I'm Too Old For This...

[przed]

A belated weekend post.

We took Ros and three of her best friends to Canada's Wonderland (our local amusement park) this past Saturday as Ros' birthday party. Since I'm the parent who likes rides, I was the one nominated to go on the big coasters with Ros' friends. (Ros is both too short for and not yet interested in the big rides.)

I was looking forward to it. I used to love going on coasters, wooden and metal, looping and not. I'd ride them all day if I could. But it's also been about twenty years since I've done it. (The Sweetie hates heights and gets motion sick, so Disney excepted, we've never really done amusement parks together.)

Most of the coasters were fine. I didn't love them as much as I used to, but had fun. But then we did the Stunt Coaster, and I lost it. It's not a very high coaster, and there aren't any loops, so I thought how bad can it be? But it shoots off at high speed from the start right into a rising spiral and then through a bunch of tight turns and sudden drops. I screamed for about the first thirty seconds, and then spent the rest of the ride convinced I was going to die of a heart attack. When we finally stopped I was practically shaking, which was when Ros' eight-year-old friend I was sitting with turned to me and said "That was fun! Let's do it again!"

It's true: three eight-year-olds are braver than me.

Oh, and I screamed so much, my voice is down to a husky squawk. I had to both run a big meeting at work today and coach Ros' soccer game tonight, so the lack of voice made both interesting. (I think I'll pretend the voice is Lauren Bacall sexy rather than a raspy mess.)

Comments

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

I was reading an article on roller coasters earlier today and suddenly realized: I'm too old to go on one. Kind of a shock, considering how much I used to love them. Kind of a shock to realize how many years it's been since I was on one of them....

[przed.livejournal.com]

It's sort of comforting to know I'm not the only one. ::sigh::

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

You are braver than I am, just getting on the thing. Like your sweetie I'm also terrified of heights and am usually the designated handbag-holder at fun parks (I go to our local one just to see the tigers). So go you for giving it a try.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Braver or stupider, the jury's still out. *g*

And I'm certainly not as brave as I used to be. There are a couple of new coasters at the park, the Leviathan and the Behemoth, that are HUGE with near vertical drops, and just looking at them makes me vaguely ill/terrified. I don't think I'll ever do those ones. Fortunately, Ros' friends were still to small for them, and their moms had told me to keep them off those anyway.

At least I still enjoy the smaller looping coasters. Mostly. *g*

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

Yep, I know what you mean. I recently came across a letter I wrote in the '80s about a trip to Disneyland and we only went on the coaster type rides. Now, noooo--my daughter only likes a few of them, but she really wants to go on the Screaming whatever, which has an enormous loop and goes backward at high speed. Nope, not going to happen. Sigh--old age.

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'll do loops. I'll even do backward loops. But enormous backward loops? Nope. No way, no how.

This getting older thing is annoying. :-/

[norfolkdumpling.livejournal.com]

Well I still think you're very brave! Speaking as someone who almost passed out from fear on one of those swinging pirate ship things *g*

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

Eight year olds are immortal... or at least they think so. It's one of the bloody lovely things about kids.

Meanwhile, you know better. With age comes wisdom. :D