Forty

For months I have been dreading that shift from 39 to 40 which occurred yesterday. I’m not sure why this birthday worried me but it did. I woke up yesterday and did not feel any different. Of course my brother wrote to tell my I was “half way done.” I suspect this was the reason I was dreading. Is my life truly half over? Many of the women in my family live to their late 80’s or early 90’s but not always in great health.

Yesterday was great in an honoring Bacchus kind of way. I was wined and dined for both lunch and dinner. For lunch I met up with three magnificent women I used to work with.  We ate at the Washington Park Grille. I always get one of their ahi tuna dishes, in this case the wasabi green pea crusted ahi tuna. It was terrific. For dinner it was O’s Steak and Seafood at the Westin with my husband and his brother who is in town this weekend. I love O’s. We go for almost all birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and essentially anything important. The food is outstanding with a beautiful presentation of the meal. When they bring the plates out, you often just want to admire it for a minute before eating.

As a present to myself, I finally, at long last, joined a gym. Or perhaps I should say, I joined a posh athletic facility. Every day, I walked past the building for the Colorado Athletic Club between my parking lot and work. Yes, I have a well stocked home gym, but with my long days (often 8AM to 10PM at the office), I have not been using it. However, I generally have an hour or two in my day that could be used to work out. I really needed to make it easier to find a way. This place is incredible. Yes there are 3 floors of athletic equipment and workout rooms, but it was the women’s locker room that had me signing within minutes. Every beauty product imaginable is provided. There is a sauna, steam room & jacuzzi tub. Heck there is even a tanning bed and massage area if you really want to live it up. The women of all shapes and sizes walk about comfortable in their own nakedness. Apparently the place is packed in the early mornings (before 8AM) and during lunch. I have not been there during those times and feel like I have this magnificent place almost exclusively to myself. As part of being a new member, you get two free sessions with personal trainer. I have not scheduled my appointments yet, but they’ve been leaving me voice and email messages. Happy Birthday to me.

I’ve been doing most of my writing about my new job over on our alumni association website. Reaching out to alumni has been fun. I emailed all of the people in our database last week. About 600 emails bounced back but I ideally 1100 or so are still active addresses. I’ve already heard from more than 60 alumni and have meetings planned with some of them.