You can't take just Anyone

.

Last week my sister calls me up and says she has a coupon for two 1/2 price admissions to Lagoon.  Heck yeah!  I love Lagoon.  I'm a big roller coaster junkie.  They can't make 'em high enough or fast enough for me.  And I'll take Lagoon over six flags or Disneyland any day.  It's cheaper, closer, the lines are shorter, and I'm sorry, but Disneyland doesn't have good coasters.

But you have to have the right partner to go with.  A group of friends works well (as long as there's an even number) 'cause then you can mix things up and have some good laughs between you, but when it's just one other person, there is a lot of pressure to always have clever or insightful things to say.  Since a visit to any amusment park mainly consists of standing in line, people have to resort to amusing themselves about 95% of the time.  Looking through my phone directory, it was interesting how few people I consider good friends I would actually feel comfortable enough with one-on-one for that long.  It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I don't want to put that kind of strain on our friendship.  There's only so much of Shaun you can take in one dose!

And Lagoon is really an awful first date, unless you're doubling or you know the person already.  Imagine that dinner you had with the guy who couldn't seem to get past the small talk except it's 7 hours in the sun with nothing on the table like straw wrappers or salt shakers to distract you.  Un. Pleasant.

Final choice: family.  I went with my cousin Danny:

Who ironically had just returned from a trip to Disneyland.

This is why having a family is awesome.  They don't care if you aren't scintillating, or if your hair looks bad after having been tangled up by the wind rushing through it, and they will absolutely make fun of you for sitting in a wet spot on the Log Flume 'cause it looks like you peed your pants.  ;)   If someone can make fun of you when you look stupid without making you feel stupid, you know they really care.

Family are also really great for having important conversations with.  Danny had just been through the wringer with his ex, so we commiserated about heartbreak for a little bit.  I'm such a sharer it's always nice to have a new person to tell my stories too.  It helps me process things, and amusement parks bring back a lot of memories.  It's not really that surprising how many analagies can be drawn between relationships and roller coasters.

To celebrate 125 years of business (holy cow I hope none of the rides are that old), Lagoon built a new rollor coster: Bambora.  I was really looking forward to checking it out, but when we got there, it wasn't on any of the maps.  We got directions from a bored and bemused game worker who couldn't have been older than 14.  He left his headset/mic on while talking to us, and it was kind of funny listening to his half of the conversation simultaneously on the loudspeaker. We finally found the line for Bambora and joined it in time to realize it was about twice as thrilling as Puff the Magic Dragon.  Not that I have anything against Puff, I was just hoping for another big-kids' ride.  We rode it anyway, just for the experience.  Some poor little girl entirely clad in pink was sobbing the whole time.  Poor thing.  Oh, well.  We did get to the park early enough to ride Wicked 4 times in 30 minutes.  Not too shabby.

Bumper Cars, Colossus, The Samurai, and the classic "White Roller Coaster".... All in all it was a pretty cool day.

So!  The bounceback coupons expire tomorrow.  My three or four friends I hand picked to invite back with me failed out, so I guess I'll be staying home.  I really can't bring myself to go with just anyone.  Much as I love rides and cotton candy, the place that is "what fun is" isn't the place to take someone you don't really click with.  It's really not as fun without the right person.