Well, this brings us now to the "Now What" part of the trip report. All I can really do is tell my activities, and from what I heard from the rest of them for a lot of this, which brings us to......the Alan Alda Show.
(hmm, funny, Alan is really my middle name)
Monday, the day after Hot Fudge Sundae, August 6.
Well, just barely.
That night I slept a bit at first, but around 3 in the morning I woke up with a killer headache, and not from just the part
that I smacked, but inside, as if I had drank Two bottles of Mad Dog. I got up and started raiding all the little bottles lined up on the vanity.
AN hour later, ibuprofen didn't help, and once again I'm hitting my stash in the safe. ( I know where you're about to go Ponzi, and I don't think it will be funny, but you can try)
Then I just laid there waiting for the wake up call to come.
It didn't matter to me, I knew I wasn't going anywhere today.
Today is a Studios day. We had it all planned on how to do it with getting in a Toy Story ride before the early breakfast character meal at Hollywood and Vine but it now is going to leave Diane on her own.
We backed out of the character breakfast in the beginning, figured maybe they should have some time alone without us, so we were going to go over to that wonderfull counter service for our own meal,,Starring Rolls.
Right, we have not ever done a character meal, and we are doing one on Wednsday at Tusker House, we figured one was enough since T-Rex and Prime Time also got thrown in the mix.
But on our last trip which I hadn't gotten to yet, we ate at Strring Rolls and it was incredible, thanks to Jay for the recommendation.
And the Black Forest sandwich was really good, and something different.
They also have the most incredible pasties there, one of them is the Butterfinger cupcake that is HUGE, GIGANTIC, enough for two people to split and it ranks right up there with,,,, ahem,,,,,,,,,
Zebra whatchamacallems.
Yes, I see it now and I'm going to leave it and see what happens.
Did I mention it's a good place to go for snacks?
And you can't have just ONE!
Really, I'm more a salt person than a sweettooth person, but Disney is tops in that category, between Zebra domes, these Butterfinger cupcakes and don't forget the completely underrated, never talkd about, the triple chocolate cake you get as desserts at most grab and go courts, Cosmic Rays, Pecos Bills, lot's of counter service places, I love those cakes in the clear plastic dish/cup.
You'll know you have the right ones when you see the little, tiny hard candy Mickeys on the top of the icing.
Here is the best counter service meal you can get on Disney property:
start with an outdoor table right on the Discovery River at Animal Kingdom, with a St. Louis style baby back rib order from Flame Tree, cup of cole slaw, cup of baked beans, a side order of great onion rings to split between you, a carton of milk, and a triple chocolate cake in a plastic cup for dessert.
Now that's some fine dining!
Anyway, that morning;
All I could do was tell them not to worry about me, I'll be fine and probably sit by the pool all day, now go away and leave me alone, and they left.
Smdgy was able to get me a coffee from the food court in my mug and a paper, but I was really starting to get concerned because I swear this headache is getting worse.
Maybe I made the wrong decision last night?
But the lump had definately gone down since last night.
That's a good sign, right?
I tried to make this sound like a good thing to me;
"Hey, now I can read to my heart's content all about the comet hitting me in the head and who survives, without answering questions every ten minutes."
At nine, I went down to the pool and grabbed the same table we have been grabbing, but now, alone and knowing it's going to stay that way, it feels really strange.
It's a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and I lasted all of ten minutes in a lounge chair in the sun, the heat was already bothering me, but even with sunglasses on, it was just SOOOO bright!
One thing that has definately changed physiologically with me in the last few years, is that I don't tan the way I used to.
Yeah, I was one of the idiots who ignored skin cancer and tried to get as dark as I could when on vacation, but lately I've noticed that I only get so dark, and then I kind of get these little tiny water blisters.
Not sure why this is, an age thing? No more melatonin or whatever that pigment is that makes you tan as a defense instead of burning, maybe my body had used that all up? Don't know, but it's kind of taken the fun out of sunbathing when the results aren't like they used to be.
But now, the light hurts too, and again;
( Did I make the right choice?)
Ok, ok ok, I got it;
I can test my cognitive ability by seeing if I can figure out the jumble in the paper, so sitting at the table I tried ot ignore my headache and worked on the Jumble.
Not being able to concentrate or do simple math problems is another sign of brain injury.
All right, I passed that test, I'm not an artichoke yet, but I really wish today, that I could talk to a doctor or real nurse. I mean last night I was slightly our of focus when I was trying to take it all in, and I'd really like to just talk to somebody who is familiar with this stuff, and not just interested only if I charter his vehicle and he makes a sale.
At ten o'clock, I crumbled and took 3 vikes, it was just not getting better, but now I'm down to a whopping total of 6 left. A half hour later I decided that they must have some kind of nurse on property I can talk to, so I put my shirt and shorts back on and went into concierge.
You know those signs:
"No shoes, no shirts, no triage."
There I got the most helpful cast member and I wished I hadn't put it off.
After explaining everything I asked her if there was anyone resembling a medical professional I can talk to.
"Nope."
"Nope?"
"Nope."
And I waited for further instructions, whatevers.
Now we are just looking at each other.
Now we are just looking at each other, some more.
I was the one to crack:
"Ok, do you have any advice for me?" and this time I turned around and showed the back of my head,
it was like a brand new person suddenly appeared behind the counter.
The monosyllabic person was gone.
"Oh my goodness, what happened, do you want me to call an ambulance for you? They will be here in Ten minutes or less."
Long story short, no, there wasn't anybody there to help, but she'd be happy to call Reedy Creek to come and take me away, but we couldn't call them just so I can have a nice sit-down chat with them.
They get upset when they come out and don't get to leave with a body.
( I was working in the lab, late one night,)
I was kind of surprised that there wasn't a house doctor or nurse on site, i suppose it would be dumb but with 3 pools and all the kids,,,I doubt they would be bored.
Yeah Yeah, "Not with you staying there Nebo!"
As I gave up and turned to leave since I still didn't want ot commit myself to being committed, she did suddenly say, "you might want to talk to a lifeguard, they have a lot of training in different types of injuries too."
Huh, really, never thought of that, they all seem like they are about 12 years old to me.
Back at the pool, I tried my darndest to "have fun, enjoy myself, you're on vacation, but try as I might, even reading was brutal on my headache and on my eyes, I'd read a paragraph, and put the book down, read a paragraph, put the book down.
I also had no interest in even going in the water, either, hot as it was. I am now nearing the point where I'm really starting to feel sorry for myself, yes, that's something else I can do pretty well at times too.
Smidgy left me her phone so I can call Kim's phone if I need to, and I thought I'd give her a call and see how it's going at the Studios, find out whether they are staying all day or taking a break and coming back for awhile.
I called, and it went into voice mail.
I love cell phones, talk about giving somebody a false sense of emergency communications.
But this headache was just not subsiding hardly at all.
Ok, I thought, what can it hurt?
I picked out the tallest life guard and went around the pool to him.
Keeping the story brief, I mainly just asked him if any one of them is more familair with dealing with concussions than the rest of them.
An interesting note, the entire time I spoke to him, he never took his eyes off the pool, I have no doubt he thought I was a plant, checking up on them.
But somehow, in a truly unseen, obscure way, he made a call to his superior, not sure if he had a bluetooth or what, then he told me a guy will be here shortly.
Shortly, consisted of about 2 and a half minutes, and my Latino friend never took his eyes off the pool.
I looked behind me and a new guy walked up in the same lifeguard attire basically, but somehow it seemed a little bit more top of the line. It's the red shorts, white shirt, not a hair out of place, the All-American Boy, fit as a fiddle, no excess body fat, he reminded me so much of somebody,,, oh yeah, ME.
Hello? HELLO?
Ok he did except for the fact he was young and had a good V shape and his skin didn't look like leather and no pot belly and other excess fat and could see , he reminded me of me.
I have a white shirt like that too at home!
This guy was extremely friendly, no sarcasm involved.
After explaining it all, he told me what he knew, which was everything I already knew, but he really thought I should go to the hospital, Reedy Creek will take me there, ree of charge.
I was beginning to become tired of hearing the words Reedy Creek.
What happens when you are there, at the hopisital though, is another story.
After looking at my ugly head, he gave me the hand wobble, and said If I wanted to I could also drive over to the clinic that is at the crossroads, even gave me a card for them, unlike the EMTs from Reedy Creek they can actually write prescriptions over there, they have real doctors.
I considered this for later when they got back, but then I saw in my mind the chain of probable events: Car to clinic, they insist on tests done they can't do, now spend the night in Celebration ER, more tests, yes you'll live, but here's a strong prescription for 10 Tylenol #3's, take one every 24 hours,,,,,, yada yoda yeti.
I would need to take 5 of those at a time to even know I took anything, no, doubt I'll be going to the clinic.
Then I freaked him out, only because I could:
"So, when was the last time you had a steak at the Hideaway?"
He took a step backwards and his eyebrows rose in question.
"On the river" I added.
"Oh, last time was two summers ago, how do you know about it?"
This always amused me, how they forget they are walking around with personal datum right on their chest that they forget about.
"Adam", I said, tapping my chest in response to where his name plate is, " I live just north of St. Charles in Carpentersville."
He almost sighed in relief, "Oh, I still have family in both towns, my aunt and uncle are in C'ville."
Turned out he's been living now in Florida, doing what makes him happy at Disney and been doing it for 6 years now, he was a lot older than he looked. He was 26 now and has no regrets at all in re-locating down in Florida and working for Disney.
And no, he does NOT miss snow, AT ALL.
But the bottom line was that he really had nothing new to offer, But did say, and again, don't mess around if you start to vomit.
I've already taken 3 vikes and six ibuprofen and two aspirin since I've been up, not counting the 3 vikes at 3 in the morning I took, and now I am on my way back up to the room for more.
3 more later, and I'm now down to 3 total, I just sat on the bed and stared for a few moments.
Of course, since I have the "Do not disturb" sign in the door, the maid has to come and knock just to make sure that the sign really means it.
It was somewhere about here that I knew I needed to quit the "poor me" routine, and get back in the game, and sarcasm can sometimes help.
I told her that I can't speak for all "do not disturb " signs, and i'm sure some have lied to you in the past, but this one really is sincere, believe it."
She spoke just good enough English to get it, and after a pause, even laughed and said she'l make up a bag for me, some extra towels and toilet paper and I thanked her and took it.
When at a value resort you can never have too many towels since you can't get thme at the pools like at Mods or Luxes.
Then, I can't believe what I did.
Any respect you may have still had for me now goes right out the window.
I made a drink.
And I used vodka so nobody would smell it.
Sorry, what can I say, I'm honest.
I was feelinig sorry for myself, I was bored, and I was in a ton of pain. I couldn't lie in the sun, now the Yellow J's are in business, it hurts to read my book, I was just able to scan the headlines of the paper, and I'm almost out of painkillers, with a week to go.
I went down to the pool again to make sure my stuff was there. A while later I did get some relief from the pills now and I was able ot relax a bit and read some.
Even the Yellow Jackets couldn't do too much to me since I put the bionic ears in my carry bag, and when you do that in the middle of the day be a busy pool, the earth takes on an eerie quiet. When I first got the aids two years ago, my friend Sandy321 on the Dis, who's husband and son both wear hearing aids, told me that occasionally you really need to take them out and give your mind a break, it is still not a normal sound to you and will increase your anxiety levels from the constant assault of sound!
I understand.
Remember Sandy, Marita? She was at the Poly meet that night.
After a while I went back up and made another drink, when that was done I knew it was time to knock it off and figured that I had a nice meal coming to myself, I really was hungry. I guessed around this time they weren't coming back for a midday break but surprised nobody returned my call yet.
And you're not going to believe me, but I got another hot dog.
But this time with a REAL bun. And mayo, and fries and mustard and relish and ketchup and best of all, I treated myself to one of the chocolate cakes in the fridge and brought them back to my table.
I wasn't sure how my stomach was going to react to this, so my motto was, life is short, eat dessert first, and I started with the cake.
Hate to drop dead eating the fries and leave the cake untouched!
It was nice, but that weird feeling never went away all day. Do you know that feeling I'm talking about?
I'ts like a weird dream you wake up from, no, not a scary dream, no monsters after me, or Dinos, (yes, I stil get them a lot), or guys shooting at me, (yes, in my dreams people are ALWAYS trying to shoot me), but weird nonetheless.
You wake up from it and you don't want to go back to sleep, afraid you might continue it again.
No, don't like that off kilter dream feeling, rather have the giant scorpions breaking into my grammar school again like I"m used to.
I finally just could not sit there any more and went back to the room. I was just lying there when they got back, around six or so.
It sounded like everybody had a blast, maybe not Smidgy quite so much since she was the one doing the waiting a lot of the time, or being the runner for fastpasses, but she told me she didn't mind at all and had fun.
That evening they tried to swim, but once again, the storms moved in and that was that as far as swimming or sitting by the pool goes, I really wanted a chance to quiz Jackson on his day but I couldn't find him.
As for this first day after Hammerfall, this is pretty much it from what I know. I'm not sure if Diane is up to telling her side of things, or if there's really much to tell.
Next day is Typhoon Lagoon, she's already trying to talk me into it, her argument was good about you can lie around there as easily as here, but it's not the same when your head won't stop pounding.
Plus I know I'm going to want to go in the Lazy River, and can just picture getting kicked in the head by some kids having innertube battles. No, I doubt I would be going there either.
But at least I have gotten past the first full day after the boo boo.
And I haven't had to vomit either.
yet
)
