Today is birthday number 46 for me.  Oh, God.  I remember being in fourth grade and daydreaming about the future, thinking that in the year 2001 I would be 40 and that that was so old that life would pretty much be over.  I think I made some notes about this while in geography class working on textbook questions for the chapter, “Sandra and the Golden Wheat.”  The truth is that I’ve never been happier.  I’ve had a pretty good run thus far, if you overlook a few disasters and several minor catastrophes.  I would not want to be 18 again.  When I was 18 I should have been enjoying it but instead obsessed about assorted nonsense.  Let that be a lesson to all those out there who are young:  you may think things about you suck, but they don’t.  You’re golden.  They will suck, however, when you’re 46, so wait until then – though with some luck you’ll realize that excessive vanity is a gift that keeps on taking and get over it all.