Any recent readers of the column know that I’m not a fan of being pushed into the spotlight. However, I’m also grateful for all the well-wishing and greetings I got for my 40th birthday.
This means I get to grin and bear it when my birthday gets put on the Dublin Dairy Queen sign. Thanks to Shanna, David and any of the crew involved with that special message which resulted in several calls asking how I got ‘DQ famous.’
My weekend was filled with several special days as my parents took Wyndi and I out to dinner on Friday.
After getting to snag some scrimmage pictures, Wyndi and I were joined by a couple of my best friends as we made a day trip to the metroplex for seafood, book shopping and came back to Stephenville to watch Oppenheimer.
(The movie is very good although a three-hour biopic might be a bad choice on four hours of sleep and ending at 10 p.m. after leaving the house before 9 a.m.)
Sunday featured a gathering of some more of my best friends (dubbed as ‘the family’ by each other) with homemade muffaletta sandwiches and French onion soup.
After a delicious lunch, we broke out a deck of Werewolf cards and played a fun guessing game of who was dealt the monster cards before they ‘killed off’ the villagers. (It is honestly a great game for large groups and hysterical when families play it together.)
I got a few nice gifts from friends and family andI’mdeeplyappreciative to my future mother-inlaw for a series of cards, each with the punchline: ‘You’re old!’
I’m also grateful to one of my friends who started our trip to Red Lobster by asking “Do y’all do anything for birthdays? Because it’s his birthday.”
He didn’t even let his butt touch the seat before he blurted that out.
The service was good, but I’m even more grateful that the hostess and waitress weren’t coordinated enough for anything to be done at the end of the meal.
The hostess saw us heading for the door and asked, “You’re leaving?!” before joking we needed to go sit back down.
I was repeatedly asked if I was feeling old and told that ‘40 is the new 30.’ (I guess it follows that 40 is also the old 50 then...)
If I’m honest though, I felt older when I was turning 30. Part of that may have been dating someone nine years younger, part of it may have been being in worse health.
A decade later, I’m starting a new chapter as Wyndi and I are getting married on Oct. 28.
I’m far more active as managing editor than I was a staff writer, and I’m even more comfortable in my own skin.
Another common question that both Wyndi and I have been asked is why we waited so long to get married. Sometimes, this is followed by the suggestion ‘the clock is ticking’ or we are getting older.
We’ve been completely committed to one another for awhile now so while the wedding will be special, I don’t expect it will change much in dayto- day life.
Sorry to add another idiom to this column, but as I get older, I put more stock in ‘You’re only as old as you feel.”
I may get tired after long days but the more active I’ve been, the more satisfied and healthier I’ve felt.
I’ve lost 10 years off my lifespan but gained 10 years of experience, some good and some bad. I’m looking forward to another 10 with my partner, family, friends and community. Maybe if I keep looking forward to tomorrow, I’ll never feel any older.
I don’t know, check back with me at 50.