There is a roller coaster, which I both loved and hated, at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg: The Alpengeist. It is a modern engineering marvel, one I don't want to ponder too much, because I'm pretty sure it defied all the laws of physics I ever managed to learn and a great deal that I didn't. It goes upside down and sideways and not once, after leaving the platform, do one's feet ever touch anything solid. They just dangle there, looking goofy.
I was horrified when I went four years ago and my brother suggested we go on it. I looked at him as if he'd asked me to jump off a cliff (effectively, I felt the outcome would be the same). I flatly refused. I don't like heights, feeling out of control or being scared. He went. Several times. Raved at how much fun it was. I said I would only go if the husband of the friends we were with would go, knowing he was even more terrified than I was. Somehow, his wife brainwashed him into going. He lived, therefore I had to go. I sat in the seat with trepidation and screwed my eyes shut. The ride was about the worst thing of my life, but the adrenaline rush from going in all sorts of unnatural directions with your feet flapping freely in the breeze scrambled my brain cells, and I went again.
That time, I made the mistake of opening my eyes when my brother delightedly yelled, "look!" (Temporary lapse in sanity - one should never immediately follow orders of a younger brother). I opened them realized that the sky was below me. I think I probably screamed. I definitely shut my eyes again. I rode the Alpengeist several more times, still due to the scrambled brain cells. I did not open my eyes again. I got off, for the last time feeling a bit hung over from the adrenaline rush, weary, emotionally exhausted, my heart racing and wondering if my temporary insanity would become permanent.
That post-near-death-roller-coaster experience about describes my weekend - I drug myself into work this morning, feeling rather bedragled, as if I'd just stumbled off the Alpengeist for the fourth or fifth time. Strung out, emotionally exhausted, heart racing, terrible pounding headache. Feeling hung over and out of sorts - just like after one's insides have been scrambled by ridiculous roller coasters.
It was the best of weekends. It was the worst of weekends. All rolled into one. Delightful discoveries, good friends, bonding with nature, moments of absolute frustration and hair pulling (pulling of my own hair, lest one wonders if I've descended into the netherworld of girl fights), exasperation, resignation and blessed silence - all rolled into one.
I think Monday has never looked so good.
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