"@#*k Yeah!"

   As many know it was recently my birfday. This year I turned 30. The wife decided that since this year is my "Golden" birfday she would take me to Vegas to see a show. For the last year or so I've been talking to her about seeing The Amazing Jonathan". It was meant to be a surprise but somehow I guessed it months ago.
   Skipping ahead, we saw the show on October 2nd and it was great. For those who are not familiar with the routine it involves a lot of participation by someone randomly picked from the crowd. On that night Jonathan walked to the edge of the stage and looked down at the man sitting right next to me. He called out, "I will need a volunteer from the audience. Any volunteer will do." He never lifted his gaze from the man he was looking at. The man seemed a bit nervous and started looking around. Suddenly his gave shifted to me and he said, "You there, come up on stage." Which I did.
   The next hour of my life I spent between laughing and wonderment. Mostly I was wondering if my wife had set this up ahead of time. It turns out that she didn't. It was in fact complete coincidence.
   I thought about trying to recount the many jokes and experiences I had on stage that night. I think that YouTube might be better than trying to describe it. Not that anyone put that performance up. The routine is pretty similar. As you watch you can just replace whoever the random middle aged dude is with me.
   I find that the show is exceptionally funny when you are on stage. Despite the fact that in many instances I was the butt of the joke I laughed so hard I eventually got a headache from it.
   Moving on a bit, I'm 30 now. It's strange to think that 10 years ago I was single and was living in West Africa. Life has really changed for me. They say that turning 30 feels like nothing. I'm still not sure. Aside from the trip to Las Vegas and all of the eating out I think I feel the same as I did before. But that feeling has got to be change.
   They say the only thing in life that is consistent is change. I suppose that is why I don't feel different because my life has been changing a lot over the last few years. I have a lot of goals on my list that have motivated me to keep moving and keep growing and keep trying new things. So much so that I feel like I'm quite a different person from that skinny young man with all the ideals about how life would be after Africa.
   Sure, some of those ideals have been achieved. Some however seem to have been forever cast aside as people in my life have made decisions that drastically alter the nature of our relationships. Other yet seem somewhat elusive and still just beyond my reach, though I still reach.
   It's times like this that lead us to reflect on who we are and where we have been. And yet perhaps it is times like this that we need to see some comic overreact to a failed magic trick and forget about everything but having a good time.