Bowling for Birthday

by Phil RickabyAging, BirthdayPosted on No Comments

This past Saturday, I turned 40 (as previously mentioned), and this year, I did something different.  Usually for my birthday, I don’t do much.  Maybe a small dinner with a couple of friends. Sometimes even less.  But this year, since forty is one of those “milestone” birthdays, I thought that this year I would do something bigger.  I invited a few friends to join me for some cosmic bowling.  After all, everyone loves bowling, right?

I don’t bowl often.  In fact the last time I bowled was about two years ago at another friend’s birthday.  But I figured that bowling was a good way to get a bunch of people together, and to have some fun.  We had different bowling skill levels together, and some people bowled well, and some people… Well the point is that we had different bowling skill levels.  To me, though that doesn’t matter. You go bowling with a group of friends to cheer each other on, trade some friendly zingers and just have a good time.

The second game of the night is where we made a few realizations.  First and foremost: bowling is a sport. We came to this sport realization by realizing the pain that wrists and knees were in.  Until that moment, we all remembered bowling as something fun to do with a group of friends.  But it turns out that there’s actual athleticism involved in doing it regularly.  Which is something I suppose we all knew, but had forgotten until the pain started.

When the second match ended, we were all of one mind: we were finished, and did not have another game in us.

It was a great way to ring in my 40s, and was happy to see all the friends who came.

Side note: for those looking at turning 40, just remember…forty feels a lot like thirty-nine.

[pictures by Jessica Nelson and Daisy MacLean]

17 Days

by Phil RickabyAging, Theatre, WritingPosted on One Comment

In 17 days, I will be 40.

To be specific, in 17 days, 425 hours and 255516 minutes.*

Its funny how much that has me rattled.  Turning 30 didn’t rattle me all that much (turning 27 did, but that’s another story), but 40 does.  Maybe “rattled” is not the right word.  I’m not scared about it at all, but its started me thinking about Things.  What kind of Things?  Well, things like “legacy”.

The number forty has started me thinking about what I might leave behind.  I know that this is is a very silly thing for me to be thinking about, because (I’m told) forty is the new thirty, and its not like I’m at death’s door, but I have found myself thinking more about what I will leave behind after I’ve shuffled off this mortal coil.  I have been more serious about my writing. When I was a few years  younger (about 24-27), I wrote quite a bit, but after I spent 5 years out of the acting business I stopped.  But now, I’ve been wanting to write more.  I’ve had more ideas and spent more time actually writing.  Short stories, plays, and screenplays have all been mulling themselves around in my brain waiting to be put to digital paper.  I’ve also had a stronger desire to do more acting.  Perhaps its the logical outcome from taking so many years away from acting, but after I returned to it, I have been slowly building up the number of shows I’m doing a year, until now when I am wanting to be working on something all the time.

So, I wonder what’s going on.  Why is age 40 affecting me in this way?  Not that I’m complaining.  I’ve often lamented how I wasted my twenties in terms of my creative career, how I didn’t put enough work into acting and writing when I was younger.  I like that I am being driven like this, but I find it curious/interesting that it is the age thing that’s brought it to the fore.

What do you think?  Has an specific age or event spurred you to action?

* of course, I used a website to determine that specificity, as those who know me well know that its highly unlikely I’d have been able to get that kind of mathematical exactitude on my own.