"Better get a bucket....

I'm gonna throw up." That is a line from a Monty Python movie from when I was a kid. I can't remember which movie it was, but that line always comes to mind when I am making any kind of throw up joke/statement. You might think that I would rarely use that line, since vomit doesn't normally come up in everyday conversation, but I'm not your average fella. What brings it to mind in this particular post, is our recent trip to our local amusement park, Adventureland. I've decided that I will no longer attempt to be 14 years old. When I was a kid, I could ride the spinning rides all day long, no problem. Now, not so much. During last years trip to Adventureland, we were a good half day into the fun, riding all kinds of rides, when I realized that I suddenly had a bit of uneasy, rumbling around in my stomach. Now, I wasn't really close to spewing, but I was a lot closer than when I got on that damn ride. It was spinning around, and all I could do was pray I didn't become every ones going home story. You know, your in the car, all laughing and talking about their day, and telling the story of the guy who hurled all over the Lady Luck. Just because I can no longer go round and round, doesn't mean we don't go to the park at all. No, the kids love it there, so we go and I sit on a bench outside the ride and wait for the kids to come running off. Yesterday, my company had a family event at Adventureland, where they paid our way in, fed us lunch and even gave us $25 spending money. I sent a thank you email to the president of my company today, thanking him for not only SAYING they are family oriented, but backing it up. They have more than proved it to me over the past 2 years of my family issues. I always remember when I was interviewing for another job, several years ago, and the people I spoke to assured me they were a family company. When the offer came in, I started my negotiations by asking for more than the one week of vacation they offered. I was told they didn't give a second week. I turned the job down, thankfully. I told the guys I interviewed with, that when they say they are "family," then they should give you more time with your family. I realized that "family" to them, was your work family, not blood. Off subject by a few hundred miles, lets go back. So the kids are riding all of the spinning rides and Marcy and I are watching, and sweating, since the heat index was over 100, again. Luckily, there is a lot of shade, so we didn't bake completely. The day was going along just fine, until Makiah and Max decided to ride the Lighthouse. This thing spins around, and then makes this God awful noise that sounds like it is going to launch the cars into space, then it attempts to do that. Thankfully, the arms are attached to the base, so you don't go to high, but the thing spins faster, perhaps to lessen the disappointment that you didn't wing off into the log ride. The ride finally stopped and both boys ran over to my shaded bench. Makiah appeared to need a bucket and Max was crying, begging for a bucket. They never chucked, but I thought this would tell them that lunch, then round and round, don't go together. They decided to give it a rest. That lasted 2 minutes, and they were back on the spin rides.

Another option to this park, other than the vomit rides, is its water park. There are a bunch of slides, the now obligatory Lazy River and a big climbing, sliding water spraying thing. It's pretty fun, but on a 100 degree day, pretty crowded. We knew this would be the issue, so we decided to get there when the park opened, 10:00am, and do our swimming before we met my company for lunch at 12:00pm. We got there and walked into the main chair area and set out to find a few chairs. Now there are 5 of us, but I knew we would be in the water most of the time, so we decided to just score 2 lounge chairs to hold our stuff and for us to sit on, during any breaks. We find 2 chairs together, drop our stuff, slather in sunscreen and get ready to hit the Lazy River. Just before we left, I pulled our 5 towels out and tossed them on our chairs, so people would know these particular chairs were taken. My "assumption" was, that people would realize this and that any chair with out a pile of towels and shirts, was open. So we headed out, swam for awhile, then decided to hit the chairs while the boys played on the big climbing, sliding water spraying thing. When we get to our chairs, we see that someone has taken one of our towels and put it on a third, previously unoccupied, chair. Someone had grab a towel from our pile and placed it on a chair. I thought that weird, but had several possible justifications in my head. None of which I really believed, but I couldn't figure out why someone would move our towel to give us another chair. Today, someone suggested that, since all of our towels matched, that maybe someone thought they were water park towels. Could be, but it was on my stuff, so keep your hands off. I felt so violated. Marcy and I shrugged it off, left the towel and went back to swim. I came back a while later and now there was a shirt and a pair of shoes, on top of the towel. OK, now this is bull shit. First, not your towel. Second, who puts their dirty shoes on top of the towel on the chair? Why wouldn't you put your shoes under the chair like, oh, I don't know, like EVERYONE AT THE POOL? I think we are dealing with a pysco or at the very least, a severely stupid person. I grabbed my towel and momentarily thought about tossing the shoes into the Lazy River, but decided that if this person is choice one from above, there is no way I'm giving him a reason to follow me home. I never did see who did it, they never came back, but I was almost tempted to stay there all day, just to get a peek. My stomach over ruled my curiosity, and we went to lunch. I guess my life philosophy is, don't touch other peoples stuff. I'm thinking about having t-shirts printed up.