Thursday, June 3, 2010

Taking MS On A Day Trip

Yesterday morning, I was prepping for a day trip to an amusement park with our school. Couple things that are constants for this trip are: It's always extremely hot, tons humid, huge amounts of walking...basically an ms'ers nightmare all in one day. But most of all, it's one of the most incredibly fun days I experience with my kids, every single year:-)

It's taken me a few years to get a routine down, and I continue to tweak it. Coffee for energy? Check. Taking in as much water as I can over the next 2 hours to negate the dehydrating effect of coffee, and to over hydrate myself for the walking, waiting, and sweating to death that will occur over the next 10 hours? Check! Most people carry backpacks with well hidden water bottles inside, so as to avoid paying $3.50 per bottle inside the park, but that gets too heavy for me. I gotta go sans luggage, ya know? So I bring about 12 bottles and keep them in a cooler in the car. I guzzle as many as I can prior to leaving the car and again at lunchtime. It works.

New for this year...a baseball hat. I've noticed that other ms moms from school wear giant golf hats. And they look fabulous. That's not my style, nor do I own one, nor will I try one on. The answer to my dressing room question of, "does this make me look fat" would surely be, "no, but it makes you look like Edith Ann. Put it back. It's as wide as you are tall." I discovered the happiness my pink Phillies hat provides. I mow in it, exercise in it, and throw it on for early Saturday morning errands. I've begun cooking in it, but can't quite explain why. I'd have never gone to an event in a baseball hat. But seriously? In that level of humidity, the top of my hair flattens and sides expand tremendously. Isn't a hat a blessing? I'll bet a woman invented the hat. A woman with hair just like mine.

While at the park, I received messages from my mother and husband saying, "hope you're okay and having fun...it's really hot out there!" and, "remember to sit down in the shade!" What made that funny was, I read it as I was laying out in the sun.

We arrived at 10:15am and left the park at 7:30pm. 9hrs 15mins. I had realized around lunchtime that ms hadn't shown up yet. 2pm, laying out in direct sunlight for a few hours? Nope, still no sign. Well, if you don't count the bathroom trips! All that planning and careful thought...and it no shows on me. Totally and completely okay! In fact, it hasn't been around (aside from bathroom trips) for about a week now.

MS, I'm not sure which vacation destination you've gone to, and I'm thankful that at least one of us is able to have a vacation. Better you than me. But I wouldn't mind if you decided to stay wherever you are. I'll keep the bathroom trips as postcards, kay?

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