# How would you celebrate your thirtieth birthday? (erm, if you were me)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-celebrate-your-thirtieth-birthday-erm-if-you-were-me/344040>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 11, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-celebrate-your-thirtieth-birthday-erm-if-you-were-me/344040 "2006-02-11T22:59:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-celebrate-your-thirtieth-birthday-erm-if-you-were-me/344040/1 "2006-02-11T22:59:50Z")

</div>

As well as being Darwin’s birthday tomorrow, it’s my thirtieth. I just wondered if anybody had any ideas for how I should celebrate it. Given that…

1. I have to go to church
2. I have, like, two friends. And one of them has already discharged her duty by hanging out with me today.
3. I have no money.
4. I could use a laugh.
5. The church will probably sing happy birthday at me during the service and/or bring out a cake afterwards.
6. Some other friends, for some reason, went out to celebrate their birthdays this week without me. There could be a good reason for this. I don’t know what it is but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Please throw any of the above into the mix and gimme some ideas. 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-celebrate-your-thirtieth-birthday-erm-if-you-were-me/344040/2 "2006-02-11T23:47:48Z")

</div>

No clue. I celebrated my 30th birthday by going to class. When I left class, I went home and found two or three messages on my answering machine–from family members who knew perfectly well I had class from 4 pm to 10 pm that day. I also complained about feeling old, and felt generally blue for reasons I’m not going to expand on here.

I did have a nice dinner out with family when the weekend came.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-celebrate-your-thirtieth-birthday-erm-if-you-were-me/344040/3 "2006-02-12T00:25:58Z")

</div>

I’m probably going to have to work on mine (unless I ask for it off)…next month. Thirty? Me? NEXT MONTH? No way. Uh-uh. Too weird.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-celebrate-your-thirtieth-birthday-erm-if-you-were-me/344040/4 "2006-02-12T00:40:31Z")

</div>

Is there some popular local “thing” that you’ve never done? On my 30th birthday I went to Graceland, which I had somehow never visited, even after several years in Memphis. I’m glad I did; I’ll always remember what I did that day.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-celebrate-your-thirtieth-birthday-erm-if-you-were-me/344040/5 "2006-02-12T00:59:58Z")

</div>

I like **Jackalope** ’s idea—something you’ve never done before.  
I always find people watching to be funny. That’s always a free show when one has no money. Watching the Sunday daddies with their kids can be amusing/tragic. An emotional meltdown is high drama and some kids should be up for Golden Globes.