What will they think of next

I have been traveling on business for the last three weeks, and have not access to the internet in the usual manner that I do at home. For some reason customers lock down their internet access, so I can't blog or check facebook. So this is a blog entry that was written in notepad while I sat for 10 hours waiting for an upgrade to complete. Ah, the joys of the career of a software engineer!

The first amusement park I went to was Kings Dominion. I don't actually remember this, but my family went for my sisters 2nd birthday or something. Obviously, if I was only 4, I didn't ride many rides. The next time my family went to an amusement park it was Busch Gardens with my aunt and her family. I was tall enough to ride the Loch Ness Monster. It was sooooo scary! I was too scared to ride the Big Bad Wolf. Roller coasters for me are terrible things to be on at the time, but once you are off and safely back on the ground, it was fun. But during the actual ride, I am petrified. I think we also went down one of those rivers that you get totally soaked on. I wish I hadn't worn jeans. Wearing wet jeans is no fun at all. For our 8th grade trip we went to Kings Dominion. I had a great time riding the little kid roller coasters. I also rode the one that goes forwards and backwards, and much preferred the backwards ride. It seemed less scary that way. In high school, I went to the State Fair with some friends who wanted to ride the rides. I liked the Ferris Wheel. The gravitron thing was horrible, and I really never will go in one of those again. The one that swings you from side to side to side and then finally all the way around was also fairly scary. On an orchestra trip there was a little tiny amusement park. That roller coaster was not fun at all. I was sure it would fall over! All in all, I had decided that amusement parks were not my thing. But then I went on a business trip to California, and part of the trip was to go to the California Adventure part of Disney Land. They had a really cool glider ride that was not scary. Then they had a ride that was once again petrifying, until I was back on the ground. I am just not that great with the stomach wrenching, slowly climb to the top to tumble down the other side really fast kind of roller coasters. But there was a really nice Ferris Wheel, but one where the individual cars could move and slide just a bit more than going around in a slow circle. That was really nice. All in all, I would have to say I am not a roller coaster riding kind of person.

The first car I ever drove was a 1983 chevy little station wagon, blue. It was my dad's car that he had had ever since my brother was born. It was a stick shift, and I learned to drive it in a parking lot, and to seminary. My very first road trip was when we moved to North Carolina and dad wanted me to drive the station wagon, and it was scary to get onto the freeway! But I managed to do it. During the summer, I would drop Dad off at work, and then drive to my two jobs, and then Mom would pick Dad up. Sometimes we varied that schedule, but it meant I had the car during the day at my job. Usually I would eat lunch in the breakroom, but I decided to drive to the bank to drop off some paychecks. It was a damp and rainy day, and as I drove along the road there was a car who wanted to turn across my lanes of traffic. I saw them inching forward, but thought they were going for it, so I slammed on my brakes, but because the road was wet, I started to skid. The next thing I remember is being in the parking lot of a vet hospital, with two cars that were wrecked somewhere around me. Dad was really great, I called him from the vet and he came and got me and made sure I was ok. The unfortunate part was the car was totaled. So much for everyone of us kids driving the same car when we turned 16 :(