let there be cake

[dakegra]

Well, it's now only a week to go until my birthday!

I love birthdays, always have done. One of the reasons *could* be due to there being more cake than usual.

Mmm, cake.

The only downside with having a birthday this close to christmas is that once it's over, you're done for the year. It's a really loooong wait until the next celebration pile of presents birthday cake. Oh, sure. other people have birthday cake, but it's not quite the same unless it's yours, somehow.

I sometimes wish I had a summer birthday so I'd be able to have some friends round for a lazy summer barbecue with beer and sitting outside chatting until well after the sun goes down. As it is, it's invariably cold, dark and miserable - everyone is skint after christmas and on some kind of healty eating or detox kicks.

Ah well.

Anyhoo, this birthday is one of those 'special' ones, with a big fat zero on the end of it.

Being 40 suddenly doesn't seem quite so old as it used to. I'm pretty sure I must have missed a few years along the way too - I reckon I'm still in my mid- to late-twenties really, grey hairs to the contrary.

It's really weird. I don't *feel* old in my head until I start considering how other people might see or think about me, or until I think about how old (or not) they are. People at work who are just turning thirty, or are dreading it. People who I'm now old enough to be their parent...

Scary stuff. Weird to think that you'll never get to go back to being that young person, or be seen as 'one of them', you'll always be the older person in such a group.
Still, I steadfastly refuse to grow up. And if any of you catch me doing so, feel free to call me on it. :-)

Ahem. Enough maudlin. Back to the cake!

So, this time next week I'll be forty. I fully intend to have cake. Mmm, cake.

Comments

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

One of the great joys of being in your forties is that you can be whatever age you like. Seriously. You can still boing around being young and chirpy, but you also gradually discover you've been dealt the Universal Aunt/Uncle card, and that's a good one to have when you need it.

Speaking personally, I find that one of the really nice things about being in my forties is that I can now tell much younger men they look gorgeous if I want, and they don't panic and think I'm chasing them. But I suspect it works rather differently for men. :-D

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I suspect if I went round telling much younger men they look gorgeous I would get some quite peculiar looks.

And if I went round telling young ladies that they look gorgeous, I'm pretty sure that K would have some quite strenuous objections on the matter!

[ciciaye.livejournal.com]

I hope it's a good birthday, and good cake :-)

I often have moments where I forget that, to some younger people, I'm one of their parents' generation. This especially happens when I'm at the hairdressers, I get chatting to the nice friendly girls there, and then suddenly realise that they're nearly all young enough to be my daughters.

I remember a work colleague once telling me I reminded her a bit of her Mum. I was horrified, until I remembered the colleague was only 20 years old and that her Mum was probably around my age, or not much older!

[scaree.livejournal.com]

Yep, done that too!

Mind you, I drift through much of my day blissfully unaware of my age. In my head I'm still about 26

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm around the same age.

What gets me is when I realise that EB turns ten this year... explains the grey hairs on my head anyway...

[scaree.livejournal.com]

And the bounce in your step, keeping up with him!

[rpdom.livejournal.com]

Being 40 isn't old at all. You've got a long way to go before that happens.

However, I'm dreading my next '0' birthday in 3 years and 4 days.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

plenty of time to prepare. In the meantime, practice by eating cake.

[kniblet.livejournal.com]

I've been 40 for 3 months now. It's been ok so far.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

was there cake?

[genevra.livejournal.com]

I feel old when I let myself think about the fact that my roommate was born the year I graduated high school.

Also, I was ogling my son's gymnastics coach (mmmm... nice arm and shoulder muscles!). But when I found out he was under 20 years old, I just felt like a creepy old woman.

[scaree.livejournal.com]

I intend to be like Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum books. I need to become a bit more sprightly first ...

[quaero-verum.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I had a much harder time with 30 than I did with 40. And that was in spite of the fact that my hubby "lovingly" had a tiny black gravestone with "RIP" added to the upper-right hand corner of my 40th b-day cake. ;-P

Happy early birthday....and I hear ya about "holiday-time birthdays." Mine was this past Monday, so yeah......s'all over till next year.

[caerleon.livejournal.com]

Bloody kids.. wait until you get to my age..

[svenskakj.livejournal.com]

Just think of how old 40 sounded in your head, when you were 20? Okay, don't. Lol :-) I don't feel that much older than I did at 20!

[paula-abroad.livejournal.com]

and you don´t get used to it later either. being over 40 is a drag. bleh.

now i´m gonna get me some cake. just because.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

cake is good. We like cake.

You're only old if you're old inside your head.

[caitirin.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for cake. And I promise to give you heck if you start acting old :)