The big 4-0

Well. So here it is, my 40th birthday. I’m not entirely sure how this happened. Last time I checked, I was about 26, although I do vaguely remember freaking out when I turned 30.

I’m happy to report that my brain did not win its Death Before 40 campaign. I was up and out the door before 5:30 this morning to go running -- might as well start the day on an energetic note.

I have to say, I thought I’d be a lot more distraught about the prospect of being 40, and in reality, I’m sort of … pleased. My 20s sucked ass. I met and married someone who turned out to be not the person I thought he was, so we split and divorced. My 30s were about a million times better. I met and married a man who is nicer to me on any given day than the first one was in a month. So I figure that the trend will continue and that my 40s will be amazing.

Here’s a little list of what I’ve got going for me:

--Excellent, kind husband. He drives me nuts, of course, but he’s about the nicest person I know. I should probably make an effort to be nicer to him.

--My family! My parents, while crazy, are also quite cool. In February my mom turns 60, so together we’ll be 100. We’re trying to figure out a way to celebrate that fact. My sister … just simply one of my favorite people ever. She's married to one of the other nicest people in the world. And her two daughters. My GOD those sweet little babies! Who needs kids when they have those two girls for nieces. And then there’s my husband’s family, who are also amazingly kind and wonderful.

--Incredible friends. The list of people I consider close friends has shrunk quite a bit in the last several years, but I suppose that happens to everybody. People change and drift off. My close friends are just fantastic, and I know that every one of them would have my back in a crisis.

--My health, more or less. Still with the migraines, but hey, I’m still fairly lean and mean, and that’s mostly due to running, which I took up about a year ago. I never thought I’d consider myself to be a runner, but at 820 miles for the year, I think that’s pretty good evidence that I somehow have become one. Goal for 2006: A cool 1,000.

--Stunning good looks. Heh. Hey, people still guess my age at least 10 years under what it is, so what the hell, add that to the List of Happy.

What would I like to accomplish in my 40s? No clue. My life has been a series of serendipitous occurrences and I’ve never really had a life plan. It would be nice to find an actual career, I suppose, although I’m definitely a work-to-live person, not a live-to-work one. I’d like to be a better weaver, maybe work on my own patterns. Same goes for crochet. Ooh, I’d like to learn to spin (wool, not pedals). It would be lovely to travel to places other than Alaska for vacation (if you’re reading this, dear husband, take note). But on the whole, it turns out that I’m pretty satisfied with life at the moment. Who’da thunk it.

Happy Birthday to me!!