“Are we there yet?”

Oh my god, we are here. This is it. This. Is. 30. I’ve just turned 30 today. Eek, the 40 year old version of this movie wasn’t so good. So I hope this is a better place.

But where exactly am I?

I don’t know. Have 30 years of my life really gone by? Wow. That seems like a lot.

I have memories of being 8. Of being in grade school and reading about the lives of the sisters in the book ‘All of a Kind Family’ and wishing I was younger so that I could be the same age as the sister named ‘Charlotte.’ Because I really liked the name Charlotte.

I remember being 10. Of standing in a D’Agostinos supermarket on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and staring at 9 lone bottles of maraschino cherries and profoundly thinking: I’ll never be a single digit age again.

And then, at 15, I remember sitting in a youth theater and reminiscing about the twists and turns my life must have taken to get me to where I was. I thought:  ‘I can’t believe all of my decisions have led me here. To this theater. To being cast in this stage version of ‘Singin’ In the Rain.’ Right now. How does life work that way?’ And then I turned around and met Jane.

Jane was getting ready to rehearse with me for the show, but for a moment, we were just strangers sitting in an audience. And then Jane and I went out for pizza one day after rehearsal and watched another cast member shove his face into a pizza pie and throw all his money into the street and do some more crazy things that feel like a dream now, but I’m pretty sure were real. I don’t know what became of that cast member, but laughing at his craziness at the time caused Jane and I to start bonding.

And then Jane and I continued bonding and found out that we went to the same high school and realized we sort of had everything in common. We both loved theater, could gossip for hours, were obsessed with pizza in all of its forms, could laugh until it was physically painful, enjoyed planning all of our future romances, and plotted crazy schemes involving catching criminals and solving the biggest mysteries of the universe.

Come to think of it, not much has changed.

At 15, we became the closest of friends. Fast forward countless birthdays, laugh fests and cry fests later, and here we are in our thirties. And because we still love exploring the mysteries of the universe, and can’t resist a good laugh, we want to stop and explore the thirties. And the idea for this website was born.

A major thing Jane and I both have in common is an obsession with painful truths that lead to possible enlightenment. We also both love sharing and listening to stories about maybe horrible but often hilarious experiences. And we feel the need to write everything and anything down. So we ask you: what are the thirties about? What does this strange age mean? The aim is to find answers, truths, stories, or perhaps even more questions about the strange phenomenon that is the thirties. Nothing is off-limits- we talk about the good, the bad, and the ridiculous. The goal is to smash up the stereotypes and spill out the stigma of thirty.

Instead of what the thirties should be, we want to open up what they are and what they can be. We hope you enjoy the exploration, join in on the laughter, and help us crack some unsolved mysteries.

Hi, guys! Thanks for stopping by. Welcome to Day 1.  Laura and I started this site with the aim of exploring the thirty-something decade, that time period in one’s life that Jezebel’s Tracy Moore has dubbed the “do or die decade.”  (http://jezebel.com/5987398/your-thirties-are-do-or-die) We hope this becomes a place where we can talk openly and honestly about life in our thirties. And we decided to start today because it’s Laura’s 30th birthday! Happy birthday, my dear friend.

We’re both going to tell you a little bit about us, so we’re not just strangers pontificating on this life stage. I’m Jane, I’m 32 and I’m a born and bred New Yorker. I grew up on the Upper East Side, but it wasn’t like Gossip Girl. It was just a quiet, neighborhood-y area of Manhattan with a high person to bagel shop ratio. I went to a public high school in the Bronx, which is where Laura also went, but we happened to meet in a youth theater group in the East Village. We both wore big glasses, loved theater and hanging out at McDonald’s after school. And, not gonna lie, we were both kinda dorky back in the day. See Exhibit A below.

Laura circa high school

Jane circa 5th Grade

I went to college in Baltimore where I studied film and media, and when I graduated, I got assistant jobs at film studios in NYC.  Somewhere after that first job sitting in a cubicle, I realized that what made me love film and theater was the writing itself. I loved being at the genesis of the creation; I wanted to live in the private place where ideas are born. (Or this is when I discovered that I’m a total narcissist.) I pursued my writing while working various low level office jobs in the film and copywriting world. At some point around 27, I realized how I needed to take that next step in my career and devote myself fully to the work of screenwriting and playwriting. I thought that graduate school would be that next step, and I applied to several MFA programs.

Jump forward a few years and rejections later…

And here I am. In LA, getting my MFA at UCLA in Screenwriting. It’s been a wonderful experience – we write a new feature film length screenplay (or TV pilot) every 10 weeks, 3 times a year. It forces you to be prolific. And the people are great. It’s nice having other writers who ‘get ‘what you do. But, I won’t lie and tell you I’m loving LA. I still don’t feel entirely at home here and miss my buddies and family in NYC. But I’ve heard adjusting to LA takes a few years. We’ll see.

So. This project.

Here it goes. We want to hear from you, so please comment. Let’s tawk, people.

And happy 30th birthday, Laura! It’s going to be an amazing decade.

Present day – and PS – why is my skin so red?!