Today I woke up to an ache in my right shoulder. Time for another cortisone shot? Maybe, but I got too distracted by the ache in my hip. Right one, too. All those years of skating? Possibly. No more ache in my right knee, though. I stopped running to stymie that. What’s up with my right side?

Sometimes when I chew, I hear my jaw click. Never heard that before, and it’s happening more and more. Google assured me nothing is wrong. At least my breath is good (I think). But my eyesight is getting a little worse each year, -4.00 now. Maybe it’s all the squinting that’s creating these wrinkles. Damn mirror.

Yesterday, out of the blue, everything was muffled in my left ear. I was permanently stuck at 30,000 feet and when I tried to pop it, I’d get dizzy. Earwax buildup? Nope, fluid behind my eardrum. That’s what the doc told me. Adult-onset allergies? Probably. And while I’m on ears, I should mention, I have fuzz growing out of mine now. Every now and then, I spot an extra-long hair and think, What the...

Oh, and hair. I’ve got a long relationship with hair. The only place I wanted it, my head, started thinning long ago, but I got it everywhere else. I love the razor. What I got is starting to turn gray now. On my chest. In my beard. And I even pick a few out of my eyebrows from time to time.

Yeah, it all sucks. When I wince at the pain, squint at the TV, and notice the wrinkles getting deeper, I’m left with no choice but to laugh at those grays. It reminds me that a lot can happen in ten years. Christ, I had hair at twenty-two.

So I just smile and think, That’s the beauty in thirty-three. I’ve got a decade until I’m forty-four. Give or take. I mean, who’s counting?

*This article is part of the ongoing Morning After series: short, reflective pieces on thoughts, feelings, and ideas about life. They’re kind of like well-manicured journal entries, written the morning after a night out.