Life is a Roller Coaster
Went on another business trip with Russ...I think he’s not going to ask me to go anymore. It was in April in Orlando, so this time Lauren and Thomas wanted to go...Mike couldn’t take off work for a week unfortunately. Gone are the Mickey Mouse days and putting them on the Dumbo ride and waving to them... you have to step up your game with teenagers. We went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, and the second ride we went on was a 3D ride....keep in mind we’ve been on a bazillion 3D rides in the past no problem. BUT, after waiting in line for ten minutes and right before we stepped on, we read the sign that it was a 3D roller coaster! Russ and Thomas HATE roller coasters, so Russ said, “Wait, what?” We got into the vehicle ride anyways and the first thing it did is burst through doors into a pitch black room and then plummet! I look over and Thomas is silently angry, but Russ is legit screaming! It then proceeds to violently jerk us around so hard we’re practically hitting our heads together, so I get laughing so hard I can’t breathe and tears are rolling down my face. I have Russ almost doing an angry yell now to the left of me, stony silence of disapproval from Thomas, and Lauren on the right of me saying, “Mom, calm down!” We try so hard to look cool for our teenaged kids but just can’t quite pull it off. So the next ride, I get on a triple loop coaster with Lauren. Just, not smart. Thomas and Russ are spent, they’re still angry about the last ride so no way they’re getting on this one. They’re smart. I did good on the 3 loops until the coaster stopped and I realized the room is spinning so fast I can’t see. I must have looked out of sorts because now I hear Lauren to the right of me, “Mom are you ok?” I can’t quite see her because my vision is blurred! I told her you have to help me walk out of this thing, I need a moment lol! I had to sit down on the exit steps and rest my head against the hand rail like a quitter while she went to get Russ. They all come walking up laughing because I must have looked ridiculous, so at least I’m happy I got their smiles back! I was so close to being cool (in my mind anyways!) until I got into the fetal position in public...I blew it! It reminded me of years ago when Mike convinced Lauren and I that this needle ride at Universal didn’t go very high or fast, but when I shot straight up in the air at 80 mph I could barely hear Mike’s “I can’t believe they got on” laugh over my terror screams....and it went so high that you could see the earth was round on the horizon. Such a bad feeling when you’re up that high and you know there’s no backing out of the trip down! One time he talked my brother Mark into going on a centrifuge ride with him – mostly because I knew not to get on a ride called centrifuge, and Mark said it spun so fast the skin on his face was rippling like when pilots break the sound barrier....said he was never so sick in his life. I felt so bad when Mark stumbled out of there! The next amusement park we go to with these guys I need to take the time to say a full rosary before leaving the hotel. Was nice to see the Circque de Soleil Show and Russ’s parents anyways, that we pulled off no problem! Maybe Russ’s next business trip I’ll pass on lol!