making thirty

not all of my posting for the last two days is on a positive note, so i need to begin with the important stuff:

today i turned 30. this wouldn't be an important marker for me if i hadn't gone and defined it as such when i was a first-year in UCT. that was a year wherein i redefined (for myself) the word "excess" and went so far as to procure a certificate formally declaring me clinically insane (i'd only paid the campus psychologist a visit to get an exemption from the duly performed requirements: a good friend of ours had committed suicide, and that kinda slanted the semester).

my mum called me earlier, and we discussed that fact that she recalled me coming to the conclusion that the likelihood of my surviving this long was rather low... it had bothered her quite a bit. i wasn't too thrilled with it either - and then scrapper made a comment (at the beginning of the year, i think) that the way i behave apropos sleep and exercise wasn't good for survival...

... so here i am. *knocks wood* having reached an interesting milestone. i've professionally achieved at least as much as i anticipated when leaving south africa more than ten years ago, i've maintained my idealism and innocence, i've made enough good connections that more than 10% of my facebook friends (i'm near 1200) either left (mostly) personal messages or called to wish me a happy birthday, i've finished with my military service and managed not to be recalled for a court-martial during the six month "danger period", i have a wonderful girlfriend* and i'm doing something i absolutely love even if it's making my life difficult to manage.

* she made me a really sweet gift: a jack-in-the-box fluffy smiley ^_^

so life is good.
reaching thirty? all good.
what's next?
not the foggiest, but - to quote the guys from our UCT orientation team - the future's so bright, you - gotta - wear - shades.