Danny ChaiI’m old.
I decided I wanted to spend my last free day on Wednesday with Jieun at Great America, somewhat in an attempt to regain my lost youth. Age wise, we were totally out of place. Park was filled with [Jr.] High schoolers awkwardly interacting with the opposite sex and parents taking their kids, nothing in between. I love watching awkward teenagers, especially boys trying to be cool in front of girls. Amuses me to no end.
Anyway, our age made us stick out enough. But besides that, I dunno, I’m slowing down. We started off with that ride where it’s just a bunch of swings in a big circle, it slowly rises and spins more rapidly. A nice easy ride. Thing is, I was surprisingly winded after it. It was embarrassing.
We rode something else then this new ride Invertigo, something like that, where the seats are back to back, so you go forwards in one direction, then return in a backwards position. I nearly blacked out, and afterwards, while the kids immediately run off to the next ride, Jieun and I need to pause to regain our bearings. In fact, we take a break by doing another old person thing – watching a show. I used to hate it when my parents would want to waste our time at an amusement park with shows. Now I’m them. It’s sad.
Thing is, we enjoyed it. Only because we were in it, I think. It’s this Magic of the Movies thing where they take people in the audience and do random things like make sound effects. We were picked to demonstrate the green screen. We went up in front of the green screen and were inserted into scenes from Titanic, with a big bow prop, Jieun with a red wig, fan blowing her hair, her doing the “I’m flying” thing and me yelling “I’m king of the world!” I dunno, it was fun.
It was also nice seeing the hot dog place I worked at summer of ’95. They’ve branched out – they sell corn dogs now also. But it’s largely the same. Still next to the burger place and the nacho place with cheese that turns a distressing shade of red when it dries on your shirt. Good times. I dunno, the whole day, I wanted to go up to all the employees in the park, put my hand on their shoulder and say, “I understand.”
At any rate, Jieun’s a saint, she’s always game for these random whims I have, like this Great America thing or going to SF for oysters or whatever. Very supportive. I don’t think women realize how much men want to be supported. Just my opinion. But yeah, there’s a reason why like in Proverbs it repeatedly warns against a quarrelsome wife. Nothing destroys a man’s sense of being a man more than an overly critical wife. Just decimates them. Everyone should have a wife like Jieun.