Well. Hello, Dolly.

I'm OK!

I write to you not from beside the hot tub in the lobby, but surrounded by cats in cages. This trip is a bit surreal, but I am - as yet - unharmed.

We slept in and slowly got ready to make the short drive to amusement yesterday. We parked and walked inside and headed toward a roller coaster I wouldn't ride.

"We're done," came the call on my cell phone far sooner than I expected it. So I nodded when I was told there'd been no line and turned around to head back from whence I came. I cheered up over funnel cake and soda (the first of 3 huge diet cokes) and waited again while they rode another scary ride. I watched people and eagles and got pretty bored.

"I'll ride the next one," I pouted and kept my eyes closed and attempted to keep my head steady. I failed on both counts, jostling my brain severely and opening my eyes to find myself facing straight up in the air, hanging upside down and hurtling through the darkness on my side. Freaking ride. I slowly made my way down stairs and blinked rapidly.

Friend and I giggled through a movie ride with seats in motion. "It's like driving with me!" I said as we bounced off other cars and our hosts on the screen yelled about bad drivers. It was fantastic. We stopped for lunch and moved toward the old train. After five pieces of coal dust got in my eyes, I put on my sunglasses and wrinkled my nose over dirty-diaper boy in front of us.

"Seriously?" I asked Friend when she said the carousel was up next. But it was somehow impossibly lovely to wrap my fingers around the gold post and slowly rise and fall on the pretty painted horse while moving around and around. "Let's spin more!" I cried and we moved down a hill and waited in line for the platform that spun around and slid side to side.

"I don't know," I said as I watched people ride while we waited. "This part might be fun," I noted of the beginning. "Then I'll get worried...and then this will start to suck." But I loved the whole thing, full of giggles and squeals and spinning feelings of delight. We moved immediately to tea-cup-esque rides where H, Friend's Former Roommate, used her super strength to make us twirl quickly while I giggled.

"I'm a little sick," I noted, finding a bench while they continued to look at crafts. "You look at candles and wood and stuff. I'll just wait here. Try not to vomit."

"I have a delayed spin response too," H said kindly. I nodded weakly, blinked hard and shuffled toward the next crafty offering. We listened to gorgeous windchimes and finally found blown glass. I bought presents for my mentors back home and we trudged toward the car after stopping to buy baked goods.

I flopped on the bed when we got back to the room. "Katie yells at other drivers," Friend unnecessarily had informed H after I'd scolded people who wouldn't go.

"I know," H replied easily - I like her a lot. "I read her blog."

So there was a shower and pizza and sleeping. There were calls from a giant kitten who has not yet been spayed. She finally unzipped her tent and ran around the room. When someone wakes me up to help catch a cat, the creature seems to move at lightning speeds. But H finally carried her back to her tent and we were treated to soft kitten calls at random intervals.

Now there are cats. And a lengthy and desperate search for coffee (I was finally successful - until then, there was whimpering). But all is well. Hold off on the rescue mission. For now.

Much love (and because of that, I do not wish you were here),
Katie