When it comes to aging, game on

I see little signs every day that I'm getting older with things like gray hairs, achy muscles and all the AARP mail. But this past weekend on a work trip to Columbia I felt older than I ever have.

I should have known it didn't start well when I woke up early the morning on the day I left hacking like I smoked three packs a day for 50 years. But I thought it was just a tickle that would be gone by lunch time. To be sure, my future wife looked through my medicine cabinet and found me some of my old medication she said would help take care of it. That and I piled in a bunch of aspirin for headaches, Aleve for muscle aches, car sickness pills and cough drops. My bag contained more medicine than clothes. (sign 1)

Away I went with my co-workers, well before the sun rose. They were talking about being tired and not wanting to get up, hitting the snooze button. I was thinking that I was always up before the sun -- even when I slept in. (sign 2)

As the trip continued I started to hack more and more and feel even worse. Normally I can brush away sickness like Chuck Norris. Only this time when I reached Columbia I found that I had a fever and was full on sick. My ability to fight sickness by using Jedi mind tricks was seriously in question. (sign 3)

To make matters worse, I found that the pills I was taking were for a bladder infection, not a sinus infection. I won't lie, I'm not a doctor but I'm pretty sure I didn't have a bladder infection. Instead I was positive it was tuberculosis. Oh well, at least it didn't hurt when I went to the bathroom.

Still, I thought I was young enough to work through the sickness and enjoy the weekend. And there is usually enjoyment to be had on work weekends in Columbia. Besides being stuck in a basketball gym for the better part of three days, we normally have fun talking, drinking adult beverages and even playing video games.

But for some reason, the last year or so when it comes to drinking a nice adult beverage, I usually choose to partake lightly -- or not at all. On this occasion I chose not at all. I instead opted for water -- the rice cakes of the liquid world. In my aging, feeble mind I kept thinking that drinking even one adult beverage could impact my medicine and make for a long morning. (sign 4)

While my co-workers were quenching their thirsts, they were also playing a basketball video game. Now I used to play sports video games as much as I used to eat. I loved playing them and was pretty good at them. But I won't lie. I hadn't played in some time.

I did sit down to try and play and had to ask what buttons on the controller did what. Not a good sign. Then I started playing and was terrible. You can give a newborn the controller and it would have more of an idea of how to play the game than I had. It was embarrassing. (sign 5)

After taking a couple butt kickings I decided it was best to rest my tuberculosis-ailing body while my co-workers continued playing. And playing and playing and playing. At nearly 3 a.m. I heard one of them going through each individual player and breaking down their stats.

That is when I had to tell them that they weren't teenagers any more. We had work in the morning and we needed to get some sleep. We obviously meaning me. I had officially become an old man. (sign 6)

I used to swear to myself I wasn't going to be one of those old men who didn't know how to have fun. I vowed to learn how to play that video game and had plans to start learning it as soon as I got home. Only when I got home, I needed a nap. And slept the entire next day. (sign 7) Maybe I will try to learn it after I find a cure for my tuberculosis, if I can figure out how to turn the game on.