Forty Fabulous Things about Turning Forty!
While I know there are a lot of people out there who will never admit their real age, I’m stinkin’ proud of the fact that
I’m turning
…
FORTY
…
today!!!!
…
So, I thought I’d take a few minutes to celebrate forty fabulous things about turning forty!
1. I’m forty years old. People have to listen to me now.
2. I’m forty and broke—very low possibility of being kidnapped.
3. I can get away with wearing sweats and no makeup to the grocery store.
4. I can wear sleeveless tops and not care how flabby and pasty my upper arms are.
5. The decade of my teen years is now considered “retro” and “cool”—no longer “embarrassing” and “gauche.”
6. My back, knees, and right ankle are now better at predicting the weather than any meteorologist in the world.
7. I don’t have to worry about revealing any of my friends’ secrets—because I’ve forgotten all of them.
8. I can slow down and take things at my own pace (if I want to).
9. I can say no because I’m at an age where taking care of myself first is not only expected, but necessary.
10. I have the career that I’d always considered a pipe-dream. And even though it’s been tough financially, I can still say I attained my dream before I turned forty.
11. I feel younger than ever—because I’ve connected with so many childhood/junior-high/high-school friends in this here age of technology.
12. I don’t have to worry about meeting “the right kind of people” or making “the right kind of friends.” I’m already surrounded by them.
13. Understanding my parents better as each year passes.
14. Having a ton of other fabulous friends who also just turned forty, or are about to.
15. I have minions. 😉
16. Not being carded when I buy wine at my favorite store. (Though I think that’s because they know me.)
17. Being carded when I go out for margaritas with some of my other fabulous fortysomething friends and having the cute young waiter act all surprised because he thought we were his age.
18. I can now get away with yelling at the teenagers driving down the street too fast to “SLOW DOWN.”
19. I can also gripe about the twentysomethings having the party down the street about how they need to TURN DOWN THAT RACKET YOU CALL MUSIC!
20. I no longer worry about the Zombie Apocalypse. In fact, some days I’d welcome it!
21. I don’t have to pretend to like something if I don’t.
22. Turning forty means it’s time to try some things I haven’t yet (like Indian food or dining out alone at least a couple of times a month).
23. At forty, peer-pressure—or at least the urge to give in to it—disappears. (Or so I’ve been told.)
24. Those aren’t gray hairs. That’s experience.
25. My competitiveness is waning.
26. I don’t feel the need to try to prove myself. I’ve spent the last twenty years doing that. It’s time to relax a little and enjoy what I’ve accomplished.
27. If I want to eat cereal for dinner and a ham sandwich for breakfast, that’s okay. (Or maybe that’s should be on the forty fabulous things about being single list.)
28. I not only saw the original versions of the Star Wars movies when they first released, I remember them back before the digital updates and “prequels” ruined them.
29. No hesitation in telling off the teenagers in the movie theater who insist on talking or answering their phones during the movie.
30. I can get away with cutting through the smalltalk to get to the point—I’m getting older by the minute, here, people!
31. I am more certain that I know less than I think I do.
32. Forty is the new twenty-five.
33. I know who I am and what I want out of life, and I’m not afraid to pursue it with passion, no matter what anyone else might think.
34. When I say that wisdom is one of my top spiritual gifts, people actually have to take me seriously.
35. I won’t have to worry about if people are watching and judging me all the time. (Wait, did someone just see me type that? What are they going to think? Maybe I shouldn’t have written that.)
36. “The first forty years of life give us the text: the next thirty supply the commentary.” ~Arthur Schopenhauer
37. I haven’t started receiving AARP stuff in the mail . . . yet.
38. Failure isn’t terminal. Success isn’t eternal. It’s all just life. And it’s soooooo worth living.
39. It’s now officially okay for me to not be girly and giggly and for me to hate chick flicks. I can grouse about them all I want!
40. The most fabulous thing about turning forty—it must be better than being thirty-nine was. Thirty-nine sucked, big time!
KayeDacus.com 
Happy birthday, friend! 🙂 I have a feeling that 40 is going to be AWESOME! Just don’t forget about those of us with less experience, wisdom, and minions. 😉 We like hanging out with you, too. Will see you Friday!
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Of course I won’t forget all you youngsters! What’s age when compatibility is there? 😉
Eager for Friday to get here!
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Happy birthday! Hope it is fantastic!
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Thanks, Jennifer!
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Happy Birthday! What are you doing to celebrate? Whatever it is, have a great day
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Let’s see . . . Thursday, I went with dear friend Ruth to see Thor. Had a fantastic meeting with Middle Tennessee Christian Writers Saturday, then a three-hour lunch with two former coworkers/dear friends. Then I worked the rest of the weekend (had an editing project due today which I’d put off finishing, so that’s my own fault). Today, I’m having lunch with another writer friend, and then I’m coming home to spend the rest of the afternoon reading!
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Oh, and I’m extending my BD to this coming weekend as well, as we’re planning a girls’ night out to get dinner and go see X-Men: First Class Friday night.
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Sounds like a great, long, drawn-out celebration :D. Did you like Thor? I heard it was good, and then I heard Thor= Snore, so I don’t know who to believe!
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I enjoyed Thor, but then, I was predispositioned to because I’m slightly obsessed with Chris Hemsworth currently.
It’s a fun movie, though a bit long in places—and the “romantic” element of it didn’t really work for me (mostly because the screenwriters didn’t put much work into that element). But definitely a fun summer popcorn flick.
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Happy Birthday, Kaye!
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Thanks, Delia!
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Happy Birthday!!!!
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Thank you, Michelle!
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So funny!!! Have a Very Happy Birthday! It really only gets better 🙂
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Thanks, Anne—unlike a lot of people, I’m looking forward to my forties!
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Hope this year is a great year for you! Happy Birthday!
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Thanks, Shelly. I’m of the mindset that if I decide this year will be better than next, it will be—because it’s all in the attitude!
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Happy Birthday, Kaye! Here’s to a FANTASTIC year! 🙂 Looking forward to hanging out later this week! 🙂
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What’s the appropriate response?
Oh, yeah . . . FASSBENDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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LOL, that’s right!!! FASSBENDER FRIDAY GET HERE ASAP!!!! 😉
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Kaye – You rock! I think we’d be great friends if you lived in my state. Your humor is terrific. I’m looking at 42 in Nov., so I’ll leave a few bread crumbs for you to follow! Ha!
Happy birthday, Kaye. Enjoy your day, and congratulations on getting your books out before “40”! And keep writing, because this ol’ lady wants more good material!
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😀 I’m sure we would be, Anita!
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40 was better than 30 for me. 🙂 Happy Birthday!
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Even though I’ve struggled financially over the last two years, I know 40 will be better than 30, simply because of where I’m not working now and was working then! (And the fact that at 30, I’d just started back to college part time—on top of working full-time.)
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Happy Birthday, Kaye!!!
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Thanks, Kelly!
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Happy Birthday, Kaye! You’re gonna love 40.
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Thanks, Brenda! I’m planning on this being a great year!
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Happy Birthday, Kay!!!!
I am 65 and my observation is that there are many books with a person at age 65 or older. We need some more
My body is giving out on me but I still feel like a young kid of 40!
Carol Wong
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Thanks, Carol!
I can’t promise you books with lots of characters age 65 and older (though an 80+ romance does figure in to Turnabout’s Fair Play), but one of my contemporary proposals that’s out right now does feature every hero and heroine being over 40.
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Happy, happy birthday. May this year be full of abundant joy!
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Thanks, Kate!
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Happy Birthday, Kaye. I hope you have a great day and a wonderful year.
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Thank you, Lyndie!
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Happy birthday! Great list!
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Thanks, Jordan!
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If forty is the new twenty-five…then I guess I feel like the “I just partied way too much” twenty-five. 🙂
Happy birthday Kaye!
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I loved turning 40. I felt like all my “older” friends had to start taking me more seriously. They didn’t, but in my mind, they did. 😀 And isn’t it cool that, at 40, you have minions that are older than you?
Speaking of AARP, one of the most jolting moments in my life was when I was in a doctor’s office and saw the cover of the AARP magazine. It had DENNIS QUAID on it. Sigh . . . . I think he’s still cute, anyway. 😉
Happy Birthday, Kaye! May this be your best birthday YET! Blessings aplenty, blessings galore!
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You have to try Indian food, it’s the best! Don’t forget to try chai for a mango lassi as well.
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oops, Chai OR mango lassi… Ooo and hot nan bread with garlic to go with your curries. So awesome. Have a great birthday! 🙂
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That’s where I have to be cautious with exotic foods . . . I’m allergic to mango (and papaya and kiwi and all other tropical fruit)—there’s an enzyme in it that makes my throat swell shut. 😦
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Ah, in that case, tread carefully. I’d much rather you stick around for 40 more happy birthdays, than know I’d encouraged an episode of anaphylactic shock. 🙂
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Happy Birthday Kaye!
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Happy Birthday, Kaye!! 🙂
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Happy Birthday, Kaye! I really enjoyed your list! I hope you have a wonderful day and a blessed year!
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Happy Birthday!
You’ll get the AARP mailings when you get closer to 50. Then you’ll really feel old! I thought AARP was just for “old” people and 50 really isn’t old. It’s kind of interesting how the older we get, the younger people older than we are seem. Instead of thinking someone in their 40s is “old” now it’s someone in their 80s.
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Happy Happy day to you!
I do pray 40 is better than 39. Or anything else that came before.
Cheers, and blessings!
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Im late here but I hope you are having a wonderful day. 40 is good. (30 was the pits)
may the most you wish for be the least you receive.
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I haven’t tried Indian food either. (or Thai food.) And, just for the record, you can eat a ham sandwich when you’ve married the right man. He may make fun of you but laughter’s good for a marriage.
Happy 40!
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Forty IS fabulous and so are you!!! Great list! Praying for many bountiful blessings!
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Oh no! I missed the party! Kaye, I hope your day was special and fun and a day that was allll about YOU! Forty is a great year…liberating, for sure! Enjoy the year to come, and may it be filled with greatness and financial security! 😉
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Happy Belated Birthday Kaye! I received my AARP stuff when I turned 30, lol. Keep living your dreams 🙂
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Happy Birthday, Kaye! Welcome to the 40+ club.
I’m reading The Art of Romance. I see some of your blog topics found their way into this one, like the singles ministry issue. Interesting. I’m liking Dylan, but I want him to buck up and shake off his concerns for what others think. I’m loving Caylor, and although I’m only about 60+ pages in, I’m glad I know in advance she’ll get over her non-dating stance. Isn’t romantic fiction great?!
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Happy Birthday, fearless leader! Number two on your list cracked me up… but number 15 is my favorite!! So glad to be a minion!
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I’m glad to be a minion too!
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