Saturday, June 13, 2009

You know you're getting old when...

Going to a water park for the day does not fill you with pure excitement but also worry.
My nephew, Craig, has been visiting us since Tuesday. In honor of his first time to stay with us alone, Larry and I took him to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. When I was a kid preparing for it meant putting your swimsuit on. Now preparing takes much more!
First was finding towels for everyone and enough sunblock to last 3 people all day (I am proud to report that we were there for over 6 hours and no one has a sunburn!). Also making sure there is enough money to cover needing a drink or snack and locker rental, but not letting anyone know you brought very much so they don't go begging for the $13 souvenir cup or the $8 hot dog!
Then there are the worries for myself.
Where will I put the locker key to keep it safe? They thought of that for me. They have now switched to the coolest invention. They put on your wrist one of those plastic hospital type bracelets you have to cut off. It has a water proof chip, or whatever it should be called, to where you hold it up to a sensor that programs it to a specific locker that opens each time you put the bracelet up to it. Genius!
Next worry for me is being able to see. I wear glasses and have not gotten myself up to the idea of wearing contacts. (Due to past problems as a kid, the idea of putting something in my eye creeps me out.) Thankfully this last time at the eye doctor my prescriptions didn't change, so instead of paying for 3 lense changes for all the types of glasses I have to wear (it is not a fashion thing I have to wear different prescriptions for different things) I got to buy a new more fashionable pair of sunglasses. So I had an extra pair of prescription sunglasses that I can wear for these kinds of outings that I won't have a heart attack over if I loose. Just put a strap on and I'm good to go.
I also can no longer tolerate running barefooted over the hot rough sidewalks. So I don't care how silly I look in my non swimsuit matching crocs. My feet are still happy with me today.
There is also the thought of wearing a swimsuit that lets me get a little sun, but covers up enough of what I don't want showing anymore. And balancing not looking too old but not trying to look younger than I should either.
Sheesh a lot goes into it! Not to mention the making sure of not leaving the tickets you bought and printed over the computer at home.
I am happy to say it ended up a fun day! We went on the perfect day. It rained all day the day before so most people didn't come for fear of cold water. It was a bit colder than normal, but the sun was out and hot so it took no time to get use to and we were not loosing each other in the crowds or getting shoved around or ran over in the lazy river. We were able to really play and have fun. We hope to take the girls soon, so I guess I will look for going again the day after a big rainstorm (if we get that lucky again).

2 comments:

Christy Lynn said...

I know what you mean about the swimsuit thing! I've been looking at one in the JC Penney catalog and it's like a tank top and a little skirt...Lee's like what happened to bikinis?! 20 extra pounds is what happened to bikinis!! Glad you guys had a good time.

Charisse said...

Yay for a good day at the water park. I think the one and only time I went was way back when it was still Wet & Wild, before Six Flags bought it. And I think I still lived in Dallas. And I was in my single digits. (That is the long way of saying I think it was 20 years ago without having to I did something 20 years ago because that doesn't even sound like it should be possible!!!!)