10 Reasons I am pretty sure I will be super fabulous at 40.

I will be forty in less than 30 days.  That has made me stupidly hyper-aware of how I am aging and there are days that putting the word "gracefully" in front of aging would be a hard sell.  So I sat down  and made a list of ten reasons I will be super-fabulous at 40.  I needed the boost in confidence and after reading the list I feel a lot better.  Bring it on 40!  If my first 39 years are any indication of my awesomeness then I got nothing to worry about.

My TEN REASONS I am pretty sure I will be super fabulous at 40?  Well just consider my early life:

Not exactly as cool as my
lunch pail but you get the idea

#1. My first lunch pail was Donnie and Marie on ice.  Like they were ice skating.  Probably hands down the coolest lunch pail of any kindergartner in 1978.  I was already distinguishing myself as super fabulous at an early age.

#2. I showed early signs of being a fashion trend setter.  In the first grade I was all the envy with my Jeans with Miss Piggy riding a motorcycle on the back pocket AND on the matching sweater. The rest of my life is like a walk through all the fashion do's over the last thirty something years: stir up pants, banana clips with bandana pieces tied to every inch of the clip, bows the size of my head (yeah girls we originated that all right?) members only jackets (my boyfriend had one that's for sure), Ocean Pacific paired with a pair of Jams Shorts, Acid wash jeans.  The list is endless as you can see.

#3. I was an innovator.  One summer when the TV game show Card Sharks was popular, my sister and I took poster board and made an entire deck of cards so we could play the game at home.

#4. I was the first kid to have a birthday party where we watched a movie AT MY HOUSE on a Beta Max VCR.  What did we watch you ask? The Incredible Shrinking Woman.  Oh that Lilly Tomlin!

#5 I could (and still can) tell you what night the most popular shows came on TV.  I was a little walking TV guide.  Why? Because when you are the kid who goes to church on Wednesday and Sunday nights you just knew when everything came on.  You knew you would only get to see 15 minutes of Good Times because you had to leave for Wednesday night church.  You knew you would NEVER get to see the Disney Sunday night special because you had to go to church.  You just knew these things. Quiz me, I dare you.


#6 I learned to be independent from an EARLY age.  I was a latch key child.  That's right.  My mom worked and my sad little self came home to an empty house every day starting at seven years old.  You may feel sorry for me but it made me more awesome than I already was because it taught me to take care of me! Bam! And yeah I watched all those after school specials about drugs, pregnancy and STD's.  They were like my babysitter.

#7 I know every word from Neil Diamond's The Jazz Singer because I spent countless hours listening to my sister's 8 track of it on her super cool stereo.  (I also wore out my sister's 8 track of Cher's Gypsy's Tramps and Thieves)

#8 No matter how many people were doing it....I resisted the peer pressure to have a Glamour Shot made.  I can turn 40 and hold my head high because I did not do it.  I knew better.  I knew those things were going to come back and haunt people.  I didn't for see the Internet but I am so glad I won't be turning up on one of the many sites that immortalize this sad chapter in our history.







#9 I was a NERD before being a nerd was cool.  Being nerdy is all the rage these days isn't it?  "Give me a break!" I want to tell these bandwagon nerds.  In high school when my friends were cheerleading, playing sports, hanging out and being cool I was on a bus going to a debate tournament weekend after weekend.  Debate tournaments were like nerd magnets and man was that a sight to behold.

#10 I am a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll and if you were born after 1985 you probably don't even get why that makes me and the rest of my generation so very awesome.

So if you are like me and staring 40 in the face, fear not.  1973 was THE year to be born and we are owning 40 like no other generation ever has.  And don't let people tell you 40 is the new 30!  No!  40 is the new 40 and this is what it looks like.  And it looks good.