"40 is the new 30..." 

This past year I reached the benchmark age of forty years old.  I still don't quite believe it.  I have a hard time thinking of myself as 40 -- often I have a hard time of even thinking of myself as an adult!  But alas, I am...I am a home owner,  husband and a father,  and as if two kids of my own weren't enough, I am also a teacher.  Far out!

When I was a boy, I wanted to work at the airport because there was a young man that lived across the street from me that worked ground crew there.  I though he was so cool!  He had a beat up van that had Air Force insignias on it and it even had fake bullet holes in it.  Very cool.  This guy was maybe 22 at the time and I remember him seeming so grown up to me (the fact he was living with his parents seemed to be irrelevant).

At some point, the airport lost its luster and I decided I was going to be a film director.  Off to college I went!  Visual Arts was a great major to have -- again there was a definite element of "cool" to it.  But the closer I got to graduation, the more I heard stories about Visual Arts majors having careers outside of Visual Arts.  I applied to one grad school and wasn't accepted, so I went on a cross country trip to DC and NYC.  Came back to San Diego, got my old restaurant job back, and moved to the beach with a friend.

Well, my old restaurant job turned into a new restaurant job, which turned into a restaurant management job.  So, the Visual Arts prophecy was fulfilled!  Fine dining and wine were now the cool things in my life.  

I met my wife, who worked at a restaurant down the street from my restaurant in the Gaslamp.  We got married, we had kids, and then kids became the cool things my life.  Now I am surrounded by them!

But 40....can 40 be cool?  Well, here's one cool thing about being 40: I am going to Paris, Venice, and Florence for my 40th birthday.  And even though kids are the cool things in my life now, my wife and I are not taking any with us!