There are no numbers after 39....

was the punch line of a birthday card with a 1950's little girl asking her mom what comes after 39?
Since that card the above has been my motto when it comes to birthdays. As you can guess I just had a birthday. Birthdays use to be fun although coming from a family that really did not make any effort to recognize ones birthday I did find it to be a bit of let down. But at 40+ years of age I still have expectations that my friends and family will in fact remember my birthday by sending cards, emails, phone calls etc... Nothing fancy just "happy birthday and enjoy the day". With that said, and a bit of a disappointment on my part of not many people remembering my birthday I would like to take the time to lend a helping hand in regards to forgetting peoples birthdays. The reason for this helpful hand, everyone I know becomes that 7 year old kid again when they see all those envelops in the mail just for them. That so many people remembered them on their birthdays. It is a REALLY big deal for most people whether they admit it or not.

Over the past 3 years I have made a HUGE effort to remember peoples birthdays as I realized I cannot ask people to remember my birthday if I don't remember theirs. So what have I done to make the job of getting cards and phone calls out on time??? Well, I use the electronic calendar and my contacts list. I make it a point to find out peoples birthdays and put it in my contacts "notes" and then IMMEDIATELY put it on to my electronic calendar with a yearly recurrence and a 1 week prior reminder. This way when I open my outlook or my blackberry everyday, a week prior to the birth date, a reminder comes up, I buy the card that day and put it in the mail either that day or 4 days prior to the birthday. I usually let the first b/day of that month launch the balance of the cards I will need that month and do the purchasing all a the same time. Is this hard? NO. Does this take a little thought? YES. Does it tap into some minor organizational skills? YES.

So get your shit together people and make this the one thing you do this month! update all birthdays in your e-calendars and get on top of this. There are no excuses for this not to happen. It is an inexpensive and easy way to make the people in your life feel special and cared for. It is not the big things in life that matter it is the little everyday reminders that each human being is important.

Now after my tirade on thoughtlessness, and action plan to problem solve it. Did I mention I am a problem solver by nature? Yeah, if the parents were a little attentive I would be an engineer instead of an out work fashionist! What did I do for my birthday? Based on the age I just turned, yes yes I know "there are no numbers after 39..." and not having a job or even an interview on the calendar I decided it would be nice to just have dinner with a very good friend of mine. This unfortunately got canceled the day of my birthday due to a work crisis on his part, well obviously not on mine ;-).

Plan B, as there is always a plan B, (remember problem solver by nature) I went to a small bistro to have a birthday martini, Grey Goose extra dry with 3 olives, why this particular bistro? Well they make a kick ass martini and I am very particular about my martini's as you can tell. Well after having my martini and reading about Sharon Stone, albeit she does come across as a little crazy but smoking hot and she is over 50, my hero. I left the bistro and walked home. Now those that know me know I am not a stroller, I walk hard and usually fast but I have to say since not having a job I have learned to slow down a lot. As I was trying to pass this man on a cell phone, (what else is new, goes back to that etiquette point above), he gets off his phone and starts chatting. Ok I try to be nice to strangers, and chat back. He is walking in the same direction, after a few blocks asks if I want to get a drink with him, I said yes under the guise that he had some connections with equity companies that work in my industry. Anyway had a drink he was very talkative and about 15 years older than me, seems to be used to chatting up women where ever he can as he was very comfortable and it seemed as if he covered all his points in all of about 20 mins at which point I said I was going home and he asked me to a movie. Hmmmm what to do, what most woman would, yes of course I will go to a movie. Where I live movies cost $13 and I have no job and a free movie is a free movie. Yes my standards have changed considerably in the last 8 months. So we made a plan to go to the movies.

Stay tuned tomorrow for how the movie was.....as this guy, Yikes!

xxx
40 Single in the City.