some good things about my new life

in no particular order:

1) i went to upstate new york on a wine tour last fall
2) i have a woman in my life that loves me
3) i love her
4) she wants to have sex with me
5) constantly
6) she says that this was never part of her life before - she had written off sexuality as being an "also ran" until she met me
7) she has discovered she is multi-multi-orgasmic
8) she thinks i am physically sexy
9) she thinks i am emotionally, mentally, and personality sexy
10) she tells her friends the above as well (and they tease me about it) so it is probably all true (it all appears to be true from my vantage point - but my capacity for self delusion has been substantial in the past)
11) i am in the best shape of my life (even if not completely healthy yet)
12) i am telling people to "get stuffed" pretty regularly
13) they are taking it
14) we had a christmas party with more than just family
15) people actually came to this year's christmas party
13) they are still raving about how great it was - unsolicited
14) my girlfriend didn't wear underwear at the party - just garters and stockings under her little black dress
15) i make more money than i ever have in the past
16) i feel stronger and more confident than ever before
17) i have been to a bunch of really cool concerts this year
18) more concerts in the last 18 months than in the last 20 years
19) i travel to other cities to see concerts
20) i (we) go away for the weekend on whim
21) i seem to be able to balance my personal budget without oversight and seem to have more money left over at the end than before
22) i seem to be able to get marginally ahead, pay down debt, and do the cool things i want to do
23) i get to pick out my own clothes
24) i am considered fashionable, even by the younger hotties around that use me as an example of how you can be in your 40s and not be a schlep
(did you know that schlep is actually in the firefox built in dictionary? i didn't even have to add it to my personal.dic [personal.dic always kills me for completely adolescent reasons - my guess is that it is another computer guy with the same sense of humour that first coined that filename])
25) i get to buy all the music i want
26) a large cross section of young people in my life think my taste in music is really cool (and want to go through my collection for their own [of course i am not talking about copying here - that would be illegal])
27) my kids and their friends think i am cool - and say so - except when they tell me i'm lame - well - that my jokes are lame
28) i'm not really trying to be cool - i'm just engaging in life with a relatively "fuck you, i'll do what i want" attitude - and it turns out to be apparently cool - not that i would change if it wasn't, because i was ok with not being cool too - it's just the validation is nice
29) i am getter better at being a dancer
(the down side is that the instructors [it's a club/society so they are in it for the love of dance, not money - volunteers] are paying extra attention to me and i am getting a little extra defensive - even if they are telling me it's because they see aptitude. Smitten is already a dancer so learning the moves and stuff is way easier for her. she is also used to the whole instructor critique thing. i'm just defensive about criticism - i'm trying, i'm doing well, leave me alone - let me practice and get more comfortable before you put the demand on me to get better - it's all way out of my comfort zone - but i am persisting)
30) i have been invited to social events
31) my daughter is looking like she'll be coming back soon