Shields Up Scotty!

Visit to the park, continued.

After Top Gun it was time for dinner. Park food was just not an option. We left the park and walked to an Irish pub. The map said it would take 20 minutes, and, sure enough, it took us 20 minuted to get there and discover that it was closed for remodeling. Yay for smart-phones, we were able to find another place nearby that was actually open at five on a Sunday night, and wasn't fast food. We had a couple of hours before the Haunt part opened, so we ate Sports Bar food, drank, and hung out. We got back to the park around 9 pm, after dark. Let the fun begin.

The thing about these "Haunts" is that they are small, confusing, loud, dark, smoky and you never know when someone is jump out or scream at you. I may be old, but the stress of never knowing when something is going to happen gives me a headache after a while. I know everyone goes in with different expectations. My daughter, for instance, worked in that kind of place for a couple of years, so she goes in with a kind of professional interest, scoping out the tricks and techniques. Other kids go in vowing not to be "scared," and they usually lose. Which isn't surprising since you don't get frighted in these places, just startled, and reacting to sudden, loud noises is build in to our DNA.

Anyway, ever since the first ride, I had been feeling sick. Even after dinner I still had a kind of woozy, light-headedness and ear ringing, and a bit of a tension headache. Later, after several Haunts and lots of unbelievably loud music and sound effects, I still felt about the same. I just wanted to leave, but I knew the others wouldn't go for that, so I stuck it out. And I was also feeling a bit left out, my wife and daughter were having a tight thing going on that I just couldn't relate to, and it was so loud I couldn't hear them anyway. Next time, I'll let them go alone.

While waiting in line for a Haunt, I began to think that the energy of the place was getting to me and maybe it was time to stop feeling sorry for myself and focus outward, instead. So I started people-watching instead of complaining to myself and that passed the time a bit better. In the line to the next Haunt, I got the idea that I could put a "shield" around myself. I could try, anyway, what could it hurt, and it would pass the time, since I was left to my own devices. So, I imagined an "energy shield" around me. White light, but I didn't really give it a shape, just sort of a circle around me. I didn't put a lot of effort into it, just "pretending" it was there and protecting me from the "stuff" outside. The funny thing is, it worked. Within a couple of minutes, my headache was gone and the foggy, wooziness lifted. I was still a little light-headed, but that turned out to be lack of food. It's a problem these days. I don't really get hungry and, if I get busy, I just forget to eat. And when I do eat, I don't eat anywhere as much as I used to.

Did the shield thing actually do anything, was it "real?" Maybe I felt better just because it was a way of having some control over my environment. I noticed throughout the evening that I have a need for control that can cause me a lot of stress when thwarted, and that day I was totally at the mercy of my companions and had no decisions to make. Nice in some ways, stressful in others. On the other hand, maybe there really is energy in these places, packed with people, and I've gotten more sensitive to it. Especially when I'm hungry. I now need to habitually protect myself with energy techniques. I used to have solid emotional shields around my feelings. But now I've stripped those away, I need other ways to keep out the emotional, i.e. energy, noise of the everyday world. So shields it is.