Monday, October 24, 2005

Just call me the Dramamine Kid....

I had the pleasure of visiting my good friends The Glecks (of Five Flavors of Reflection fame) this past weekend. We had a great time!! I didn't get in until late Friday, but Saturday we had a full day at an Open House event at T-Gleck's work (complete with some of S-Gleck's yummy cupcakes!!), then onto a fun evening aboard a casino boat.....

Now I have long had trouble with motion sickness. I could take Dramamine, but then I would be out cold for a while. That's no fun. So I try to control it through natural means: ginger is usually a great remedy for nausea, etc. So with box of crystallized ginger in purse -- chewed before getting on the boat and once on the boat -- we boarded. Two decks (maybe a third one) of machines ... and tons of cigarette smoke. And then an upper deck with picnic tables, a karaoke machine, and (ah!) fresh air!

Unfortunately, once the boat got underway, we hit a little choppy water. Not even thirty minutes into the cruise.... well, let's just say I'm SO glad that trash can was nearby. And how did I make myself feel better? Falling asleep..... I could have taken the Dramamine, saved myself the trash-can shuffle, and slept anyway.

Somewhere around midnight, they started some karaoke... (at which point I woke up) I'm just glad there were no cops on board, because these people would have been arrested for murder!! The first was some guy who was so wasted, he didn't even know where the monitor (with the words) was. Then he treated us to a rap about how he was in jail and found the Lord; my first thought was, "Yeah, but where along the way did you lose him again?" The next guy just slaughtered "Come Monday" -- like who the hell DOESN'T know the words and timing to that??? Then RapDude and several friends got up to hack "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye To Yesterday" into little teensy pieces. Worse, they pulled up a girl friend of theirs to help with the high notes -- and her screeching made Mariah Carey sound like Lurch! GAAAAK!

Wait -- it gets worse. The next guy was horrendous -- if Neil Diamond were dead, he'd be rolling in his grave to hear this guy's rendition of "Sweet Caroline" (another one that if you don't know how it goes, don't get up and try to sing). The next guy did a fairly decent job of "I Wanna Be A Cowboy" (Kid Rock).

Then Buffett Murderer reappeared to do a version of "Summer Nights" and was begging for a partner to sing with him. This went on for about 2 minutes. Finally, to shut him the hell up, I got up to help. Good thing -- the poor boy needed it. Luckily, I managed to get a few compliments on the way out from some folks who'd heard me.

And special thanks to S-Gleck for the gift of earplugs...... AH!!!

I have also decided that when I win the lottery, I will devote a sizeable portion to research for ending motion sickness.

The rest of the weekend went all too quickly, but lots of fun. S-Gleck was kind enough to send a birthday cake home with me (and it is sooooooo good!)

Until next time, dear reader.......

1 comment:

Seraphim9 said...

Talmadge and I have come to the conclusion that we, in general, just make people sick. While just being around us may not warrant a sprint to the local trash can, us - combined with another nausea-inducing entity (boats, cars, hiking on a rocky mountain top in Tennessee on a warm day) - very well MIGHT. :)

I'm sure all that cigarette smoke on the boat didn't help either. I ended up spending probably less than an hour of our 6-hour tour below deck because of how sickening that stale cigarette smell is!

We did have a great time with you, though, and enjoyed your karaoke performance! We hope you can come for another visit soon!

-Seraphim

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