On sun and things I probably shouldn't have eaten

[jethrien]

Lovely sunny weekend, involving much fun with many friends.


Saturday, trinityvixen convinced a bunch of us to go play dodgeball in Riverside Park. (I think that's where we were. I do not know the cartography of upper Manhattan at all, which of course resulted in us having to hike across half the island after getting on the wrong subway.) I haven't played dodgeball since elementary school. I'm still about as bad at throwing things as I remembered, but I'm remarkably good at not getting hit. Go me!

We ended up getting smoothies and milkshakes and hanging out on the lawn at Columbia for awhile afterwards, and then getting Korean for dinner.

Yesterday, a bunch of Chuckro's friends from high school organized a trip to Six Flags. In theory, two of the guys driving in from Long Island were going to swing by our place around 8:30, to get there around 9:30. Nice theory. They took a wrong turn and ended up at La Guardia, then discovered that there's work on the tunnel. They spent half an hour sitting in Chinatown. They didn't get to us until 10.

When we left our place, I thought they knew where they were going, and wasn't really paying attention. They missed the exit to I-95. We stay on 78. It took us awhile to figure this out, though. So it's fifteen minutes down the road before we realize we're not going to Six Flags, we're going to go visit the Amish. So then we're frantically trying to figure out how to turn around. No luck. Someone sees a sign for 287. Great, I say. We can take 278 and loop back south, and join up with I-95. Big detour, but we'll still get where we're going. I don't realize that the sign for 278 isn't for where 287 crosses 78 - it's for 24 to 278, which puts you on 287 north of 78, when we want to be taking 287 south of 78. So picture this - we're trying to go south. We're going west. We then take a road that takes us...north. We don't realize this until we're partway down 287 and we see signs for 78. Wait, what? Crap! We end up making three sides of a square when we'd wanted to just go down the fourth side. We got to Six Flags at noon. Sigh.

It was a great day anyway. We got to go on pretty much everything that was open. Skipped Great American Scream Machine, but that's ok - it's kind of decrepit anyway. The new Superman ride is incredible. You sit in the harness to load, and then it actually tips up so you're facing down. It makes for the scariest beginning climb I've ever seen - you're just staring at the ground, praying the harness doesn't break. But then the actual coaster part is amazing - it's like you're actually flying. Kingda Ka was closed - on the other hand, I wasn't that impressed. Sure, it's really high, and sure it's fast, but it goes up and then straight back down again. It can't possibly take more than 20 seconds. You're going to wait in line for three hours for 20 seconds? And so what if you're really high - you're probably going so fast you don't even notice. Nitro's a much more impressive coaster, over all.

The amusing thing was that of the six people there, it was me and the other girlfriend who were most enthusiastic about the roller coasters.

We ate a bunch of overpriced park food, of course. Actually, I think I confused the hell out of my system. I'm not used to eating junk food anymore. We got there and immediately ate lunch. Got a "family value meal" from the Papa John's. It was a square pizza (which was odd), fries, a "dessert pizza" (which was odder), and a "collectible mug". I was slightly confused by the mug thing - one mug for four people? Well, this wasn't exactly a mug. Mug-shaped, yes. But I think it had at least a liter and a half of soda in it. It had the mug handle, and also a convenient flip up handle on top so you could tote it around all day. And a pour spout, and a straw. And the bottom was a second compartment that screwed off and was full of ice. Kind of cool, very elaborate. So Much Soda. I had too much soda - it actually made me vaguely nauseated. Not used to that much caffeine anymore. Chuckro had too much soda, also was sick. The other guys had soda. We couldn't finish it. We carted the damn thing around all day, took it home, and poured a cup of (now hot and flat) soda down the sink.

So between the pizza and other greasy foodstuffs and the soda and the rides, I ended up feeling vaguely out of it all day. Over the course of the day, I ate: one small bowl of cereal with a banana, two slices of pizza, a couple of fries, a little slice of apple pizza, too much damn soda, some frozen lemonade, a bite or two of butterfly fries, a bite or two of funnel cake, and some cotten candy. Got home at 9 and was totally not hungry. Chuckro and I decided we really ought to have something involving nutrition, since the last actual nutrients we'd had was breakfast. We did a quick thing with noodle packets and some beef and broccoli. I just ate a little - wasn't hungry at all - but it tasted amazing and I don't usually like that sauce all that much. I figure my body was just amazed and grateful to be eating something that wasn't empty calories. Apparently, I haven't had that much grease and sugar in so long that my body was just like, WTF is this crap? Huh? And got really confused.

Oh, and we saw a beaver. In the park. Eating funnel cake. Seriously.

Comments

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

Last time I went to Six Flags (high school), every ride I went on made me nauseous. That's not normally the case--at the time I was in my 'let's go on every scary roller coaster out there to prove that I'm brave!' mode, and generally had no problem with most rides. Turned out the problem was, I was massively dehydrated and kept drinking caffinated sodas in a desperate attempt to rehydrate myself. That was before I knew that caffeine is a dieuretic, and is thus likely to make you *more* dehydrated. Bleah.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

After the third or fourth ride when I was feeling sickly, I hit a water fountain and ate a granola bar. Amazingly, I felt fine afterwards and for the rest of the day. Stupid soda.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I knew the caffeine was a bad idea, but I felt guilty about buying another drink while we were still toting around this massive canister o'cola. The water fountains weren't quite cutting it.

The lemonade actually helped settle my stomach some. But the whole thing did pretty much kill my appetite for the day.

[(Anonymous)]

You assume the brain rattling these coasters are giving you aren't causing more than nausea. It took three deaths and countless people who couldn't walk off their latest ride before the Disney folks admitted that maybe it needed some design changes. Maybe the push for cooler, scarier, faster rides has reached the edge of what the average human body should be undergoing for entertainment.

(Spoken like a true mom. What a drag.)

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

This was nausea on the rocking pirate ship and the teacups. Given that five-year-olds can handle such rides, I think there was something else in play.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, yeah, what's in play there is that once you're past 5, your inner ear develops to the extent that you can't handle the spinning/rocking like you could before. I remember distinctly when each of my kids reached that age - the spinning tire at the playground went from the most fun to the most sickening in about three months.

So basically, there's not much left at Great Adventure but the log flume that I can enjoy and not end up with a headache and/or nausea.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

See, in my case, the spinning and rides and everything didn't make me feel any worse than just standing in line or sitting on a bench. And when I stopped drinking soda and found something else to drink, the stomach issues stopped. So I'm pretty confident it was the soda.

This is why, though, I won't go on Batman and Robin anymore, and would have been reluctant to go on Kingda Ka even if it was open. I don't like the launch roller coasters, where they fling you from 0 to 60. They're too rough, and after I got a wicked headache on one I won't ride them anymore. The ones that rely on gravity slam you around a lot less.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

I've never had that problem on the speedy coasters--my two favorite coasters are still Millenium Force (normal drop coaster, 300 ft. tall) and Top Thrill Dragster (launch coaster at 0-120 mph, 400 ft. tall) at Cedar Point. No headaches. Other launch coasters I've been on have also been fine (The Hulk at Universal Orlando, Rock and Roller Coaster at Disney/MGM, Outer Limits at Kings Island.) However, bumpy coasters (Son of Beast at Kings Island was the worst--wooden, 210 ft. tall, poor car design that only accomodated people under 5' tall...) require Aleve afterwards.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they're fine for most people - or else people would stop riding them. But when there's plenty of other coasters, why go back to the one that made me feel terrible for the rest of the day?

They're building an enormous new wooden one at Six Flags - I think it's called Toro. It's being built basically on top of the old wooden one. Will probably be fairly impressive when it's done.

[deltagrl.livejournal.com]

Wow. I haven't done that since....a year and a half ago. And I'm so scared of coasters I just eat funnel cake, get henna tatoos, and watch in horror as my friends risk their lives. Oh, and I take old time photos too. Got a sweet one of me as a flapper, and another one of me as a gangster. Word, girl. Glad all systems are normal again.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I don't know how clear Jehrien was--I didn't go on any of the "real" coasters. They freak me out. (I stick to the teacups, bumper cars, and similar stuff.) If you ever go amusement-parking with us, you'll be part of the non-coastering crew.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

We had a nicely even split between coastering and non-coastering.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I went to Six Flags last summer (and may go again this year). I never got to go on Superman because the line was soooooo loooooong. I guess going at an odd time might help with that. We'll see (was it bad when you went?). Amusingly enough, Kingda Ka was also broken for much of the day we were there, and we heard horror stories of wait times while on line for Batman and Robin.

That's okay. It left free time for Nitro (AWESOMEST START OF RIDE HILL EVER; and yes, of course, we were in the front row--it's worth the extra wait) and Batman, which is still my absolute favorite at that park. I love that there's only sky between your feet on that ride.

You saw a beaver? Was it an escapee from their ghetto-fabulous safari?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I don't think we ever waited for more than an hour. I'm thinking it was usually between 20-45 minutes. The lines were really pretty reasonable. The place was fairly empty.

I've heard that Kingda Ka pushed the engineering boundaries so far that it's broken half the time. They can't keep it running. Which is contributing to my lack of interest in riding it, frankly. Also, I think the site's cursed - they built it where Viper used to be. I rode Viper once - every single other time I was at the park, it was broken. Near the end, it was repeatedly in pieces on the ground and I decided that even if it was running, I wasn't going to get on it.

I love Batman, but I think I may love Medusa more. Nitro is awesome - impressively long and high. Superman is possibly even more awesome for the sheer novelty factor.

The beaver was not an escapee from the ghetto-fabulous Safari - we weren't about to go in there, given that the car we were in had a broken sunroof. (Paul wanted to go, and come out with a pet baboon, but he was overruled.) Six Flags, if you remember, is located next to a lake. Mr. Beaver wriggled under the fence, waddled over to the abandoned funnel cake next to the dumpster, and sat his fat ass down to enjoy an afternoon snack. When his whiskers were suitably covered in powdered sugar, he wriggled back under the fence and went back to his beavery home, presumably in said lake. I watched him do it.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Medusa...that's the one that's Joker green-and-purple? I think we went on that one and were joking about how there were buzzards circling overhead and how that didn't bode well.

I heard the same thing about Kingda Ka, btw. I heard that sometimes, if it doesn't leave with enough acceleration off the start, it just won't make it up that hill, which makes me freak out because I do not want to be on a rollercoaster going backwards that isn't doing so by design (Batman and Robin Is okay).

I will try to do Superman next time I'm there. Maybe really early in the day...

And good call avoiding the safari. The only animals interested would be the monkeys. Last time, they peed on our car and I saw them steal shit off of other cars. But beaver! That's so cute!!! He's a sugar addict!

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Medusa is the green and purple one. Maybe it's Lex Luthor turned into a snake!

And sooo not interested in a roller coaster with a reputation for breaking...

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

Ah, roller coasters. I haven't been on *any* to speak of, yet I've been party to extended discussions of Great Adventure and Cedar Point multiplle times over the past year.

Which means that inevitably I'm going to find myself party to an actual trip to one of the above, and I worry I'm going to go on a massive ultra-mega-coaster and I'm going to totally flip out and hate it. Because I don't want to hate roller coasters, because roller coasters are -- on principle -- oompletely awesome.

I've never gotten sick on a (smaller) ride before. Just adrenaline-hyped to the point I wonder if it's healthy.

[(Anonymous)]

Your driving misadventures bring just one thought to mind: "You're never lost when you have Bob*Star."

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Or how 'bout a map with actual street names on it? This is why I never go driving myself without a detailed map in the car.