prepare for the onslaught of annoying phone calls... they are inevitable

Tell me about it, youngster.

Getting older has a lot of benefits, and I don't mean senior discounts. I'm not any smarter, but I don't have a compulsion to win any arguments. I'm more prone to listen to someone else and find some wisdom, if there's any to be found. If you say something ridiculously fatuous, chances are excellent I said the very same thing forty years ago when I was a hirsute, arrogant know-it-all.

Young people take my reticence as sagacity. Why should I disappoint them?

40?? 40!! I don't even remember 40!! The good part is that my father will be 97 next month, so I should have many years of not remembering 40 in front of me...

i remember 40.... it came after 39 and before 41... it was just another brick in the wall

I forgot all about this thread, I passed 40 a few years ago. I'm now looking forward to turning 50.

I'd say that the best thing about being in your 40's is that you have a good idea who you are and you're comfortable with yourself and don't feel any need to change. And you no longer worry about the things you did when you were younger. I now know beyond all possible doubt that when I die, I will still be single and childless, and I'm okay with that. In my 20's, that thought filled me with dread and anxiety, but today, my mentality is 'sure, whatever, who cares?' It is nice to have outlived most of my anxieties. I know now what people mean when they say 'I'm old, I'm set in my ways' after you live a certain way for a period of time, you really don't want things to ever change.

And I'm really a lot more mellow than I have ever been. I've come to really hate arguing. In my 20's, when someone said something I didn't agree with, I felt a compulsive need for endless rebuttal. Today, I often just avoid argument entirely, when someone says something I don't agree with, I just smile and nod 'okay', if I do reply, I make one response and then leave the argument. I no longer feel the need to respond to everything.

Getting older is actually not so bad.

So why bother? I wear sandals almost all day, every day, except in church. I don't want to get confused with discalced hermits.

Well, for one thing, I don't want to get sent home from work, I'm required to wear steel-toed boots. And for another thing, it's winter.

I too forgot all about this thread. Today is the 46th anniversary of my birth, in case you couldn't figure that out from the date of the original post.

happy birthday dcs!!!!!!!!!!!1