**HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, SERENITY**

I would like to wish my baby blog sista… The infamous wine swizzlin’ super shoe queen blogger Serenity 3-0, formerly Serenity 23, a Happy 30th birthday…

**LadyLee twists the top off a cold bottle of Manachevitz and pours herself a Mason Jar full and sips it with a straw.**

Dang, Serenity. you bootleg wine sommelier… I know that just made you CRINGE.

Manachevitz on ice… so nice, so nice!

Turning 30.

‘Tis a monumental thing.

For I, LadyLee, have been perched on the highest mountaintop, screaming to the top of my lungs, my hands cupped around my mouth for effect, something that really tics Serenity, the clear heeled one, off something terrible.

“You don’t know Nothing ‘til you turn 30.”

**Ladylee ducks as Serenity 3-0 hurls her clear heel shoe through the air**

(Man! She can’t STAND when I say that.)

Those of you who, like myself are leaning up against 40, or beyond even, know what I mean. We thought we knew EVERTHING in our 20’s and looking back? Man, come on, you know you can look back and see some old off the wall crap you did, just ‘cause you just KNEW what you were doing.

And you didn’t know your head from your behind!

Don’t ACT like you don’t know what I’m talkin’ about!

“You don’t know Nothing ‘til you turn 30.”

One of my male friends didn’t agree. He said it’s more like the age of 32, or something like that (for men, I suppose). Shoot, LadyTee has been told by MANY peeps lately that you don’t start actually LIVING until you turn 40! Oh my!

Well, it’s weird… It’s like, somewhere between the ages of 27 and 30, some metamorphical (is that a word?) thing takes place. It’s like the thick cloud of smoke engulfing your peanut head starts to clear out. You start figuring out what you need to do, and get to doing it, and lo and behold, it’s is actually the RIGHT thing to do, and it produces good fruit (results). You may even go through some things spiritually. At any rate, things start to fall into place, because you’re making better decisions and what not.

That’s what happened with me. And I’ve had the priviledge to sit back and watch Serenity 3-0 go through her “metamorphical” thang.

I’ve been fooling around on the blogosphere with Serenity since some time in 2005. I think I related to some of her family isshas, and most importantly, her attitude in dealing with such. I am the type of Oldgirl that when I have family or people isshas, or my people are tripping on me or stressing me the “blank” out, I simply disappear. I won’t be talking to them. I have NO tact in dealing with people. I don’t know how to cheese in people’s faces or stroke egos. You will NOT stress me out. Stress aggravates my autoimmune isshas something terrible. Have a nice life, I’ll holler.

But I was amazed at her ability to deal with fam in the face of craziness. I wish that I had that type of tact and patience. That, I do not have, and uh, I probably won’t have it.

Then she started going through her spiritual thing, trying to pinpoint her purpose, where she was spiritually, all of that. She blogged through it all, and it was nice to see her blog about this this, as I deal with my own spirituality issues too. I think I would go blog out of control in her comment section… She started reading my blog. It was a bit, uh different from my blog comments over in her neck of the woods.

This confused her a bit, because you know, when you enter my blog, The House of Ladylee?

You slip off into that giddy, giddy, funny-funny, all things SMURFY…

Laaaa-Laaaa-La-La-La- LAAAAAH!

She came over one day, busting out windows in the House of LadyLee, TRIPPING in my comment section, complaining about my smurfiness and screaming some craziness to the effect of “Why don’t you write something to help a sista out?” I didn’t know her well. Not enough for her to be raising a ruckus like that. It got to the point where I was wondering “What the heck is this broad’s problem?”

So, that is where the “Food for Thought” posts that I do every now and again come from. Serenity be needing some help, LOL. But no, all the “smurfiness” is just a small slice of the LadyLee pie. A slight sliver, really. LadyLee is the deranged, serial killer, chicken scratch side of my personality…

Much more to me than what goes on over in these parts…

I am CONSTANTLY thinking about spiritual things and the relation to whatever I’m struggling with and/or trying to conquer or overcome in my life. She and I have talked much about this on other blogs, IMs, on the phone, emails, etc…

All of her convos, verbal smackdowns (LOL), encouragements, etc… have been a blessing to me…

Now…

For the past couple of years, she has been sitting on the busted curve, a hard frown clouding her face and her lip all poked out… Her spiky clear heel shoes tap the asphalt.

And she’s been clutching her secured ten dollar “Oldgirl-in-Training” card.

(Yo S, that card got teeth marks on it. You been chewing on that, gal? Cut it out!! LOL!)

*Serenity removes the card from her mouth*

And she’s been working that “OIT” card, and has been vicious about it…

I told her that she was too young…

Because, if you remember…

“You don’t know NOTHIN’ ‘til you turn 30.”

But now, Serenity is 30…

And that card is like a training bra… Serenity has been whispering in her squeaky voice:

"I’s a big girl now, LadyLee!"

She can now throw down her chewed up secured training card, and pick up this brand spanking new Original Oldgirl Platinum Plus card.

Does she get it because she’s been wanting one? Or because she just turned 30?

No to both questions.

If that was the case, she wouldn’t be getting one. Wouldn’t qualify for one. She would’ve had her OIT card snatched by now.

If you can remember, when I gave The Queen of Lurk City her card a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what constitutes Original Oldgirl status… If you haven’t read that, go back and read that. I won’t rehash here…

But I will talk about something else that has gone on with me,in relation to all this. And I know Serenity will appreciate this, because this is on some ol’ non-Smurfy (darn!) “Food for Thought” Tip… giving you more insight into LadyLee than I care to give.

(But I don’t care. I. don’t. care!!! It’s Serenity’s Birthday! *LadyLee tosses rose petals in air and busts bottles of Shiraz (Serenity’s favorite wine) on the hard concrete floor!*)

I think, back in the winter of 2007, Serenity started blogging about being interested in a career change. She was a paralegal at the time, and the new career had something to do with something related to insurance. She didn’t mention this much on the email thread. Not sure why the thread had gone pretty much silent back then. But I do remember her talking about it on her blog, and doing her research, and talking about it more and more…

There were so many words on top of words on top of words…

She eventually got an interview for a job in another state, some 12 hours from her home state of Louisiana.

What REALLY got to me, what brought a tear to my eye, was when she said in a post something to the effect of whatever happens will happen. It was in God's hands, and she was going to basically occupy until she heard something.

When I read that… I thought, “Oh. No. The fiery headed chicken (inside joke) is about to GO!”

I think she got the call a couple of days later, and they offered her the job. She took the job, meticulously planned the move, and she was there.

All that she did… it taught me a lot about courage.

I don’t tell people this, but courage is something that I struggle with something terrible. I have a tendency to choke, THEN get the courage up… then make it do what it do. But courage…it is something that I pray about often. Still do.

On her way to Charlotte, Serenity passed through the Atlanta area, and we had breakfast. It was my first time meeting her. I was very quiet. You know how that “star-struckedness” thing go. I mean, this was a chick I’d been dealing with for awhile, who knows more about me than most peeps (and I am SURE she thinks I am VERY strange, lol), but I’d never met her. And there she was, in flesh and blood.

I sowed a gift her way that morning. Didn’t tell her why or anything, just gave it to her.

I was happy for my friend. She showed me something important.

Words produce thoughts…
Thoughts produce action…
Actions produce our destiny…

And this can go either way, bad or good… but with her, I saw the good.

She also showed me what it means to have courage. I remember being at home, washing dishes one night, praying and saying… "Lord, If Serenity can do this, move like that, I can take a doggone writing class. I can. And I will.”

Yeah, decisions happen when I’m washing dishes, LOL.

And I did. And I am VERY happy that I did. Yeah, I have my isshas in class. I don’t like being the only black person. White folk don’t get what I write (except for you, Rosemarie… you seem to like my writing, lol). But… I will have the COURAGE to work past my irritation with that. I must say, the pros faaaaar outweigh the cons. I always learn something in class that takes me a step further towards my goal of learning to write well.

S23 was the catalyst for such. As a matter of fact, when I have to summon up courage to do things these days, I think about her whole process, and all the blessings that have come from that. If she didn’t step out on faith and have courage, she would be sitting in the same place she has been wondering what would have happened if she would have taken that step. And it let’s me know that you never know who’s watching, who’s learning from your example.

Within the past couple of weeks, Serenity has been blogging about another situation that has caught my eye (Serenity, I’ma need you to STOP with the 3-4 blog posts a day. Stop it, I say. You know I don’t read blogs like I use to.) S23’s Aunt Tee, the woman who raised her, has been visiting with her for the holidays, and some situations have come up where Serenity has had to take care of some of her Aunt’s financial business, much to her Aunt’s dismay. It really got to me…

“Now, why is that, LadyLee?” you may ask…

I’d been discussing with my Aunt Joyce that one of my goals for the New Year was to set up some type of account for my grandma that was linked to mine, where I could transfer funds at will so she could have her gas and grocery money. I think my grandma’s gas is 20 bucks a month. And Grandma don’t eat much. SURELY I can take care of little stuff like this, ya know?

I needed to know from my Aunt if Grandma could keep up with a simple debit card. And I needed to know if Grandma knew what the meaning of “stealth” was… as in, she don’t need to be telling my Mama, uncles, and cousins and them about this. (Man I HATE that they be hitting her up for money). I hear that they don’t do this much anymore… i.e., me and Grandma can get our “stealth” thing going on.

I’d been dragging my feet on that… until I read back through some of Serenity’s recent posts yesterday morning and saw her exasperation over the situation with her Aunt…

What Serenity said was enough to quicken my step, enough for me to take action. Yesterday, I found myself sitting in the back office of a bank discussing some things with a personal banker. I found out that Grandma and I have the same bank, and I told them exactly what I wanted to do. I put Grandma on the speaker phone, and was able to set some things up just the way I like…

S23 has inspired me to take action once again…

So, for THAT S23?

For THAT… not this whole turning 30 thing (even though that is a requirement because, I reiterate… “You don’t know NOTHING ‘til you turn 30", LOL).

For THAT: You get your Original Oldgirl Platinum Card Carryin’ Status.

I hereby extend to you your Original Oldgirl Platinum Plus Card, good worldwide and on every planet in the solar system, good even on the Sun itself...with no monetary limits whatsover.

So if the police ever try to run up on you, or some folks try to jump ya, you can yell-

"Get back! I am an Oldgirl!"

I'm an "OG"!

"Get the **** back!!"

No, you'll still catch a beat down, and you'll still get locked up...

But you'll have the pride attached to being an Oldgirl...So, now, instead of that 10 dollar card… you have a Platinum plus Card, good on all planets, even the SUN!!!

You have the pride of knowing that..
One who is an Original!
One who is full of wisdom!
One who keeps it real!
One who has been through it all!
One marching like Miss Sophia on her way to a place of peace and victory......

Stand tall in your 5 inch clear heels
And make sure you don’t fall
Be proud
Say it loud

I, Serenity 3-0, am an… Original Oldgirl!

So, Oldgirl…I have managed to collect a few interesting quotes from your blog. Still got some digging around for a few gems that have inspired me… I told you that I would give you a whole week on my blog, but uh, since your birthday fell on a Thursday… you can forget about it!! I give you Fridays instead. The Friday “Food for thought” will come from you.

We’ll call it “Serenity’s Soup” or “Serenity’s Bottles of Boone’s Farm”

LOL LOL!!

Happy Birthday, Serenity, you Original Oldgirl you!

~LL.