Subject: Cedar Point Social: Coasters, Chain Mail and Murphy's Law
From: princessmoo@accesstoledo.com (Maggie)
Organization: HopelessRomantics.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan

This is  where someone usually talks about wind, either blowing over 
plains or through the mountain passes or even over the city streets, and 
beginnings, not *the* beginning, but *a* beginning, right?  Um.  Sure.
 
Friday, October 8th dawned, cold, windy and raining.  It was a beginning 
all right, the beginning of me losing my temper because dear old Murphy 
seemed to have caught up with me again.  What?  Who's Murphy?  You know 
Murphy, the guy who said "Shit happens, kiddo, and usually to you."  It 
would just about figure that when I finally get up the courage and 
ambition to plan an *outdoor* Social, the weather decides not to 
cooperate.  Oy.  But enough about the weather.

After getting Alex off to school and Mark off to work, Ernie and I 
trekked to the Amtrak station to wait for Kenn's train to arrive.  It 
was running an hour behind, which was unsurprising, so we took our time 
getting there.  When we arrived, the desk staff was announcing that 
his train was just fifteen minutes away.  Perfect timing, right?  The 
train pulled in an hour later.  Argh.  But Ernie was happy to watch the 
train pull in and we were both thrilled to see Kenn, sporting a spiffy 
new haircut that *really* suits him, step off and stroll into the 
station.  It was getting late, we hopped into a cab and headed for home, 
me hoping out loud that Steve and Dave hadn't already arrived.

Fortunately, we had a little time to get settled and get some things out 
of the way (Murphy had wreaked havoc on our place the night before, but 
we won't get into that).  It wasn't long before my doorbell rang, and I 
stuck my head out into the hallway to greet Steve Ginter, carrying a 
computer in his arms, and tall, smiling Dave Rothgery, my "little 
brother" on the RASFWRJ family tree.  (Thanks, Auntie Erica!  You gave 
me a good one!)  Steve had come with plans of burning my MP3 collection 
to CD and upgrading Bubba to something less...Bubba-like (more on that 
in a minute), and a surprise -- a brightly wrapped, very heavy little 
box.  "Read the note first".

I perched on the edge of my couch, unwrapped the box, and pulled out the 
note:  "Maggie:  In the rasfwr-j mythology, a minor fertility goddess 
and patron goddess of margaritas.  Often depicted as wearing a chain- 
mail bra and wielding a killfile."  In the box?  A handmade, chain-mail 
bra!  I think I laughed for 20 minutes!  A few adjustments were made 
over the weekend, now it fits like a glove!  It seems Steve has a new 
hobby, and one he's good at.  He later showed us a chain mail shirt he 
had made, as well as his kit.  I'm impressed.

"I don't know about the coverage, there, Mags."
"Screw coverage.  I'm Xena!"

"You knew it was bound to happen."
"Bound?  Whips?  Chains?"
"Chain-*mail*."
"Oh."

We laughed, we gossiped, we chatted about Socials past and our antics, 
then decided that our stomachs couldn't wait another minute, and off we 
went to dinner at my favorite place, Hot Sizzling Wok.

Let me say right here that I love the Wok.  We're always warmly greeted 
and treated just like family.  Add that to the *wonderful* food...and 
the wonderful company this time around...

Between trying to teach Dave to use chopsticks, good-natured bickering 
over which appetizer was best, and silly commentary I've completely 
forgotten, Kenn found himself chided by our waitress, Lu.

Kenn:  "What's this sauce?  What's in it?"
Maggie: "Kenn!  It might be secret!"
Lu:  "That's right.  Now be quiet and eat it."

(I *said* they treat us like family there!)

A wander to Circuit City for CDs and to Party City to see Mark in his 
Halloween make up (The Kurgan on Friday!), then we were off for home to 
let Steve play with my computer, watch movies, and drink Margaritas and 
Kaluha shakes.

Burning the MP3s to CD and upgrading Bubba were supposed to be simple 
tasks.  Oh.  Hi, Murphy.  You again?  Instead, we wound up pondering 
just where the hell my files went off to after Steve attempted to put my 
HD into his much faster computer to burn off my files.  Oops. 

I'm not going to linger here, poor Steve was so mortified!  But he did a 
wonderful and very much appreciated job, obviously everything works just 
fine now!  Bubba is dead, long live Truffle.

ObBooze Commentary:  To ease the stress, Kenn gave Steve a BlowJob.  
Yes, on purpose.  It seemed to have helped.  <*grin*>

Come 4AM, we suddenly realized that we needed to sleep.  What the hell 
were we thinking?

Amelia joined us on Saturday morning for the trip to Cedar Point.  
Weather?  Grey.  Chilly.  Damp.  Drizzly.  Yay.  One hour and a lot of 
detours later, we arrived in Sandusky and were greeted by the sight of 
witches, goblins and gargoyles along the Causeway and all over the park.  
Halloweekends are a relatively new phenomenon at Cedar Point, with 
haunted houses, fog machines made all that much more effective by the 
chill autumn air, and Halloween themed displays everywhere.

I'd brag about how great Cedar Point is, but you can look it up on the 
Net if you're really into the statistics.  Suffice to say, it's one of 
my favorite places on the planet, and we were determined to have fun in 
spite of the intermittent drizzle.

In between wandering along the Midway and hitting the Boathouse for 
dinner, we rode the Demon Drop, the Raptor (and got pictures on this 
one!), the Mantis (stand up, upside down), the Corkscrew, the Iron 
Dragon and, my all time favorite, the Magnum.  Rides missed:  The Gemini 
and the Mean Streak, both wooden, both shut down because of rain.  
<*grumble*>  Of course, all the silly commentary has been lost in the 
recesses of my mind, hopefully my cohorts will do better.

Kenn, upon being issued a "boarding pass" for the Magnum:  "We are 
witnessing the analization of the American amusement park."

Maggie, breathless:  "I want to do that *again*!
Steve:  "My God, you have *afterglow*!"

Around 10PM, we dragged our completely exhausted selves home to finish 
yelling at^W^Wfixing my computer and to watch a movie.  Seeing Dave's 
incredibly satisfied, peaceful smile as he drifted off on the People 
Eating Couch, the epitome of relaxed and happy, was just perfect, as was 
Amelia's soft little half-smile.  We were spent, and none of us was 
complaining.

Sunday morning found us all piled into my waterbed.  My sons have a 
habit of coming in for a snuggle every morning.  Ernie was there bright 
and early and full of giggles. A little while later, Dave stuck his head 
in to investigate the noises, and joined us for lazy chatter.  We were 
soon joined by Alex, Steve and Amelia, with Kenn following closely 
behind.  Much laughter, general silliness and great tickling of small 
children later, we all tumbled out of the bed when it decided to spring 
a small leak and get Amelia wet.  It was time to start breakfast, we 
lingered around the table for quite a while, the way Sunday mornings 
should be spent -- in the company of friends.

All Socials must eventually end, and this ended far too soon.  The 
afternoon crept up and found Dave, Steve and Amelia packing up and 
heading for home. <*sigh*>  Thanks for coming, guys!  It was a joy and 
pleasure to have you here, I can't wait to do it again!

That left Kenn and me to our own devices.  As we always do, we watched a 
movie, tortured the kids and were generally lazy, until it was time for 
his train to depart.

Late.

Twice.

As usual.

Thank Murphy for that.

Pictures are forthcoming, look for them around Friday or so.


-- 
Maggie