My 40th birthday wish

As it so happens, I am now 39 and three quarters.  (That is, if adults still said their age the way kids do, but that stopped being the in thing somewhere around age 13, didn't it.....)  Suffice it to say, then, that I'm in the sunset of my 30s.  Well, more like the mid-late evening of my 30s.  If my 30s were a day, I'd be in bed already by now.

Now, in a perfect world, I'd be celebrating my 40th birthday by sitting in the front row, center seat of the theater for this.  But, it isn't a perfect world, and that isn't going to happen.  I mean, not only is my birthday during one of the craziest times of the year (11 days before Christmas), but this year, my birthday is on a Wednesday.  Also? Broadway is about six hours away from my house by car, and nowadays, the cost of one ticket is more than it used to cost my entire family to see a Broadway show back when I was a kid.  (Which, granted, was way back in the Olden Days, especially to hear Kiddo talk about it.)  I don't even want to know how much a front row ticket would be.  Probably way more than I spend on groceries for our family for an entire month.

So, clearly this is not a perfect world.  (A fact which has been made abundantly clear over and over again in the past year, le sigh.)  That's why I've come up with an alternate plan to celebrate my birthdayweekmonth.  Best of all, it's something that YOU, dear reader, can help me with!  So, win-win, right?  I mean, I just know you were wondering what on earth you could get me for my big 4-0.  Right?  (Humor me and nod enthusiastically, if you don't mind.  Thanks!)

Here's what I'm hoping we can do for my birthday: I want to have a worldwide celebration* of helping others.  Paying it forward.  Doing good deeds.  If I can get 40 people to do 1 Good Thing between now and my actual 40th birthday, that would be just about the best present ever.  (Or 20 people to do 2 Good Things.  Or 10 to do 4.  I'm not picky.)

It doesn't have to be a BIG Good Thing, either.  I'm not asking y'all to turn into Mother Teresa/Ghandi/Ryan Gosling here.  Just, you know, do something good.  Spend an hour or two helping at a soup kitchen or food pantry.  Pay the toll for the guy behind you on your way to work.  Offer to watch the kids for that mom who never gets a night off.  Stop by a nursing home and visit with someone who is lonely.  Overtip the waitress at the diner.  Mow your neighbor's lawn or rake their leaves or shovel their snow (hey, I live in upstate NY - we'll have snow before I'm 39 and 5/6ths).  Send your mom some flowers.  Make a point of looking everyone in the eye and smiling at them for one day.  (Everyone - this is harder than you'd think.  Believe me, I've tried.)  You get my drift.

Now, I've been fighting a losing battle against the interwebz all day.  So, I'm not going to attempt to do a Mr. Linky thingamabob because then I might just break the internet once and for all, and I don't want that on my record.  Instead, if you do do a Good Thing in honor of me getting old (heh heh heh, I just said "do do") (what? I am getting old, not mature), please comment here, if you would, and let me know.  I haven't broken my blog comment email notifications yet, so that'll work.  If I get to 40 things by my big 4-0 on December 14th, I'll be beyond thrilled.  And since it is my birthmonth, instead of my usual birthweek, I'd be beyond thrilled if we got to 40 good things by December 31.  Like I said, I'm really not picky.

So, there you have it.  What I'd really love to get for my 40th birthday.  Please consider playing along - it would mean more than you know.

*(Worldwide could happen - my stat meter tells me of blog hits from all over the world!  They aren't all from weirdos searching for the word "boobs" either.  I know real, lovely people who live as far away as Australia who read my blog....)

From the heart, for the heart

I know I've talked before about how I'm not a big fan of school fundraising. However, Kiddo is participating in a fundraiser that I fully support. That fundraiser is the Jump Rope for Heart that the American Heart Association does each year. (This is their thirtieth anniversary of Jump Rope for Heart, actually!)

Now, I'm pretty sure that we all know someone who has had their life affected by or even died from heart disease or stroke. Personally, we've lost family members this way. According to the AHA's website,

Coronary heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. Stroke is the No. 3 cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious disability.

That is why I'm wholeheartedly (um, pun intended) supporting Kiddo's fundraising efforts for this particular event. Kiddo is very excited at the prospect of jumping rope, more than anything else. She loves to jump rope! They've even been learning jump roping skills in P.E. class in preparation. (If you think that jumping rope doesn't take skill, then you've obviously never seen *me* trying to jump!) Since Kiddo is just in kindergarten and doesn't really get the whole "fundraising" part of things so much, I'm leading the charge to help her. Yes, I'm even throwing it out there to the whole, wide blogosphere:

If anyone would like to sponsor Kiddo in Jump for the Heart, please let me know and I will most gladly email you the link to her online donation page. Her school is trying to raise a total of $5,000 which is not completely out of reach, as they raised just over $4,000 last year. I'm hoping Kiddo will help boost them over the $5,000 mark this year!

(Of course, if you have kid(s) jumping for the heart already, don't feel like you need to sponsor mine. I mean, even if you don't have kids, don't feel like you need to sponsor mine. I hate the whole pressure-guilt-obligation feeling thing. I'm just saying, if you do feel like sponsoring Kiddo, we'd be thrilled and grateful, that's all. I also promise not to hit the blogosphere up for any further fundraising efforts this year, too!)

In any event, thanks for reading and the next post will return you to your regularly scheduled ramblings, I promise!