What Happened to Us?

It is the knees that remind me.

 

The stiff, cracking ache after nothing more than standing still or whatever middle-age shift of gravity passes for dancing these days. I start walking again and groan with every step I ascend.

 

Man, what happened to us? We used to stay awake until the sky started going gray. A different bar every night of the week. We heard about our favorite band coming and we were there—no questions, no considerations.

 

Now my ears ring with the echo of rhythm guitars off underground bar. Now traffic jams and the degree of difficulty of finding a parking spot downtown add up in my head before we even go. Now we talk about going to a bar after but it’s midnight and we couldn’t possibly. Now a good book in my living room outweighs all the trouble.

 

Now we talk about refinancing and new fences and HELOCs when it used to be all album release dates and where are we going this weekend.

 

Time rarely asks for your permission before it changes you.