I must be getting old

2009 so far in my world has been, not the Year of the Ox, but the Year of the Gray Hair.

I found it this morning, and I'm not talking about my first gray hair, okay; I've had those for years, and I can't count them anymore. There's two kinds: the ones that grow in gray after the dark hair falls out (which is what I have the most of, a bunch of three-to-five-inch gray hairs scattered over my head), and the ones that I can literally watch turn gray. It's bizarre, the gray starts at my scalp and over a period of a couple of years, slowly creeps down the hair shaft towards the tip. Right now, the gray stops at about ear or chin length.

But, I digress. I was talking about this morning. Today I discovered my first gray hair that goes all the way down. It's right at the front, too, on the right side of my face, and I can see it: a thin sliver of white on each tier of ropey curl, like a too-bright highlight that will never fade.

I don't mind - they are, as I wished, white as opposed to steel or tobacco colored - but it is a bit unnerving the rapid rate at which they are popping up, almost as if someone is trying to remind me that I'm getting old. I don't even think it would bother me so much if it was gradual. But I had like, a dozen, tops, at the beginning of this year, and now six months later, I have dozens, and a new one every day. I must have gained at least 40 or 50 in six months.

While I'm interested to see my hair half white, especially how the salt-and-pepper striped curls will turn out (probably like an Oreo candy cane, but hey), wouldn't it be wild if I went totally gray in a couple of years time?