Lots has happened but most importantly, my girls have started the ascend into thirty (more on that in another post).

In addition, I’ve started to notice a new phenomenon: “The 30 List.” Much like the bucket list, “The 30 List” are things that you want to do during your 30th year. I’ve heard everything from “travel” to “learn to ride a bike.” And not to be out-done, burgeoning 40-year-olds are making lists too! — To-dos like “running a marathon” make that list.

So what to do? My birthday is quickly approaching, and 30 is right around the door. For me, there’s no list in sight. Part of me wonders if it’s fair to add to an already confusing year another deadline, more things to do, something else you’ll feel horrible if you don’t complete. On the other hand, we’ve all seen that movie, The Bucket List –sometimes the best motivation for completing a task is simply seeing it –right there, in black and white– staring you in your face.

What say you, new and experienced 30 year olds? Is “The 30 List” a good idea?

On one hand I have the world around me, moving faster than I can keep up with (from pay phones to cell phones; discman to iPod), reminding me that I’m getting old (the nineties set on the radio is now referred to as the “old school” hour). And on the other hand, I have a mother consoling me that “It’s OK, if I’m not married by the time I’m 30″ (when really that was never a concern of mine–hers maybe, but not mine).

And now, add to the list: MY DISAPPEARING EGGS!

Laugh if you want but a new fertility study found that once a woman hits 30, she only has 12% of her eggs left. Beyond 35, forget about it! Don’t believe me? Here’s the video.

“After the teenage years, it’s all downhill in terms of how many eggs women have in their ovaries,” says the doctor.

But don’t let that biological clock tick too hard, apparently your eggs at 30 work much better than your eggs used to. Somehow, that doesn’t comfort me any.

“Understand,” a different doctor says, “that time does matter.” Thanks doc, as if I didn’t know that, the world reminds me every day.

And now, as if I didn’t have enough to worry about, I’m planning a wedding. With no date yet set, there is already a conspiracy theory brewing.

Upon suggesting a wedding date to me (and quickly being shot down), my mother replied: “I understand that you want to be married by the time you are 30 but it’s OK. You don’t have to meet that deadline. A lot of women are getting married later in life and it’s OK.”

Yep. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

Two weeks later, my mid-thirty-something sister-in-law gave me the same speech.

Now, maybe I missed this episode on Oprah but are women really nervous about not being married by the time they are 30? Seriously.

OK, so I have several friends (who shall remain nameless) who are in their mid-thirties and do feel like time –and their biological clock– is ticking. And I can understand that natural desire, that’s part of a woman’s nature to want to be motherly during that stage in her life. That, let me clarify, has nothing to do with marriage. After all, I know several women who have adopted children to quench that urge and moved on with their life, no marriage in sight.

While there’s certainly no manual in how to do this, what I do know is that speeding up a wedding just so you can say “I do” before your 30th birthday is bananas! To any woman who feels the need to “become one” before the Big 3-0, I say, step into this new decade. You don’t have to be partnered up to enjoy your 30s and you won’t be any less of a woman if you turn 30 and are not married.

2010 arrived and it wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it would be: after all, this is the year I turn 30!

But instead of cowering in a corner with the lights dim, I enjoyed an evening of fine dining and dancing. Who can beat that! Perhaps I do still have the “it” that allows young girls to party all night long and never feel an inch tired the next day. Either that or it just helped that I didn’t have to work the next day and slept until 10:30.

In any case, I’m another year older and somewhat in awe of a new world decade but also a new decade of my life. I can’t help but think about how different this world was 10 years ago: No ipods or iphones; Sept. 11 was just a regular day; you could wait with a friend at their airport gate until it was time to board a plane; Barack Obama definitely was not a household name and folks like Kanye West and Lady Gaga were still normal people.

That reflection forced me to then do my own decade reminiscing. Ten years ago, at the age of 19, here are some things I had no idea I would experience in the decade to come: That I would be forced to accept death with grace and strength; that I would witness one of the most catastrophic natural disasters of my lifetime; that I would begin to view a man’s greatest measure in how much he helped fellow human beings; that I would obsess over turning 30!

Now, just like then, I have no control over how this year, or even this decade will turn out. I can only hope to learn from my experiences and grow from my mistakes, all the while sharing what I learn with you. Stay tuned.

Billboards and bus ads across town caught my attention. They read: “MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE.”  Sure it was an ad for a new show, featuring Ray Romano and the dude from Quantum Leap.  I needed to know more, so I went to the Website and found that the show “explores the unique bonds of male friendship among three men experiencing the changes and challenges of mid-life.”

WHAT? I’m so confused, how could TNT totally skip over the crisis going on with the pre-30 crowd, just to make a show about 40-year-old men? They are clearly not as funny as my muddled yet real life nor as exciting as my girls who are just now celebrating their 29th year and declaring they are “29 and feeling fine.”

I’ve come to the conclusion that the late twenties aren’t just confusing for the women going through it. It seems it confuses America too.  Networks have stopped trying to create for us (since I’m clearly too old to watch MTV’s Real World and not old enough to really sink my teeth into Law & Order) and advertisers clearly don’t market to us (but they have no problem marketing to my 29-year-old fiance who loves all the BudLight and Snickers commercials). So, in a world centered around buying power –we’re doomed.

But I’m not giving up hope.  Since I’m an optimist, I see this blog as the voice for the forgotten bunch. And since, we’re vocal enough about our age for me to think this was a good idea, we can be vocal enough to start making some requests. Where’s the TV show about a woman in her late twenties experiencing the changes and challenges of early-mid life? Where’s my commercial? I’m hoping for a revolution here, one blog post at a time.

Is she serious? I tend to think older folks trivialize the 30 threshold but I could be wrong (guess I’ll have to wait until I’m older to find out).

So I know I was slacking but I had to take some time to get my thoughts together because what I’m about to reveal is very important.

Last weekend, I stood on my beloved college campus, with my former roommate, taking in scenes we had experienced some 10 years ago. Feeling old? Never.  How could we when college-aged boys cat called our way and one even inquired as to why we were “under-aged drinking.”  I know,  I know! It was all just flattery but still.

Something about homecoming makes being your true age, OK. Older folks, their RVs  parked, windbreakers on and bifocals in full effect were still chillin’.  Students roamed aimlessly, walking the same steps between the bookstore and the game, trying to check for that certain someone and ensuring they stayed “fly.”

And then there’s us: those alumnae/alumni in the middle –not old enough to be labeled “old school” but definitely old enough not to be confused with students (well, maybe not). For once, we had a space — a job to do. We’re kind of like the cooler big sister whose job it is to quietly tell the younger sister that “aging is OK” and  “life outside undergrad is good. In fact, it’s grand –would I look this good if it wasn’t?”

Yep, last weekend I was a transitional, late twenty-something year old and for once, it was a good thing to be.

“WHAT?”

“Just kidding,” my eye doc says. “Actually, the eyes have been known to get better once you turn 30.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Your eyesight will more than likely improve once you turn 30.”

I am now ecstatic!  Here’s one more person telling me how much 30 is “the best year ever!”  Too bad I’m still 29.

“Your eyes won’t change again,” the eye doc adds nonchalantly, “until you turn 45.”