As I approach being born 40 years ago this week, I’ve found myself reminiscing on my growing up days.  On my way home from work today I heard “Uptown girl”.  This brought me back to my childhood.  I got to thinking of all the music that reminds me of those very young and pre-teen days:  Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, and Survivor to name a few.

I owned some of this music on LP records, some 45’s and some tapes.  Shoot, we even listened to my “Thriller” tape in our 1st grade class.  To quote a line from “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan” (a movie I watched infinite times in the mid-80’s), “Nursery days, nursery days.”

Speaking of movies, I’m still amazed my parents let us watch Rambo (all of them) and Predator many times.  But, we also watched Rocky, Red Sonja, Conan the Destroyer, The Beastmaster, Police Academy and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure all the time.  Judging by this list, you may wonder how I didn’t turn out to be a complete lunatic.

When we weren’t entertaining ourselves outside, we had some sitcoms and shows we watched:  Silver Spoons, The A-Team, Chips, The Incredible Hulk, The Dukes of Hazzard, Growing Pains, Family Ties, Head of the Class, WKRP (you singing that song now??), The Six Million Dollar Man, and of course MacGyver on Monday nights.  We had no working remote and of course, no DVR.  We won’t even get into Saturday morning cartoons… man they were good.

I love the period I grew up in.  I was fortunate to have four siblings, three of which were older than me.  So, I got exposed to a wide range of pop culture.  Being born in ’77, I easily remember the early ’80’s, since my sister graduated in ’84.  And I stretch to the late ’90’s since my little brother graduated in ’99.  That gets me from Charlie’s Angels all the way to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and everything in-between.

Anyone who knows me well knows I love Seinfeld.  All my brothers love it.  We quote it and reference it the majority of the time we’re together.  It’s so easy to slip into conversations.  Don’t you agree?  Unfortunately I’m finding less and less of those with whom I associate are familiar with Seinfeld.  That’s a shame.

One evening we got a call from our grandparents telling us they had a gift for our family.  My brother Joseph said “I bet it’s a VCR”.  I have no idea how he knew.  But, we went to their house and that’s what it was.  We were excited.  I was glad that we finally had a remote control that worked and we could operate the TV thru the VCR, so no more getting up to change the channels.

Those were great times.  We didn’t have to dial the prefix when calling someone in our town, we could dial our own number then hang up and our phone would ring.  And we could prank call either random people or those we knew and they didn’t who who it was (for those boring, rainy days).

Birthday parties at the skating rink in 3rd grade never got old.  Every time I hear “Livin on a Prayer”, I’m immediately swooped back to that wooden, somewhat wavy-floor rink with the disco ball.

I’ve seen the turtleneck, aviators, and tapered jeans make a comeback.  We can only hope rat tails and mullets don’t do the same; although Mike Gundy‘s mullet is getting national attention.

Now, life is much different.  I have a wonderful wife and cute, healthy, active boys.  I feel much younger than 40.  I’m fortunate to have good employment.  It’s a much faster-paced world than those of my youth.  Mortgage and car payments, medical bills, yada, yada.  But, I know I’ll look back on these current days as great times too.

However, this particular week of my life won’t be considered one of those periods.  For certain reasons, I get to have a colonoscopy this week.  For those who’ve been thru this before, you are well-versed in the prepping.  My story gets good here.

After a period of suffering thru the holidays, I finally got the procedure scheduled for Jan 6 (the day before my 40th).  First of all, I spent way too much time on the phone fighting with outpatient services over the insane amount of money they wanted up front.  I don’t know if I should thank my insurance or Obama for this, but in the end I lost that battle.

Then, I started the good ‘ol prep.  Since this wasn’t my first time, I had the liquid chilled, which def helped the taste.  After finishing that process, including getting up at 3 am the day of procedure to finish the prep work, I got a call at 5 am informing me that their offices were closed due to upcoming wintry conditions.  Therefore my colonoscopy was cancelled.

My exact words were, “That is great news” (full of sarcasm).  She apologized b/c she knew what I was inferring.  She knew I’d drank four liters of that hellacious clear liquid – all for nothing.

So, yours truly gets to do the prep all over again since the procedure is re-scheduled for Monday.  The pharmacist even laughed as my wife picked up another prescription of GoLYTELY.  How many people are lucky enough to get to cleanse their colon two times, within 2.5 days?  I’m glad I’m one of them…

I’ve thought about my 40 th birthday for a long time – wondering what I wanted to do.  Instead of climbing one of the highest peaks in the country, taking a trip, sighting in my new rifle, or even spending time in the wilderness, I get to drink a massive bottle of vile tasting liquid and then spend the next several hours on the porcelain throne.  This really is 40, …. for me.

A few weeks ago my wife asked me what I wanted for my 40th birthday.  I said, “I want a colonoscopy.”

Wish granted; almost x’s 2.