THE ONLY WAY IS UP

I turned 40 today. My friends tell me I haven't changed a bit (though the photo above suggests otherwise), but the world in which I've now spent four decades certainly has. Since last night, I've received tons of birthday greetings -- via Facebook, email, text message, instant message, e-card and face-to-face -- and not one single phone call. But who even uses the telephone to talk anymore, you know, to sing an endearingly off-key rendition of "Happy birthday to you"? That would be so four birthdays ago!

Word on the street is that this is the beginning of the best years of my life. Cher once said, "I've been 40, and I've been 50. Forty is better." People who would know are telling me that the 40s is the best decade. I hope they are right. I woke up feeling slightly melancholy, wondering where all the time has gone, not at all as excited and exuberant as I was when I turned 30. In the end, my 30s went downhill from opening day, then up, then down, then up, then down, then up... Let's hope that from today on, the only way is up!

Update: 6pm. My first birthday call! My friend Luciano. His phone won't let him send text messages, so he had to wish me happy birthday the old-fashioned way.