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May 01, 2008
"It's that birthday after 39 and before the rest."
Later this month I turn 40.
It's not like I didn't see this coming.
To quote Scrooge, Ebenezer not McDuck, "Humbug."
Most of the time with birthdays I try to keep my head down and plow right through to just get it over with. (A strategy that I also employ with Christmas for similar reasons.) Alas, this one is a bit more monumental.
Bleah.
My 30th was marked by dinner and drinks at "The Outback" in Whitemarsh, Maryland. The earlier part of the evening was fine but as drinks were offered up with no right of refusal things became a bit blurry. I do remember my co-worker Lance attempting to poison me with a mudslide followed by a shot of Sambuca which I managed to dodge but a nearby potted plant didn't.
40 however is something different. For some it's a halfway point. For others it's two thirds. For some it's at a point you never thought you would reach. Our society has, at least for men, marked it as a time to examine your selfworth and your accomplishments.
Swell.
I've been doing a lot of reading about what some people have done with their 40th birthdays. In one of those strange pieces of irony that proves, once again, that God has an inifinite sense of humor, I actually recovered a file from an old hard drive a couple of weeks ago that had some notes on what I wanted for my 40th birthday. Most of it reads like what I currently hope my wake will be like. (With a few changes here and there.) Despite this the question remains of what to do.
I'm going to try to figure that out over the next couple of weeks. We'll see how it goes.
Jim
Posted by Jim at May 1, 2008 07:48 AM