A couple of weekends ago, I went to the local amusement park, Kings Island. A friend from work was in from out of town and he loved roller coasters. Kings Island was a no-brainer. The only problem was that I was in the middle of treatment and terrified to go. I had so much anxiety, it felt crippling. Another friend was going, too, so it was like I had a wingman. I knew this friend from out of town, but my social anxiety had me terrified that I was going to behave or say something that would make me look like a bitch, ass, or just stupid.

The morning, we were supposed to go, I woke up and said to myself, “Just do the damn thing, and have a good time.” (My therapist was super proud of that attitude when I told her on Monday.) And that is exactly what I did. I only said one thing that I somewhat regretted, no, wait, two things. Neither was too offensive, silly, or inappropriate. But my brain occasionally replays the comments for me to mull over and ruminate on. Stupid brain.

Some of the highlights were that I got to eat blue ice cream at 10:30 in the morning. We introduced our friend to LaRosa’s and Graeter’s. He liked LaRosa’s but he REALLY liked Graeter’s. He had the traditional black raspberry chocolate chip. My all-time favorite flavor. There was such a large piece of chocolate in his scoop that he didn’t even think he could eat it.

Food aside, we went to ride rollercoasters. We rode all 10 major coasters in the park between 9:45-3:15. We had the fast lane pass but the park was not as crowded as we expected either, so we got through the coasters fast. And we even rode Banshee twice. The first time we were mid-train, and it was pretty slick. The next time we went in the front, and it was a completely different ride. Absolutely breathtaking. The last coaster we rode was called Invertigo. I don’t know if the ride was that rough, that intense or if it was just the cumulative effect of 11 rollercoaster rides… but it put us down.

I got overheated just after that ride, too, which brought me down further. We decided to make our final ride Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. It’s an inside, air conditioned, laser shooting game/ride. Unsurprising, the friend from of out of town kicked our butts. I believe he was given the special moniker of Master Blaster. *snicker* I beat my other friend by a whopping 30 points. But the important thing to note is that I nearly doubled my score from the last time (like 5 years ago).

What meant the most to me of the entire trip is that I was able to talk to my friends about what I was going through. The different groups, asking for help, the commitment to treatment… It was important to me because they listened, showed concern, and showed respect. There was no pity.

After my wingman dropped us off at Bob Evan’s where I left my car and where our friend would wait for his ride, we decided to go inside and have a soda. It was a really nice one-on-one discussion, in the AC, with a cold drink.

It was a good end to a good day.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures – ok, I took two. The first is me overheating and the second is the dreaded Invertigo coaster.