As you may know, I’m a speed junkie. Amusement parks are a lot of fun for me. I love roller coasters. They are so much fun. We’ve been to Six Flags the last 2 weekends and Maxwell has embraced roller coastering much like his parents and brother. He truly wishes he were about a foot taller so he could do EVERYTHING! On one ride in particular, he loves it, but has this adorable little emotional break down. He is so excited, so happy and so scared all at once. He doesn’t know if he should celebrate, cry or all of the above… it lasts about 10-15 seconds and then he wants to ride it again! Crazy little munchkin. Derek – he is all about the big coasters now. He will – in a pinch – ride a smaller one, but he FAR prefers Goliath, Batman or Superman. It’s a lot of fun for the whole family.
That isn’t what this is all about. The other day, while waiting to ride the Great American Scream Machine with Max – I went on my own personal emotional roller coaster. As you get closer, you are “above” the tracks and you can see down. In a period of about 6 runs, no fewer than 6 people were unable to ride the ride because they were too fat. The last one – a guy that didn’t look much bigger than me had to get up and leave with his little girl – about Max’s age. She looked back, after waiting in line for at least 30 minutes and had to go with her dad. I was TERRIFIED! What if I don’t fit in this stupid roller coaster? What if Max – who is SO EXCITED to do this – can’t? He will ask me 100 times… why daddy? why daddy? Why can’t we daddy? He will tell Sarah “Mommy, daddy couldn’t ride the scream machine because he is TO FAT!” How could I explain this to him? How could I remain cool? I couldn’t. I would be SHATTERED internally, he would cry and scream. It would be miserable… The fear of that moment far outweighed any fear I have ever had on a roller coaster. It was intense.
Well – let me break the suspense – I was able to ride the ride. I was a little ‘snug’ but I got in there okay and we had a lot of fun. As we left the ride and headed off to our next ride – I saw one of the people that got flicked. She was a early 20’s girl with her boyfriend. She was large – not going to deny it. She was shoveling a large dipin dots down. Probably because she was sad. It made me sad (and made me wanted to eat dippin dots… like THAT makes any sense?)
A lot of it, for me, is where I carry my weight. I have “thunder thighs” and a storm cloud right above it. I know a bunch of people that weigh a lot more than me but wear pants 4″ smaller than me. That explanation probably wouldn’t have helped if Max couldnt ride the scream machine.
I hope that the “training” I am doing in Weight Watchers is eating into my skull – that I’m getting this portion size/nutrition concept. I’m one broke dude – but I hope that next year, I wont be wedging my tail into a little roller coaster seat – I’ll be sitting down to enjoy the ride. I don’t fault Six Flags – from what I could tell – they were polite to my brothers and sisters in rumpdom… but it is sad and heart breaking. I hope that by the end of the summer – I’ve done a lot of the footwork! I’ve collected my 5 pounds sticker and am really close to 5% at the classes. I’m trying!
One day at a time….