I have an extensive history of getting car sick.

You might be thinking, ok well how bad can that be? I’ve gotten car sick before. Although that may be true I seriously doubt you get car sick as frequently as me. I’ve gotten car sick way too many times to count, if I’m in a car for more than 30 minutes I often find myself getting intensely sick. One time I was a just down the road from my grandparent's house and I couldn’t hold it in. Fortunately, I opened the car door and managed to aim out of the car at the dirt road that crunched under the weight of our car. Most of the time I get car sick on car rides that are about thirty minutes to an hour or more and consist of twisty and turny roads. One way or another getting car sick has become almost inevitable for me which really sort of stinks.

  It especially stinks when you are with your friend and his parents in the parking lot of Six Flags New England.
It all happened so fast, I didn’t even know it was coming. One second my feet were dry, the next they were drenched with vomit. Luckily my parents somehow convinced me to bring an extra pair of old sandals along which really saved me from having an immensely uncomfortable day. Since the sun was high in the sky and it was sweltering outside, Ryan's parents didn’t want to leave my rotten smelling socks and shoes in the Hyundai. I can’t imagine why. So we decided to hide them under the car. Little did I know it wasn’t far enough.

Ryan and I wanted to go on all the crazy rides first and since it was early there weren't really any lines to wait around and complain about. We hopped in line for Bizarro, the park's most prestigious ride. In a few minutes, we were at the top of the coaster’s climb about to plummet down at an almost ninety-degree angle. My heart was throbbing. Within seconds I felt that weird sensation when you plummet down and your stomach rises to your chest. As we descended and surged around a corner into a dimly lit tunnel I began to really enjoy the ride. We zoomed around a couple of turns and darted up a few hills until we started to decelerate. The ride was thrilling, so thrilling we went on it  four times in a row. By then we knew all the twists and turns and all the hills and tunnels that lay on the track before us so after the fourth ride it wasn’t as fun.

We wanted to hit at least one more ride before we had lunch so we walked to the right side of the park where a much less terrifying ride was. The ride was called Batman, it didn’t tower as high as Bizarro but it had some loops and corkscrews that Ryan and I thought looked insane. Before we knew it we were pulling the safety locks over our heads and the ride instructors were coming around to make sure we were all secure in our seats. They checked me then Ryan.

“All good,” the employee said. I flashed him thumbs up and smiled.

The ride started and we were sent rocketing towards a small drop. The loops and corkscrews went by swiftly but were definitely very cool. There was one thing about this ride that stood out, though. Through the entire ride, I never feared that I would fall out. Other rides that were less smooth often violently shook the coaster making me paranoid when the coaster did loops but not this one. The ride slowed to a stop and Ryan and I hopped out of our seats.
 

We decided to not to go on any rides after that, the fear of having our lunch come back up held us to our words. We found Ryan’s parents and we worked our way out of the park and back to the car. I had completely forgotten about the puke covered socks and shoes. They hadn't even entered my thoughts once that day.

When we reached the car Ryan’s mom reminded me about my footwear. I checked under the car and saw my shoes but my socks were nowhere to be seen. I asked Ryan's parents if they did anything to them, but they hadn't. I was puzzled. The wind couldn't have blown them away because I had really pushed them into my shoes and there weren’t any strong winds at all that day. Then I thought maybe an animal had stolen them but I couldn’t think of any animal that would have a desire for puke covered socks.

I concluded that the socks had been stolen.

It seemed unlikely at the time but hey, I had just gone on a handful of roller coasters and even though I get motion sick all the time not once did I throw up. So right then anything seemed possible. As I thought on my hypothesis began to make more sense.  The socks I had been wearing were Nike Elites, which were very popular at the time because of their vibrant and intriguing colors, and they weren’t cheap. Perfect socks to steal, even if they are covered in puke I guess. Talk about weird.

I learned two important life lessons that day, first being car sickness doesn’t come into play when you ride roller coasters and second never leave anything for people to take because even if you may think of it as gross, disgusting, and trash  bound someone else might think of it as a perfect, pristine, and truly delightful surprise to take home with them.and truly delightful surprise to take home with them.