially the most deadly of all…a lingering man cold.

Such is my life, though, now that I’m 30 years old.

Additionally, I live with a real live girl, one that smells nice and looks pretty, but also yells at me for not replacing the toilet paper, and for having to be told to fold my clothes, and this combination of qualities both thrills and scares the living shit out of me at the same time. I live with a constant fear that I’m going to muck the whole thing up in some inane way, like making an accurate, if not particularly subtle, observation about her driving habits, or farting on her leg as I sleep. I’m sure one day she’ll find out that I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to relationships, so to throw her off guard, I’ve asked her to marry me.

We share our apartment with a cat who likes to lick glue and deodorant for the contact buzz, and who bites at my hand when I try to pet her. She is grumpy and irascible, and she is slow to give affection and quick to take it away, and she smells funny. So we stock up on Band-Aids, and continue to give her attention.

I work in a job that I love to hate, for a company that both delights and angers me in any given day. I have co-workers who make me laugh and drive me crazy in the same breath, both of which I seem to enjoy. I work for clients that I complain about when on-site, but can’t imagine staying away from for any extended period of time. I have threatened to quit my job more times than I can count, but I couldn’t imagine working for anyone else.

I have friends that I love, but never see. I complain about this incessantly, and then I’m never available when invites are sent.

29 was so much less complicated.

And yet, I couldn’t be happier.