boogieshoes (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
boogieshoes) wrote2010-03-23 12:32 pm
boogieshoes) wrote2010-03-23 12:32 pm
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Part 3 - I used to wanna be a SEAL
yesterday, i posted Part 2 of the worst vacation ever. Part 1 is here, and Part 3 is below:
We rolled into Orlando that warm, sunny afternoon with Mom pumping us up. Kirk was feeling much better, and we hadn’t even had any of the usual sibling squabbling during the day’s drive. Mom evidently felt top of the world for managing to get us all to Orlando in one piece.
“It’s so exciting! Isn’t it exciting?”
“Yeah, it’s so cool! I wanna ride Space Mountain!” cried Kirk.
“I wanna see the fireworks!” grinned Tammy.
“I wanna ride Cinderella’s carousel!” I squealed.
“I’m really excited, too! Isn’t it so exciting?”
“Mo-om, you just said that,” Tammy, Kirk, and I chorused. Mom huffed. Dad laughed. ‘Pick on Mom Day’(1) was in full gear, with three spirited kids not letting her get away with anything.
KA-POW!
That rubber tire screech, my friends, is the sound of a blue Dodge Ram thinking, ‘Rats, I knew it was going to well to last!’ Why would the truck think this? Because it had just run over a spark plug and mutilated one of its tires.
“Watch it, Dad!” I yelled, as I was tossed around the back with the suitcases.
“Why… are we lopsided?” Tammy asked.
“Neat, Dad! Do it again!” Kirk cheered.
“Ken – “ Mom started tentatively.
“Don’t. Say. A. Word.”
*******************************
90 minutes and one new tire later, we checked into the hotel. The hotel had a swimming pool. We were all decent swimmers at the time, but Tammy had never been as keen as Kirk and I to go swimming.
“I want to go swim!” Kirk said. At this point, it was getting near nightfall, and the Orlando area cools off remarkably quickly in the evening. It also tends towards evening summer showers. I think Kirk thought it would be kinda fun to swim in the rain – I know I did.
“I don’t know,” Mom said, “you still have to take medicine for the swimmer’s ear. You’ll have to keep that ear dry, above water.”
“I can do it!”
“Yeah! And I can do it better!(2) I can swim, too!”
“I don’t know, Monika, you’re kinda young to be down there on your own.”
“I won’t be on my own – Kirk will be there. Please, Mom?”
“Carol,” Dad put in, “you might want to let them work off some energy before dinner.”
“Ok, but you guys stay together. And Monika, you come back up if Kirk does!(3)”
“OK, Ok, let’s go!”
Kirk was not happy with me tagging along, but accepted it after a fashion. Off we went to the swimming pool, which was outdoors. Kirk met another boy about the same age, and they proceeded to ignore me completely. I was upset, so of course I passive-aggressively ignored Kirk back, refusing to do anything he said. And this was the point where I proved, without a doubt, that you can be the smartest kid on the block, and still do the dumbest things in the world.
Remember when I said Orlando tended to summer evening showers? I didn’t realize they came with mild lightening storms. Kirk saw the lightening and got out.
“Monika, you better get out!” he called to me.
I was still pissed, so I ignored him.
“Mo-nik-a! You have to do what I say!”
“No, I don’t! I can stay in the pool if I want to!”
“Come on, you’re not supposed to swim in the storm!”
“I’ll be just fine!” (4)
“Fine, I’m telling Mom!” and Kirk stalked off, snagging the semi-wet-from-the-rain towel on the chair.
Five minutes later, I saw a very nice, picture-perfect stroke of lightening hit not far enough away for me to be comfortable. CRACK!
“Ok, I’m done now,” I said to myself. I scrambled out of the pool, proud that I had been braver (5) than Kirk… until I realized he had taken the only towel we had brought downstairs with us.
***********************
Oddly enough, I don’t have that many memories of the Disney Kingdom itself. We rode Space Mountain, and it was awesome. It was also a 3hour line wait, and they already had the FastPass option for the rides, but we had no idea what it was, so we didn’t use it. We got Mom wet on one of the log flume type rides… again. Why she always falls for that, I’ll never know.
Mom was dying to go to the Epcot center, so we went, and …. were bored for most of the day.(6) The ride in the giant golf ball was very blah, but Mom loved it. Then we went to the circular theater thing, where the interior circle is a static stage, and the audience rotates slowly around the center.(7) I don’t know what that circle theater thing is showing now, but then it was kind of the history of the 20th century. We got stuck for a good 15 minutes between the 50’s and 60’s. No, seriously, the audience seats got stuck midway around that rotation, so the wall that divided the two decade displays was lined up exactly in the center of the wedge of audience seats we were in. It was possibly the least scary ride to get stuck on, although the amount of snarky comments coming from the audience (including us) had us cracking up far more than the ride itself was worth.
I don’t remember if we spent a long weekend, or a whole week at Disney. I do recall we were in that mood where you’re sad to leave your vacation spot, but so ready to go home and sleep in your own bed when we got ready to leave.
TBC…
1) It is, in fact, always "Pick on Mom Day". I love her, but she's an amazingly easy target most of the time.
2) At this time, I still thought Kirk hung the moon. He probably had a great deal to do with the sun, too. I wanted to do everything he could do, and I was convinced by my own ego and competitive nature I could do it better than he could, too.
3) Does this ever work on any kid, anywhere?
4) You are not the only one surprised I survived childhood...
5) I couldn't possibly have been dumber than Kirk, see, because everyone I knew kept telling me I was 'such a smart, intelligent little girl!'
6) Mom has a history of making horrendously bad choices when we're trying to find something to entertain 5 relatively diverse people. It's so bad, in fact, she is no longer allowed to choose the movies we watch. Of course, this is possibly because she has wildly different definitions than the rest of us.(8)
7) Some of you may recognize this element from one of my dreams. Yes, I have the memory of an elephant - if the elephant's on crack.
8) This is the woman who thinks 'Brokeback Mountain' can't be a chick flick since it doesn't have any chicks in it.(9)
9) It occurs to me that my own tendency for bizarrely different definitions of words and phrases than the rest of populous is probably inherited from my mother.
We rolled into Orlando that warm, sunny afternoon with Mom pumping us up. Kirk was feeling much better, and we hadn’t even had any of the usual sibling squabbling during the day’s drive. Mom evidently felt top of the world for managing to get us all to Orlando in one piece.
“It’s so exciting! Isn’t it exciting?”
“Yeah, it’s so cool! I wanna ride Space Mountain!” cried Kirk.
“I wanna see the fireworks!” grinned Tammy.
“I wanna ride Cinderella’s carousel!” I squealed.
“I’m really excited, too! Isn’t it so exciting?”
“Mo-om, you just said that,” Tammy, Kirk, and I chorused. Mom huffed. Dad laughed. ‘Pick on Mom Day’(1) was in full gear, with three spirited kids not letting her get away with anything.
KA-POW!
That rubber tire screech, my friends, is the sound of a blue Dodge Ram thinking, ‘Rats, I knew it was going to well to last!’ Why would the truck think this? Because it had just run over a spark plug and mutilated one of its tires.
“Watch it, Dad!” I yelled, as I was tossed around the back with the suitcases.
“Why… are we lopsided?” Tammy asked.
“Neat, Dad! Do it again!” Kirk cheered.
“Ken – “ Mom started tentatively.
“Don’t. Say. A. Word.”
*******************************
90 minutes and one new tire later, we checked into the hotel. The hotel had a swimming pool. We were all decent swimmers at the time, but Tammy had never been as keen as Kirk and I to go swimming.
“I want to go swim!” Kirk said. At this point, it was getting near nightfall, and the Orlando area cools off remarkably quickly in the evening. It also tends towards evening summer showers. I think Kirk thought it would be kinda fun to swim in the rain – I know I did.
“I don’t know,” Mom said, “you still have to take medicine for the swimmer’s ear. You’ll have to keep that ear dry, above water.”
“I can do it!”
“Yeah! And I can do it better!(2) I can swim, too!”
“I don’t know, Monika, you’re kinda young to be down there on your own.”
“I won’t be on my own – Kirk will be there. Please, Mom?”
“Carol,” Dad put in, “you might want to let them work off some energy before dinner.”
“Ok, but you guys stay together. And Monika, you come back up if Kirk does!(3)”
“OK, Ok, let’s go!”
Kirk was not happy with me tagging along, but accepted it after a fashion. Off we went to the swimming pool, which was outdoors. Kirk met another boy about the same age, and they proceeded to ignore me completely. I was upset, so of course I passive-aggressively ignored Kirk back, refusing to do anything he said. And this was the point where I proved, without a doubt, that you can be the smartest kid on the block, and still do the dumbest things in the world.
Remember when I said Orlando tended to summer evening showers? I didn’t realize they came with mild lightening storms. Kirk saw the lightening and got out.
“Monika, you better get out!” he called to me.
I was still pissed, so I ignored him.
“Mo-nik-a! You have to do what I say!”
“No, I don’t! I can stay in the pool if I want to!”
“Come on, you’re not supposed to swim in the storm!”
“I’ll be just fine!” (4)
“Fine, I’m telling Mom!” and Kirk stalked off, snagging the semi-wet-from-the-rain towel on the chair.
Five minutes later, I saw a very nice, picture-perfect stroke of lightening hit not far enough away for me to be comfortable. CRACK!
“Ok, I’m done now,” I said to myself. I scrambled out of the pool, proud that I had been braver (5) than Kirk… until I realized he had taken the only towel we had brought downstairs with us.
***********************
Oddly enough, I don’t have that many memories of the Disney Kingdom itself. We rode Space Mountain, and it was awesome. It was also a 3hour line wait, and they already had the FastPass option for the rides, but we had no idea what it was, so we didn’t use it. We got Mom wet on one of the log flume type rides… again. Why she always falls for that, I’ll never know.
Mom was dying to go to the Epcot center, so we went, and …. were bored for most of the day.(6) The ride in the giant golf ball was very blah, but Mom loved it. Then we went to the circular theater thing, where the interior circle is a static stage, and the audience rotates slowly around the center.(7) I don’t know what that circle theater thing is showing now, but then it was kind of the history of the 20th century. We got stuck for a good 15 minutes between the 50’s and 60’s. No, seriously, the audience seats got stuck midway around that rotation, so the wall that divided the two decade displays was lined up exactly in the center of the wedge of audience seats we were in. It was possibly the least scary ride to get stuck on, although the amount of snarky comments coming from the audience (including us) had us cracking up far more than the ride itself was worth.
I don’t remember if we spent a long weekend, or a whole week at Disney. I do recall we were in that mood where you’re sad to leave your vacation spot, but so ready to go home and sleep in your own bed when we got ready to leave.
TBC…
1) It is, in fact, always "Pick on Mom Day". I love her, but she's an amazingly easy target most of the time.
2) At this time, I still thought Kirk hung the moon. He probably had a great deal to do with the sun, too. I wanted to do everything he could do, and I was convinced by my own ego and competitive nature I could do it better than he could, too.
3) Does this ever work on any kid, anywhere?
4) You are not the only one surprised I survived childhood...
5) I couldn't possibly have been dumber than Kirk, see, because everyone I knew kept telling me I was 'such a smart, intelligent little girl!'
6) Mom has a history of making horrendously bad choices when we're trying to find something to entertain 5 relatively diverse people. It's so bad, in fact, she is no longer allowed to choose the movies we watch. Of course, this is possibly because she has wildly different definitions than the rest of us.(8)
7) Some of you may recognize this element from one of my dreams. Yes, I have the memory of an elephant - if the elephant's on crack.
8) This is the woman who thinks 'Brokeback Mountain' can't be a chick flick since it doesn't have any chicks in it.(9)
9) It occurs to me that my own tendency for bizarrely different definitions of words and phrases than the rest of populous is probably inherited from my mother.
Concluded in Part 4.
-bs
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-bs