Amusement Park Hell

It actually wasn't that hellish. I just wanted to be melodramatic.

We along with my parents took our son to a semi-local amusement park this past weekend. A good time was had by all. It's weird to go to parks like that mostly for the enjoyment of someone else rather than for my own enjoyment. Not weird, but rather, new...for us. It's actually more fun to see him have fun. I think I'm sort of over roller coasters and carnival games and the like, at least until our son is older and wants to do that stuff.

The drive down was pleasant enough. A perfect day really. We only had to stop 3 times for potty breaks...another downfall to being so "old". Actually, I can blame my parents for this one. :)

We got there about 1/2 hour after it opened, and were very disappointed to see that the parking lot was packed full already. The website said that September was a less crowded time to go. Liars. Unless it is even more crowded in July, and if that is the case, I will NEVER go mid-summer.

So it was packed, and I'm sorry but that is a real drag. Long lines for everything and stupid people everywhere. Plus tons and tons of kids completely and totally out of control and revved up on sugar or high fructose corn syrup, with no parental supervision in sight.

Our poor little son...he's too little to fight his way up the ladder for the kiddie slides in the water park. But don't think we didn't fight for him, cuz we did. We were yelling at and corralling kids all over the place: "don't run!" "wait your turn!", etc. We were really popular among the kids, but I'm sorry, the parents aren't going to do it, I am.

In one part of the park, two boys, I'd put them at 10 years old, were taking huge handfuls of rocks and throwing them at each other across the playground, the kiddie playground I might add, meant for toddlers. We yelled at them, too. :)

And it was a wicked hot day. I forgot that the weather in the southern part of the state can differ greatly from the northern part.

Still, a good time was had by all and our son loved it. The kiddyland rides were not crowded at all. And, we were able to take him down some of the bigger waterslides (not the very big ones, but slightly bigger than the really little kiddy ones). We even caught a "retro" show featuring 60's-80's music. Our son was exhausted by the end.

We would have left him at the hotel with my mom and come back for bigger rides, but Matt was sick and I wasn't going to force him to fight the crowds and heat again. I was tired myself anyway.

The hotel was quaint and inexpensive. The bad thing about the hotel was that there weren't many eating options. The restaurant had a gross buffet, which looked like school cafeteria food. Bleh. So we wanted to get a delivery from this place across the street. The ad said "free delivery", and they had pizza, sandwiches, chicken fingers, etc.

I called.

"Yes, I'd like to order a delivery..."
"uh...we ain't doin' deliveries today. I dunno why."
"uh...okay"

Whatever.

Matt & I discuss it, and decide to call in a carry out. Matt's turn to try.

"Yes, I'd like to order a carry out"
[he places order]
"wouldju like us to jez bring it to yer room?" (??????)
"uh yeah! that'd be great!"

Okay...so I guess they changed their mind about making deliveries then.

They call us back 1/2 hour later:

"we ain't got no fries no more. We're all out. Is onion rings okay?"
"sure, onion rings are fine"

How can they be out of fries? Oh well. I guess it can happen.

And when the order arrives, we get:

1) not only no fries, but no onion rings
2) cheese on the sandwich that Matt ordered without cheese (he is lactose intolerant), and melted cheese, no less, so he could not just pick it off
3) burnt sandwiches to boot

We were too tired and hungry to fight it.

So the eating situation sucked.

But this amusement park is a great place to take the fam. It's very customer service friendly. You get free drinks all day, even water (sounds lame but you know at some places you are forced to buy bottled water for $1-$5 a bottle!), and you get free life jackets for the kiddies and free sunscreen. The water park there is really, really cool.

Next time though, we will try off-season AND a week day.

The drive back was interesting. It rained the whole time, but not badly. The interesting part is that I'm pretty sure my dad was racing us back, or trying damn hard to keep up with me. Well, if it was a race, I won. :) (without breaking the speed limit, btw...I only went 5 over...It was just my expert driving and maneuvering and passing skills....)

btw...I filled up near the hotel when we left Sunday, at $3.86 a gallon. By the time we got home, it was $4.15 a gallon. The hell?

Note to the girl behind me at the checkout...

"Do not put your checkout items on the conveyor belt until the person in front of you has put all of their items on the conveyor belt first. See, what happens is that the conveyor belt moves forward, hence bringing all of your stuff down to my end, and making the space I have left to put the rest of my items on small to non-existent."

I wanted to bitch slap that gal behind me.

I was about to make a remark of sorts, but noticed how young she was and chalked it up to inexperience. I mean, you don't learn this important lesson in life until you live it. Sure, logic should tell you so, but sometimes we get distracted and logic disappears. And, she was trying to carry like 20 items. More inexperience there. Next time, she will know to grab a cart and to wait to load her stuff.

And by young, I mean high school young. So I'm glad I didn't yell at her. I only had a couple of more items anyway, so I just handed them to the checker. Had I had a crap load of stuff like I usually do, I would have been forced to do something, like throw all her stuff on the floor.

Further, one doesn't want to go around yelling at people and making snide remarks to strangers (I mean one *wants* to, but we should play nice). You never know what people are going through in their personal lives. Good thing Matt wasn't with me. He enjoys yelling at stupid people.

Footnote: I got a book for Jude and he knows to put the items on the belt before we can take it home. So, he promptly put it in her section, b/c he didn't have much choice. I should have let her pay for it. That would have showed her.

;-)

Wild and Crazy Tailgating Party

Ha ha! That title is a sarcastic joke.

For the most uptight people you'll ever meet, Matt & I are the most laid back people you'll ever meet. And that makes..no...sense.

We went to the season opener for football (of course) Saturday. We decided to tailgate. Our idea of tailgating is to avoid the crowds and have our own, private little tailgate. Which I guess that right there shows our uptightness.

It's not the people really...it's just that I think you have to pay now to tailgate in the designated tailgate areas. And..you have to park your car there the night before or really early and the whole thing just sounds like a hassle. *uptight!!!*

So we just hang out at a nearby park, heh.

We had the parking lot to ourselves mostly. We go back in the back...not in the more popular lots of the park. We kicked back, had some cocktails, and enjoyed the scenery. It was nice! I felt like we were being bad for having cocktails out in the open like that. That certainly shows my age!

We did meet one person though...heh. As the car pulled up, I thought we would have a fellow tailgater and so would not be complete losers. We talked for a while, and he was a really nice man and said he had been going to these football games since 1962 (!!!). Turns out though he was just waiting for his wife to meet him there and then they were going over to the cooler places to tailgate. Ha ha!

No story would be complete without hijinks and mishaps!

THE HIJINKS AND MISHAPS OF MATT AND KARLA'S TAILGATING PARTY:

1) I forgot our lunch. Damn it! I hate it when I do that. The sandwiches were still in the fridge at home, although we did have chips and Oreos and apples. We were forced to drink more Jack Daniels for the lack of food. It was terrible.

2) So with all that Jack, I had to tinkle. I knew I wouldn't make it to the stadium (old age again), so sadly, I was forced to take the Mother Nature route, i.e....use the woods. Bleh...there are so many reasons I hate doing that...

Anyway, I make it out there okay, find a good spot, do my business without getting caught (one of my fears), etc. On my way back to the car though, like an idiot, instead of going around this giant plant I came upon, I leap over it instead, like I'm in The Matrix or something. The hell??

The price I paid for not actually being in The Matrix is that I ended up covered from head to toe in those cockleburs or whatever they're called...those sticky little green seed things (not the huge brown thorny kind, but just as bad). Completely covered. And Matt & I spent the next 15 minutes or so picking them off of me. I felt like the dog.

I should have got a picture of that, but I didn't. I do have a couple of other pics though that I'll post later.

On the way there, we passed a parking lot that I think will be a better place to tailgate next time. Not in the middle of all the ruckus, but not quite so isolated. See you there! (Homecoming is the next game we're going to)

I guess it's all a matter of perspective...

So, with regards to my last post....I was complaining/venting about someone. I have since deleted the post due to what I think should or should not be put out for public viewing for all eternity. So if you read that last post before I deleted it, this will make sense. If not....well, it might be fun to read anyway.

In my meditative drive to work, I realized something....the very thing I was complaining about this person doing....I'm pretty sure I do the same thing to Matt quite frequently. Now that I am aware of this issue I have with someone else, I am aware of myself doing it. Huh.

This is insightful for 2 reasons:

1) It is insightful in the sense that I wonder how Matt feels about this. He is getting this from 2 different directions. I am sure he does not appreciate it anymore than I do. It makes me want to quit doing it, just b/c I know how it feels when it's done to me. I think *I myself* will stifle. Funny how it's easy enough to criticize someone else when you have your own dang problems you should fix first!

2) It is also insightful b/c now I see it more from her perspective, knowing how I feel when I do it to Matt. I am not in fact trying to be mean or bossy or pushy or meddling when I do that to Matt. In my mind, I am being helpful. Truly and sincerely, I think I am helping. Now I am almost 100% sure that that is what she is thinking, too. And I am almost 100% sure that it is equally annoying to Matt when I do it to him.

So what to do now? Does this mean I back off on her totally just b/c I understand better? Understanding is important. I think most of the things I mentioned her doing were no big deal in the grand scheme of life. The shoe thing was the worst, and I think Janel was right...that I handled it fine...and I in fact did not let her get her way. I just need to work on not dwelling on it after the fact.

Although she is trying to be helpful, I think it is within my rights to tell her that she is not in fact being so helpful, and to tell her how I feel about things. However, I think it will be easier for me to do it more nicely now.

As far as Matt, I will definitely back off and let him take the reigns when he wants to. Weird...that urge to meddle and "help"...

Now I need to decide if I should share this revelation with Matt. It's not about pride (mostly not). It's more that I have a bad habit of talking the talk, but not walking the walk. So I can analyze a subject into the ground and talk about how smart I am now and how great I am going to be...but not actually *do* anything about it. I want the actions to speak for themselves.

And this is such a strange HABIT of mine...I am going to have to forcibly stop myself from interfering when I see Matt put shorts on Jude that I wouldn't have put on him, for instance. I can do it though. But again, enough talk. Let's just do it.

I'll update in a few weeks. :)

*I* Am The Mother - DELETED!

This is the type of post I will more than likely delete later....

==============================================================

And as predicted, I deleted it. I have talked with Matt a lot about it, which simply talking helps, and it helps that he is on my side, of course. There are many things I love about her and many, many positives. This is nothing I can't handle, but still, it doesn't have to be ignored either. I think if I communicate properly next time, everything will work out. I'll let you know.

Thank you for your comments.

TG - I do understand that we will always be "the kids", and being a parent myself now, I understand that concept even more than before. I also respect the fact that she is a very strong woman...

Janel - Thank you. That's what it is - "annoying" - and it's not the end of the world. Although I don't act out in her presence, I do need to find better ways to handle it. It shouldn't eat at me like that.

As far as both of the people in my story, I have to realize that they both have their own set of issues and there are reasons they do this. They both feel insecure for different reasons, and I understand why. They shouldn't feel insecure, but sometimes, one can't help it when put in certain situations (one having to do with proximity and relation, and the other having to do with marital status and general loneliness and depression).

So...there you go. I am as understanding as freaking ever. :)

Stressed out...

The things that are stressing me out lately, in no particular order (elaborations to follow):

1) My son's switch to a new daycare.
2) My mother-in-law.
3) Having to get special permission simply to take a shower.
4) Feeling guilty for wanting some "me" time.
5) Not wanting anyone to get sick and not wanting anyone to die. Ever.
6) Worrying about being the best mother, wife, and person that I can be.
7) Not having enough time for, well, anything.
8) Various household tasks that I just cannot get done.
9) Worries about my friend situation.
10) Worries about what I want in life, why I'm here on the internet, and what I should alter.

Whew...that's a lot! I'm letting it all get to me. I'm not sure why. I am allowing myself to feel these things though, and to realize that I will get stressed out sometimes, and it's okay to not ALWAYS be cheerful and upbeat, and to sometimes feel stress.

The thing is, I'm okay throughout the day, simply b/c I am so busy I don't have time to think about it. But, last night for instance, I just could...not...sleep. I just lay there, worrying, crying, upset, worrying, not sleeping. My thoughts were driving me mad.

and I know my life is great and I am very happy and couldn't ask for more. So I don't know why I'm stressing. I think it's the accumulation of it all. If only it were one thing at a time, I could handle it better, I think.

I'm tired today and have a headache and my jaw hurts. It does that when I let stress get to me b/c I clench my jaw a lot.

I don't have feelings of anger. Mostly of anxiety and angst and worry.

It's going to be too long of a post if I write it out here. So, I'm going to break it down in separate posts, I think. More to come.