I know I haven't been doing a whole lot this week, but...

I have a big last blast planned.

On Thursday I'll be embarking on a W. 6th St. bar crawl with a couple of my favorite girlfriends. We are going to tackle some serious 20s debauchery. And we're dressing in our finest sparkly tops and black pants for the occasion.

Things might get a little crazy, but trust me when I say that I will NOT be riding the mechanical bull at Tequila Ranch. You gotta draw the line somewhere.

5 days to 30: eat out on your parents' dime

The best days in college were when your parents, or your roommates' parents, or some friends' relatives came to visit. Because that meant that you got to go out to DINNER! To the nice place in town, Damon's. If you were really lucky, there was also a trip to Kroger and Wal-Mart thrown in there for groceries and extra rubbermaid containers.

Then you'd kiss the old people goodbye and hit the town for the night. Because back then, going to dinner was what you did BEFORE you showered, got dressed, pregamed, then went out. Now, going to dinner at 7 p.m. IS going out.

On Sunday we went out with my big crazy family to celebrate a multitude of life events: my upcoming 30th, my little sister's recent 21st, and my other sister's wedding anniversary. Of course, we did not pass go, we did not collect $200, we went straight to my family's favorite restaurant, Maggiano's.
Per usual, I gorged myself on my faves - chopped salad and fried zucchini - while my mom gave a speech between each course to commemorate each event. The best was when we all went around the table to share our favorite moment from my sister's wedding the year before. Yep, I meant it when I said we were crazy.

Anywho, even though the hubby and I can afford a night out, it's still nice when the parents pick up the tab. Maybe next time I won't make my mom take me to Target for shampoo afterwards.

6 days to 30: full-on, all-day hangover

Yeah so, Friday. I was home by like 11:30. And yeah, it sounded like I had a low-key night.

TO YOU MAYBE.

The reality is that three of us had three bottles of champagne before we left the house. On top of the beers, etc. we had at the bar while playing darts. That's not really something this almost-30 liver is typically able to handle.

Sooo, this old fogey spent her Saturday - which was intended for eyeshadow- and cute-short-cowboy-boot-shopping - on the couch.

With the Kardashians.

Which I typically wouldn't complain about. But have you ever been forced to watch the Kardashians? And when I say forced, I mean that the remote was across the room and you were too hungover to go get it? Then, you start to harbor a real hostility for Rob. I mean, just SHAVE already. Ew.

Anyway. I guess I'm not really fully past the whole debilitating hangover thing. Maybe I'll set a goal for my 35th?

7/8 days to 30: lakewood bar crawl

The great thing about Lakewood bars is that there are a lot of them.

After college, our weekends consisted of shuttling ourselves between McCarthy's, Malloy's, Pug Mahones, and about 20 other bars. The beer was cheap, and usually someone knew someone who lived within stumbling distance. So you'd hang out at their place first, do a Power Hour, then wander over to McCarthy's and drink $1 drafts. The whole night probably cost $5. It was fab.

On Friday we decided to relive the good ol' days. Except we got together at 6 p.m. instead of 11 p.m. And we had champagne and nice cheese for our pregame instead of Natural Light and Doritos.

Also, we got to the bar at 10 p.m. instead of 1 a.m. And instead of pounding beers and shots as soon as we walked in the door at McCarthy's we played like three games of darts.

Also, someone was the designated driver and drove us home instead of us trying to hail a cab in Lakewood at 2 a.m.

But otherwise everything was the same. Ho hum.

9 days to 30: going out on a wednesday

Woo hoo! It's been a long time since I did this, but tonight I decided to throw caution to the wind and hit the town.*  On a weeknight no less! I'm kind of embarrassed to say that I got super wild and crazy.**  I danced on tables and did shots and had a deep conversation about relationships with a girl in the bathroom.***  It was amazeballs.

*I went to a nice dinner with the hubby.
**I had one glass of wine.
***None of this happened.

10 days to 30: stopping for a beer mid-run

I set out for a run this evening with the pup in tow. The route I took just happened to lead past my friend Chuck's house. It's possible that I happened to discover earlier via Twitter that Chuck was sitting on his porch having beers.

A more responsible person would have focused on his or her workout and avoided the route that could lead to the inevitable porch sitting and beer drinking.

Today, I wasn't that person.

ps, WHY is beer so delicious after a run? So wrong, yet feels so right.

11 days to 30: eat a can of green beans

Given how much I love to cook now, it's comical to me how I used to eat during college. I'm not joking when I say that most nights I ate shredded cheese on a tortilla and a can of green beans for dinner. Sometimes I made ramen, or cereal, other times I made a Lean Cuisine...top all that off with gallons of beer and late night Goodfellas pizza, and it's safe to say I didn't have the best diet.

Now, I'm kind of a vegetable nazi. I rarely buy the canned stuff. Why buy squishy green beaners when you can get the crisp, fresh, real thing a couple aisles over? Or the frozen version, which is almost as good?

For this experiment, I had to pull out the big guns. I didn't let myself buy a name brand. Giant Eagle it is, baby.

I ate half the can. Yep, just like I remembered it.

I almost threw the rest away, but then thought better of it. Figured I could snack on it later with some of that leftover ramen.

12 days to 30: cook a sunday dinner

Ah, Sunday dinner. Or what I like to call, The Only Day of the Week in Your 20s That You Turned On the Stove to Make Something Other Than Tuna Helper.

You and your roommates would band together, bust out a jar of Prego and some garlic bread, then sit around the table like a real family. Only instead of discussing your days at school and work you'd recount all the drunken escapades of the weekend. Sometimes, you showered for the occasion.

What cracks me up about Sunday dinners now is how cooking was such a novelty. It's like, let's play house and COOK something! It'll be fun! We'll go to the grocery store and everything!

Now, I need to feed the hubby something other than canned green beans and cheese tortillas. So I cook. Every. Night.

But I'm not bitter.

OK, I'm being a little dramatic. Because if you know me you know that I really love to cook. But I especially enjoy cooking on Sundays. I like spending the afternoon puttering around the kitchen and making the house smell good.

This week, with some leftover lasagna noodles in the cupboard and homemade meatballs in the freezer, I decided to make a meatball lasagna.

See that basil on the counter? I GREW that. In my GARDEN. God, if my 22-year-old self could see me now. I used to kill house plants and betta fish on a weekly basis back then.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product (I blame it on the DVRed episode of Gossip Girl I was watching at the time. I had to get back to see what that schemer Georgina was up to!) But it was delish, trust. Totally going to continue this tradition.

13 days to 30: tailgating

While driving down 71 South yesterday on my way to watch Ohio State smoke my alma mater, Ohio University, I got a call from my friend Zac Jackson.

"Did you even go to any football games while you were at OU?" he said.

"Um, I think so. Maybe two? Or three?"

"Oh yeah? Who did they play?"

"I have no idea."

So yeah, football and tailgating weren't exactly big traditions down in Athens. I remember once driving past people tailgating for an OU football game and laughing at them. It just wasn't done.

But, my two little sisters went to school in Columbus. And as anyone who's been in Columbus on a football Saturday knows, down there it's most definitely a big deal.

This weekend, OSU was playing OU, plus it happened to be my youngest sister's 21st birthday. So I packed up, put on my bright green OU gear, and headed down to Cbus for a day of tailgating and livin' the dream.

We had a couple schedule delays, so by the time we got to the tailgate we barely had enough time to down a couple of mimosas before we had to head to the game. But it was a beautiful day, and even though my team got smoked I had an awesome inaugural experience in the Horseshoe. I'd do it every Saturday if my liver, wallet and/or old bones could take it.

14 days to 30: buying a complete outfit at forever 21

Ah, Forever 21 - aka the home of "I need something to wear out tonight."

Because let's all be honest with ourselves: 9 times out of 10,  you aren't going to wear the $8 skirt you buy there to an important business meeting, or to meet the boyfriend's parents. You're going to wear it to the bar, where you'll likely spill beer on it and (back in the day) come home stinking like smoke. A couple weeks later, you'd bust it back out, Febreze the crap out of it, then hit the town in it one more time.

Even if you never wore it again, you already got a decent return on your $8 investment. Pretty big WIN in my book.

I decided to execute on this challenge on Friday, at the end of a long week. I dragged the hubby to the mall, promising a reward of Mexican at our fave place if he tagged along.

As expected, this was what I had to deal with.

Quite an undertaking when you're tired, hungry, and have margaritas on the brain.

Fortunately, I powered through, and made it home with two pairs of leggings and a basic cotton tee. Not exactly a full outfit, but luckily I don't have to worry about having to Febreze them.

15 days to 30: going to target for fun

My senior year at Ohio University, the best thing in the world happened.

The sky opened up and the good Lord blessed us. With a ginormous, ridiculous, 24-hour Super Wal-Mart. 

Yeah, I saw the protestors. Yeah, I saw the articles in The Post about how Wal-Marts ruin local economies.

BUT. Now we could get ramen and Easy Mac and canned green beans for even CHEAPER than Kroger. Plus, it was something to do when we were busy procrastinating studying and cleaning and showering and exercising.

I loved going to Wal-Mart for fun. I mean, usually we'd go there under the guise of shopping for something, like band-aids. But we'd spend three hours and buy things like a new VCR and an $8 shrimp ring and Rubbermaid containers (WHY do college students need SO MANY Rubbermaid containers?)

Of course, I still do this. However, I've upgraded. Because instead of going to Wal-Mart, I go to Target. And instead of going "for fun," us adults like to call it, "running errands." Because that way it sounds like official business.

I have my own little route when I walk into Target. It usually goes like this: ladies clothes, ladies workout clothes, shoes, bedroom section, mirror section (why? I don't know.), kitchen section, office section. Usually I swing by the grocery and health/beauty section to pick up things I actually need.

Someone else tell me they have a route too.

Anyway, this trip was kind of a failure, since I only bought things I actually needed: garbage bags, chocolate to refill the work candy dish, and shampoo. Like I said, lame-er-roo.

Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

16 days to 30: mowing raw cookie dough

I have some cookie dough in my refrigerator. It was an impulse buy from Target when I was there picking up peanut butter and band aids.

I may or may not have been planning to make said dough into cookies.

After all, the hubby loves cookies. And chocolate chippers are my favorite.

But let's all be honest with ourselves here. That dough didn't have a chance.

SPOILER ALERT: I may or may not have mowed a few more dough squares. There's also a slight possibility that I washed said dough down with a glug of leftover Arbor Mist straight from the bottle.

In the unlikely event that those events may have transpired, don't judge.

17 days to 30: going to the bar dressed like a scrub

Mission accomplished.

BONUS: When I checked in at Around the Corner on Foursquare, I earned the Animal House badge. SO PROUD.

18 days to 30: drinking mountain dew to get through the day

Sometimes I like to reminisce about the good old days. Like when I used to wander over to the corner coffee shop, pull out my laptop and school books with the intent to study, then spend three hours surfing the Internets, doing the crossword puzzle in The Post, and talking to friends that meandered into the coffee shop.

While I was full-on loitering - I had straight up taken over the good couch in the corner - I figured that I should probably give the establishment a bit of business. So, I'd sip on a coffee or a latte.

HA! I laugh in the face of those days of recreational caffeine usage. Now, I need at least two cups of joe to get me through the morning. I give withering looks to people like my husband and my sister who get through life without coffee.

One drug I've never really tapped was Mountain Dew. Sure, I know several people who chugged it on a regular basis, especially in college when there were a wide variety of reasons that might require one to pull an all-nighter.

I was kinda dreading this challenge. I'm not a big soda drinker, but I had a long Monday ahead of me and it seemed like the perfect thing to get me through.

Verdict: I know people say this about coffee, but who drinks this garbage? My eyeball was twitching from the caffeine buzz, plus it looks (and tastes) like somebody stuck Slimer from Ghostbusters in a juicer. At least Red Bull tastes like Sweet Tarts. 

Bottom line: Mountain Dew won't be getting me through any all-nighters in the near future.

19 days to 30: buy store-brand cereal

I've always been a proponent of store brands. Whether you have the money or not, those frozen veggies are basically the same thing, right?

I recently started buying some brand name stuff, like yogurt and cereal, but proudly buy Giant Eagle peanut butter, bread, etc.

Now, I am an avid Multi-Grain Cheerios eater. And when I say avid, I mean that the floor of my cube at work is littered with them because I'm constantly munching from the box I keep in my desk drawer. It's like a baby lives under my desk.

For today's challenge, I decided I should make myself buy store-brand cereal. BIG mistake.

These were the two available choices. No Multi-Grain option in sight. And why is that bear staring at me like that?

I went with the crazy bear. He was scary, but the prospect of plain Valu Time Cheerios was a tad more frightening.

I grabbed a handful out of the box to sample. They weren't too terrible, but I'm switching back to my Multi Grain standby next week. Call me a baby, I like my cereal routine.

20 days to 30: natural ice

Honestly. I was really hoping use Natural Light for this challenge.

BUT, the gas station we stopped at on the way to my sister's OSU/Miami & Notre Dame/Michigan party was fresh out of Natural Light. All they had was ICE.

So, I scooped up the $6 twelve pack, expecting to nurse two of them. Chalk it up to the blog, you know?

As I should have expected, I didn't do much sipping. My brother-in-law expected me to go above and beyond.

Which, of course, meant shotgunning a Natural Ice. Which I don't think I even did in college.

My pansy ass finished a half. Maybe 3/4?

My payback? Leaving the rest of the twelve pack of Natural Ice in their refrigerator. Good luck waking up to that tomorrow morning without the dry heaves.

Win?

21 days to 30: get a speeding ticket

F*&%?!

 Maybe in my 30s I'll become a better driver.

22 days to 30: happy hour

It's funny how things change. For example, in college, going to "happy hour" meant heading to the bar in sweatpants after your only class of the day, slugging down as many $2 pitchers as you could before happy hour ended at 6 p.m., staying out 'til last call, then sleeping 'til noon the next day.

Now, "happy hour" is a hard-earned reward after a long, crazy, exhausting day of work.

The point is: you really don't understand the definition of the term until you've had to work a 9-5 job. You ought to EARN that cheap, stiff drink at the end of a long day.

That's not to say that I've always been responsible when it comes to happy hours. In fact, I think the term happy hour is a misnomer because who goes for just one hour?

Oh, you do? So, just me then.

I dragged my girlfriends out for happy hour tonight (and when I say dragged, I mean I sent them an email with the subject line, "HH?" and they replied back OK almost immediately). Per usual, there was little discussion as to where we were going. When it comes to happy hour, our internal navigation systems are immediately set to D'Vine Wine Bar. Mostly because of the $4 glasses of dry bubbly.

The company, the bubbly, the crisp Fall air....it was all perfect cap off to the day. Heaven.

There is no way I would ever even consider leaving this one in my 20s.

23 days to 30: ramen noodles

In my rush out the door this morning, I forgot to look at my trusty 20s stunts checklist hanging on the fridge. So, all day, I was a little nervous about what I was going to have to do when I got home. Bong a beer? Steal a box of Rice a Roni from a house party? Eat a can of green beans?

Phew, just ramen. I can handle that.

Of course, I prepared it the same way I always have.

First, you straight pound the noodles into oblivion.

Then, you pour the mess into a mug with the seasoning packet and water and nuke the crap out of it.

Of course, the part I always struggle with (YES I struggle with preparing ramen, they don't call me Calamity Sue for nothing) is leaving it in the micro for so long that it boils over and explodes.

Per usual, my years of ramen experience failed me again tonight.

The end result was amazing though. Comforting and actually somewhat filling. It's like eating a cup of tea.

Not sure I'll feed my ramen habit on a regular basis, but as an occasional treat? Sure.

How do you prepare your ramen? Are there people out there who actually use the stove? Or leave the noodles whole? Fork or spoon? Mug or bowl? So, so many choices.

24 days to 30: arbor mist

In college, most girls I know bought alcohol that generally fell into one of two categories:

• The cheap stuff we bought to get drunk; and
• The cheap stuff we bought to feel fancy.

Arbor Mist fell into that latter category. You didn't know anything about wine, but you wanted wine to go with Sunday dinner. So you'd wander aimlessly around the wine section searching for something that was cheap yet recognizable, and you came across a bottle that was only $4.50...and ooh! Strawberry flavor!

I enjoyed many a Sunday dinner of with spaghetti and Prego washed down with a nice vintage of Arbor Mist poured into C.I. cups . Not exactly the pairing made in foodie heaven, but it didn't really matter when you and your roommates were dining on the only meal of the week that wasn't cooked in the microwave.

Confession: I was borderline embarrassed to make today's purchase. I considered going to an out-of-the-way store that I could make a point not to frequent again. I thought about the old trick you saw on early 90s sitcoms like Blossom where they'd buy a bunch of random stuff at the drugstore with the hopes of the cashier not noticing the tampons and cigarettes.

But in the end, I just manned up, held my head high, and pulled the trigger. YES, 19-year-old-kid ringing me up, I WILL be enjoying some Arbor Mist Blackberry Merlot this evening, what say you?

When I got home, I opened the bottle and rooted around the cupboard, deciding which drinking vessel to use. A wine glass seemed too fancy, but a tumbler seemed insulting.

While I puzzled, the hubby took a huge swig straight out of the bottle. That kinda summed the whole thing up.

25 days to 30: run a 5k

Full disclosure: I cheated on today's challenge. Because I've never run a 5K in my life, let alone in my 20s.

I've always thought of running as a special kind of workout torture. Why go so hard on your joints when the elliptical's right there?

And cardio's such a snooze. I usually need an Us Weekly, my iPod, and the TV set to a trashy VH1 reality show to get me through it, and it's too hard to read the latest Kardashian exposé on the treadmill.

But some awesomely fit friends (AHEM Kristy and Gina and Julie and Sarah) talked me into doing a 5K in the fall. So, I did the Couch to 5K program. Seriously check it out if you want to start running. An added BONUS: if you download the podcasts you get to run to the tune of funky techno beats.

5K domination

So, yeah, I ran at a 11-minute mile pace. And yeah, two seven-year-olds and an old man dominated me in the home stretch. But, I finished the race and - GASP - actually had fun.

I'm excited that I did this one in my 20s, and it's likely coming with me into my 30s. Maybe I'll get so good that I'll be able to bring my Us Weekly next time?

26 days to 30: nap and a reality show marathon

One of the things I miss the most about college is all the naps. It amazes me when I look back how many extra hours in the day that were available to dedicate to napping. At class for three hours? Exhausting. Time for a two hour nap, followed by five episodes of Trading Spaces and a can of green beans for dinner. You might call that lazy, I called it Wednesday.

After college, naps and Real World marathons were an integral part of my Saturdays (and usually Sundays too). I mean, all I had to do on the weekends when I lived in an apartment was occasionally clean the bathroom and go to Target for fun. Might as well catch a few ZZZs in between all that excitement.

Now, I'm a homeowner. Saturdays are for painting and yardwork and projects and figuring out the weird thing the kitchen faucet's been doing. No time for naps!

So today, with the hubby away for the weekend, the pup being his usual lazy self, and the last two episodes of Top Chef begging to be watched, I set up shop and flat out relaxed. It was amazing. I almost busted out a can of green beans for old time's sake.

I see many more naps in my future. I guess that means the hubby's going to have to handle the kitchen faucet.

27 days to 30: girly shots

I have a complicated relationship with shots. As much as I like to think I'm a grizzled veteran with a liver of steel, the truth is that I'm kind of a wimp.

Most of the time, I decline when offered a shot because they're a one-way ticket to Hangover Town for this chica. If I describe a night out and there were shots involved, I simultaneously hang my head in shame.

Unfortunately for me, I'm not sure I could get out of this little experiment without downing at least a couple.

This challenge fell on a night when I happened to be meeting friends at an authentic English pub. When I ordered five Pineapple Upside-Down Cake shots, the look on our server's face was PRICELESS. He looked at me like I'd just ordered a hamburger in a Chinese restaurant.

As he brought the shots over, he asked if we wanted CHERRIES in them. Like, the way your barista at Starbucks asks if you want whipped cream on your mocha. I guess if you're going to do it, do it up, right?

Of course, it was delicious, sticky sweet, and tasted like it had almost no alcohol in it. Perfect for this lightweight.

Bottom line: I'll probably end up indulging in a few of these into my 30s, but only on nights worth hanging my head in shame over.

28 days to 30: wine and takeout at the end of a long week

Loved it at 25, going to keep loving it at 35, 55, 85...(well, I hope at 85 my idea of a long week will be a few garden club meetings and a marathon game of canasta). TGIF, kiddos.

29 days to 30: drinking out of a CI cup all day

When I got married a couple years ago, one of the greatest gifts I got (besides the whole soul mate, lifelong partner thing) was a MATCHING SET of glasses. Whoo boy.

Before then, my collection of drinking glasses was a miscellaneous amalgamation of hand-me-downs from parents, old roommates, and bars. If I had people over, you can bet that someone would be drinking cheap white wine out of my grandmother's old crystal while another was drinking out of one of my 27 plastic Get High at the C.I. cups.

I'm sure you're curious how one can accumulate so many cups from one bar in Athens, Ohio. Well, I'll tell you what, for a dive bar this place knew its target market. Just picture the bar owner saying,

"College kids don't have fine glassware, let's give them a free plastic cup with every draft beer! Free advertising! We'll own those punks' kitchens in no time!"

I remember padding around my apartment on weekends drinking every single beverage of my day out of one of those C.I. cups. Water, orange juice, beer - you name it, I drank it out of that cup. Because, who wants to do dishes anyway? This one sitting in the sink smells fine.

So for my little experiment I thought I'd trade my matching glasses and fancy Nalgene at work for my trusty old C.I. throwback.

I'll tell you what: for lasting close to eight years after college this plastic cup is well-constructed and held up well. It held plenty of water, lots of ice - overall a great drinking glass option. I might put it into my regular rotation. BONUS: I only got a couple strange looks at work for carrying around a plastic cup with a giant Labbatt Blue logo.

30 days to 30: porch sitting

Back in college, I remember LOVING porch sitting. Like, obsessively. To me, there was really nothing better on warm days than flat out loitering on the front porch.

Please note that I'm not talking about the backyard. Only losers hung out in the backyard and just "enjoyed the weather."

Mind you, niether of my college houses had a proper front porch, so I invited myself over to porch sit at at Bonnie & the Lacrosse Girls' house on West State St. Not only did they have a huge front porch, they also had a porch SWING. And usually some Natural Light. On warm days, it was basically the place to be.

Another bonus: they lived in a high traffic area, so we always said hello to friends walking by, laughed at people taking walks of shame (the ones the night after Halloween were EPIC), and yelled "HERD!" to packs of new freshmen wandering the streets.

Fast forward to tonight. Porch sitting? BORING.

My walk-of-shame-free street

I mean. It was a fab night here in the CLE. Hot, but not humid, sunny, but with a little breeze. I had some great company, too.

But without the walks of shame, or the freshman herds, what's the point? I can hang out in the backyard to enjoy the weather.

Pretty sure I'm leaving this one in my 20s.