Sittin’ Sideways- Stuck on a roller coaster celebrating Gia’s 13th Birthday!

Stuck on the roller coaster (of life) – How to find the Joy in Fear!

“What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of a fiasco.But there’s also the possibility of bliss.” – Joseph Campbell

GoOD morning!

I shared this story today on the podcast, but here’s a brief recap! My baby, Boogie, aka Boogie Down, aka Pumpkin, aka Gia is turning 13 this week and all she wanted was a girl’s weekend with her aunty/bestie and mommy. So we road tripped to Orlando on Friday after school, and met my sister, Syl there (she drove up from West Palm Beach)! That first night (pic above) we went out to dinner, danced in the streets with people on stilts, and rested up for a fun-filled day at Universal Studios bright and early the next day.

LOVE in form – me and my babies! See my mala, not the one on my wrist, lol, the one in my hand! haha!

The first rollercoaster we got on got stuck for 50 minutes! We got stuck sideways in a turn, and then backwards, and then in a tunnel! It would stop and start without warning. Go forward or backwards without warning- like 0 to 50mph.  People were crying, calling 911, panicking, I was chanting. Helping Gia listen for the faintest sound she could hear, doing my best to hold her above the drama of the appearance.  She was crying and at times, trembling (worried specifically that another train on the tracks would ram our stalled one, or that we wouldn’t have enough momentum to take the curves ahead) but it worked.  At one point everyone on our train of motorcycles (it was the motorbike ride and we were in the front row!) sang happy birthday to Gia and that inspired a little smile, again.

If you look through the trees and zoom in, you can see a blue and white dress, that’s me 🙂 stuck on the tracks. Syl was taking the picture from where she was stuck further along. 

We were finally rescued by workers who walked us back down to the ground where paramedics and guest services were waiting to receive us with water, apologies, and further accommodations.

disembarking before the long hike down to ground level

Walking along the tracks back to base! Look at her face! She was already reluctant to ride and she was like, ‘never again’! We ‘rode’ experiences the rest of the day– 3d/4d virtual rides! 

When we first entered the park, I asked a security person I saw for directions to that ride.  She loved my energy and offered to give us the VIP experience.  Becca met us a little while later (with another family, another birthday, too) in front of the ride and took us straight up to the front of the line.  She was there an hour later (instead of 4 minutes later) when we got off and was so apologetic. We hugged and reminded her it wasn’t her fault and that we were still thankful we got to experience it before they shut it down for a while.  Gia was terrified but now has a pretty dope story to tell! #SittinSideways

Becca is in the middle! Our angel! (moments before the hour long roller coaster adventure)

Entirely empty bus but she wanted to experience holding on to the ‘thingy’ like she sees on her shows! 

she usually draws and animates anime characters, but she’s been working on her realism!