Birthday Blues

As a fan of the NBC sketchcom "30 Rock", it's enjoyable viewing.
For those of you who don't follow it, one of the characters, Jack Donaghy (played brilliantly by Alec Baldwin) is the fictional head of NBC.  In one episode, where he's ribbed about recently turning 50, he takes a beat and says "50 is the new 30."
Would that mean 40 is the new 20?
Uhhh...not quite.  When most of us were 20, we spent our days buried in thick, overpriced books we'd never get back our money for, and our nights trying to convince the bouncer at the door that it's a real ID we're producing.  And our weekends puking off balconies.
In reality, we'd read the book, then forget everything a half hour later (if that), we'd be ready for bed hours before the bar closed, and if we did puke off a balcony, we'd overshoot and the end results would be far more tragic.
No...40, NOT the new 20.
Nonetheless, it's still just a number.
My wife turns 40 one week from today.  She said to me just a day or so ago "this is my last week in my 30s."
I've known my wife since she was 32.  I had just turned 36.
After being together all these years, she never ceases to amaze me.
Despite being married for almost seven years, and having a child three and a half years ago, she's still not afraid to try new things, and still enjoys the things we used to do before kids, when we have time to do them.
Sometimes things have to wait in favor of household chores or the 'honey-do' list, but we never let each other fall by the wayside.
And my wife's sense of humor isn't lost on me.
I'm holding a football-themed birthday party for Margie one week from today.  Because her birthday falls on a Sunday this year, and it's a decade marker, what better way to celebrate than to do so in front of a 50" plasma TV, with the Steelers delivering a sound thrashing (hopefully) to the hated Cleveland Browns?
My wife works as an investigator for the feds.  I told her about the party because a) she can't handle Christmas, b) she'd find out about any kind of surprise party, and c) I'm just not that good a liar.
So she knows she's getting a party.
And she'll also know that her friends aren't about to let her forget about it.
Some of the gifts of my own 40th birthday party were:  Geriatric vitamins, antacids, hemorrhoid ointment pads, a pack of Depends, and a pilsner glass with all the niceties of turning 40 on it.
And I will see that no one leaves her out of that loop too.


NEXT WEEK:  December