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About to Place the Big 4-0 on Your Birthday Cake? Before You Do, Read This On August 15, 2007, my husband will turn 40. Lord willing.

“What things do you want to do before you turn 40?” I asked him.

“Hmmm…I hadn’t really thought about it,” he said, much to my surprise. You see, I’m only 37, and I’ve already created my wish list of stuff I’d like to cross off in the next three years.

If you too are staring down the nose at 40 (which is still the new 20, by the way), your virginity is probably long gone. But there are still plenty of other fields of passion to yet be plowed, so to speak.

Use the following list to inspire you to get off your spreading arse and live:

1. Don’t die!
2. Write a book.
3. Learn a new language.
4. Visit a new country.
5. Pay off all your debts.
6. Sponsor a poor child.
7. Get back in shape.
8. Try out for a movie…
9. …sing horrible karaoke…
10. …or do anything to embarrass yourself!

On turning 40…

Twenty three more days and I will be 40. I think turning 40 gives me the right to sit and really contemplate life.

I am excited about being 40! For me 40 means “I have arrived!” I am no longer a kid, I am not a young, insecure mother. I have been married enough years now to know what I want, how to get it…and to know I can get it for myself.

40 means I can dress how I want. I can be casual and cool…without looking foolish or I can be sophisticated and alluring.

40 means I won’t be pushed around by some teenager behind a counter. I won’t be intimidated by a boss or person of authority. I’m 40 now and I can’t be messed with.

40 means I need to start using wrinkle cream on a regular basis…not that I hate my wrinkles…oh no! Those wrinkles around my eyes show how much joy and laughter I have had in the last 40 years. But if I don’t start taking care of them now when I am 60 I will look like I lived on a funny farm where I laughed non-stop. lol

1. Learn to knit, so I can one day knit a blanket, scarf, long chain for my grandchildren

2. Start and continue an exercise regime for three months, even if it kills me [God, I’m lazy]

3. Do sit ups everyday for 3 months [Yup, still lazy]

4.  Learn to accept my body and all it’s imperfections (yeah, right) [oh, I am laughing…wooo hooo.]

5. Read novels I should have already read, classics I read a long time ago and either hated them with a fiery passion or loved them with a fiery passion to see if time has changed my feelings towards them [Still hate One Hundred years Of Solitude… hate it.]

6. Go to Paris with my husband