
I’m 40 today. I realize that this day will only come once in my life, so I thought it might be a good idea to do a bit of “stream of consciousness” writing just to see where I was at on the day I turned the big 4-0! This isn’t a newspaper column or a race report. I don’t think I’ll take the time to edit it, either. One sitting, straight through. What I type is what I get! Tony uncensored! Unedited (OK, I didn’t spell uncensored or unedited correctly so this will be spell checked).
I haven’t been much of a Facebook poster. Yes, I have a lot of friends on Facebook but I don’t do much with them. I guess in that regard Facebook sort of parallels life, more so a guys life. I love the fact that guys can go years without seeing each other, get together for a few hours at a game, a trade show or a party, feel like they were long lost best friends and then part ways without the “we should hang” talk that seems to affect so many women’s relationships. And yes, I type those last comments as a professional therapist. I’ve sat with many, many female clients who try their best to break down the game film on their friendships, and burn a lot of calories worrying about them. Wait, burning calories...worrying about friendships, I think I'm on to the next fad diet! Yet I digress, I’m 40!
The reason I brought up Facebook is that today I learned what it can truly be good for…hearing from a lot of old friends with very witty things to say about your age. Some of my favorites: (Note – I had a bunch more come in later in the evening, a couple with some great comments but in the vein of getting something posted, I decided to just go with what I typed earlier)
From friend Leslie: “Enjoy your new age group.” She’s talking about moving up to the 40-45 year old age group in ultra running. The only problem is that over 40 is when ultra runners hit their stride! I’ll actually fall a few places in my age group finish ranks now that I’m over 40!
From cousin Kevin: “"What's it feel like, cous? I've been sweating this one myself. Wow, 40, that sounds old." Yeah, it does sound old. Wendy and I were talking about it this morning and when you were younger, even in your 20’s, and you heard somebody was 40 you thought they were old! I don’t feel old! I had a client just last week tell me that they had gone out with an older couple in their neighborhood. I had to ask. “How old?” She said, “I don’t know, I think he was 38 and she was 36.” I told myself that she was actually complimenting me because she much not have thought I was THAT old!
From my friend Brien: “"Wow 40! You've finally joined the club. Well look on the bright side, at least you're not going to lose your hair. Happy Birthday bro." Little do those with hair know that being bald, I’ve been told, seems to hide the age a bit. No gray hair, can’t even see how or where it’s receding after a fresh shave…and yes, this morning deserved a fresh shave. I was prepared for plenty of bald jokes today. I actually like them. I see pictures of me when I was still rocking the hair and all I think about is “why wasn’t bald cool when I was younger?” Even with that said, I still did “bald” early on. It took me a while to go from short hair to clipper cut, to a 1 guard to no guard and eventually hit with a razor. But once you go razor, you’re never going back. I almost feel bad that many of you will never experience the joy of a freshly shaven head scrubbed with a pouf with a nice soap. Just picture having your head scratched, in a good way, times 100! Finally, on the subject of bald, it definitely is accepted, but I remember when it wasn’t. Christmas always reminds me of when I did bald before bald was cool. I was carrying a package into FedEx and a nice old lady opened the door for me and gave me that “oh, poor thing!” look. I’m guessing that she assumed I was battling cancer.
From my cousin Emily: “"I was not aware you were turning the big 4-0 today!!! Doesn't that make you a little old for facebook :) Just kidding. Happy Birthday cousin :)” Well Emily, actually I do feel a little old for Facebook, just on the edge, but then I get a friend request from somebody 20 years older and I feel OK! I definitely don’t “speak” Facebook, I still type out entire words instead of saying things like: wht r u doin? Which means, I think, “what are you doing?”
From my friend Jennifer: "Happy Birthday my fellow "St. George Marathoner!" Hope 40 brings you lots of happiness! Have a fabulous day!" That’s right, I’m still moving! I have to admit, I’ve started to embrace the cliché “age is just a number” and I have hard evidence to prove it! I’ve never felt better…at least I don’t think I have. My race distances are longer, my times are faster. I’m just a month off of my fastest marathon of the 40 or so I’ve run. When I ran my first in my late 20’s, and if you’d have told me that my personal record (PR) would be achieved at 39 I would have thought you crazy! And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t planning on faster times to come. I know, I know, I sound a bit like “Uncle Rico” from Napoleon Dynamite, “I could throw this football over that mountain!” Or, I once asked someone who just turned 50 how they felt and they got a bit odd on me and told me all the things that they could still do to young folks, and they weren’t that nice! They had to do with certain body parts being
Friend's Cynthia and Jen reminded me that “40 is the new 20.” So does that mean I spend with reckless abandon, rack up credit card debt, consolidate and then start all over? Wait, doing that, guess it is the new 20!
Fraternity brother Eric said that it seems like yesterday that I was prank calling people and challenging them to a variety of sporting events, quite successfully I might add! That just reminded me that thanks to the days of caller ID and aggressive phone solicitors the days of innocently calling up a random number and challenging them to a ping pong game...and then watching them show up, are long gone.
But the best post of the day, I believe, goes to my cousin Keith who wrote: Happy Birthday Tony! The big four oooooh! You're in the shape of a guy half your age and have the hair of a guy twice your age." Nuff said, love that post.
So 40, yep, some of the stereotypes do come true. I just finished that section on Facebook posts and couldn't for the life of me remember what else I wanted to write, seriously! And when I started writing this I had no intention of writing up the Facebook posts. Thankfully, however, I did remember. What I was writing about, though, was my memory loss (how ironic?).
Quick back story. I was challenged by a good friend of mine to take a body fat test, the serious kind, the kind where you're weighed in a dunk tank. I've done a couple before, but my friend called me out. The loser had to take the winner out to lunch. That was simply the outward expression of an inner victory. The winner had bragging rights. My friend had a trainer working with him and he was working hard. I was pushing it as well and got my weight down to high school levels. Again, I've never felt better!
My parents do Halloween right. They buy full sized candy, none of this fun sized stuff. They send us the left overs. I pray for snow in Utah on Halloween because it means more full sized candy bars come my way. This year the care package arrived the first week of November full of bags of animal cookies, 3 foot long licorice ropes and bags of Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies. I love these cookies. I ate a bag (or two) every Tuesday night for 2 years while in Grad School. I swear Amos was part of the reason I got my Master's Degree. Just knowing I would be downing a bag (or two) once a week was sometimes enough to get me to class.
I was two weeks from the body fat test. My friend was talking trash! His trainer was talking trash. I knew I could win...but what if I didn't? I went into serious diet-mode the final two weeks...the weeks with the cookies in house. Meanwhile my kids found the box from Grandma and Grandpa and they were making quick work of my cookies. So I did what any father would do who loved his family dearly, I took them and hid them! And that was the last I thought of the cookies.
The body fat test came and went (I won!). I started a week-long bender Saturday after the test. My friend's Staci and Melinda got me 40 full sized Kit Kat bars and I was working through those at a steady pace and then today, one of my daughters saw my article in the paper and asked me if I was “famous?”
“Famous?” I asked? “Famous Amos!” I don't think I said anything else to her but I quickly ran downstairs and found my stash and powered through a bag (or two). I guess the memory truly does go at 40, even the week or two leading up to 40!
So let me just say, 40 ain't so shabby! I've been bald for a decade. I'm in better shape now that I was in college. I have a hair that seriously grows out of the SIDE of my nose, so that's not so great, and I swear I take one of those ear hair clippers to my ears every week, but other than that I feel great!
One of my friends, Drew, now that I think about it, did post something about the exam I'm supposed to have at 40. I can't lie, I am scared of that one. I had another friend tell me that his Dr. said that “45 is the new 40” when it comes to checking the old prostate, so I think I'll cling very, very tightly to that saying.
My kids are great, my wife is hot, life is great. My wife bought a little sign that she put in the kitchen several years ago, it simply says, “It's all good.” I asked her one time why she was drawn to it and she said that she truly felt like when it all boils down to it, everything is indeed “all good!” So far I have to agree! Bring on 50! Well, actually that sounds pretty old!


