ON FEELING MY AGE

So I went to a theme park today for the first time since the last time. This time, no one got sick.

Let me preface all of this by saying that as a kid, I LOVED theme parks. I have clear, distinct memories of riding roller coasters over and over again and loving it. I remember getting to the park at 10 am and staying until the park closed at 10 or 11 pm. I gleefully spent my parents' money trying to win very-closed-to-rigged carnival games for prizes like a cheap stuffed tiger.

This most recent trip...I don't know. We got to the park around 11 or 11:30. We went on all the roller coasters. I grumblingly spent my own money trying to win a Bears football (an astounding zero-for-six in throwing a football through a tire). I complained about food prices. I willingly sat in the shade while waiting for friends to get off a ride. I didn't want to go on the water ride because I didn't want to walk around in wet shoes all day. And then we left by 7:30.

What on earth happened to me? When did this stop becoming fun? I can look at other things in my life and know when they stopped being entertaining - for example, go-karts decreased in fun when I got my drivers' license. But I don't know what happened to my capacity to enjoy roller coasters. I'm old, and that's a sobering thing to realize just before plummeting down a surprisingly steep drop on "Bizarro Superman."