Monday, October 25, 2010

The Diamondback, Leapard eels and FearFest

I've been stressing out over not getting this dissertation study off the ground, not having my literature review written, not having my presentation ready for Atlanta on Friday, the 8-day marathon death camp in Atlanta starting Friday, not having my leadership profile written for Atlanta, not having time to work on my grandfather's estate stuff, not having time to prepare the house and family for my departure, and 9,999 other things that want my attention.  So Saturday, the family and I went to Kings Island for a one-day getaway.  It was supposed to be a getaway, but getting away is nearly impossible with so much brain-clutter going on.  I had the beginnings of a migraine when we left the house and about an hour before we got to the park, I decided to take a migraine pill...just knock it out so it wouldn't get worse.  It worked, but on our first ride of the day, the Diamondback roller coaster...that in combination with the medicine did some weird stuff in my head.  Hard to explain so I won't try to...look at this crazy roller coaster!  The first drop is the biggest - you can see it in this photo in the far back beside the Eiffel Tower replica.  The first drop is as near straight-down as I've ever experienced.  Definitely a thrill ride....can't say it was really all that fun, although the lesser drops and the coils were fun..or perhaps they just seem like fun because I was grateful the worst was over and it was supposed to be fun.


So what does this have to do with leapard eels?  I woke up in the night from a terrible dream.  Me and some unknown man were trapped on an island that was surrounded by a fence that somehow we knew was anchored at the bottom of the ocean and was too high to climb over.  We put on scuba diving gear and were going to escape under the fence.  I've never scuba dived in my life but I did it in my dream.  We swam to the bottom of the ocean and found a place where the fence gapped enough from the ocean bottom that we could get through.  I was afraid to go but he went on through and no more than got to the other side when a  leapard eel came and ferociously zapped him.  He was dead instantly and then a bunch of what I thought were leapard eels came into sight to eat the man.  When they got closer I realized they were snakes, not eels, but marked like leapards. 

So where did this dream come from?  Just before I went to sleep, Someone was watching a show on TV about polar bears, and I watched a polar bear attack and kill a 2-ton walrus.  The blood on his white fur, and on the ice he was standing on, was vivid.  The snakes had to come from the diamondback logos all over the roller coaster.  I can't see a snake without dreaming about them in some fashion.  The leapard eel?  That's an unknown.  I did google them because I thought it was something my imagination invented...but they really do exist.  We went to Kings Island primarily for FearFest - Erin loves that sort of thing.  Kings Island has haunted attractions to extend the year (i.e. make more money) and celebrate Halloween.  Someone and I went through a couple of the haunted attractions and when you've seen one, you've seen them all.  It must be that I took all the scary things from the weekend and merged them into my own fear attraction in the form of a dream.  And that reminds me of another fear - I tend to be claustrophic.  Some of the attractions bugged me because they were constructed like mazes with narrow walls and the scuba diving was definitely disturbing....wow....my own FearFest created by me in my sleep.

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