Complications, complications

You know you’re getting old when you stop enjoying the roller coasters.

Last year, while in Houston, we went to an amusement park called Keema (tee hee). While in Keema, I went on a ride that I can now only remember as waahiyaat –loosely translated as ‘outstandingly awful’. Basically the thing suddenly flips upside down a few seconds after going up in the air, and then stays there. For an alarmingly long period of time. That’s it. That’s the ride. It (and you) stay suspended upside down in the air for several excruciating minutes in which you hold on to your seat belt and your legs hold on to nothing. According to my ten year cousin, it was AAWWWe-some (in a way only a ten year old Houstonian can say it).

Anyhoo, I realized that day that I wasn’t the same person who could enjoy unlimited roller coaster rides, monster trains and pirate ships without ever feeling the need to stop or puke. Even that crazy ride at the now defunct Karachi Funland which would go on full speed in the opposite direction after completing a cycle going forward. There isn't a time I can remember ever feeling I had had enough of the Funlands and Disney Lands of the world. Now though, it’s not the same with anything involving speed and adrenaline. I still want to do all of that and more, but only because I'm used to wanting to do it. I mean, how bad is it when you start driving the first round of your go-cart really fast and then wish for it to end just a few minutes later, can’t stop worrying about crashing into an invisible boundary when you’re riding a jet ski (which is really divine regardless of everything), and start having a heart attack every time your husband drives slightly maniacally to cross a signal before it turns red.

The more I live, the more beautiful life becomes. Somebody famous said that. I saw it yesterday, displayed on my Gmail page, and happily discovered that I agree. But, as life becomes more beautiful every day, I also become older, less exciting, less adventurous, more afraid to break my neck, more finicky, more obsessive compulsive, and more likely to grow old sooner than I thought I would. Oh, the complications of being...just human.