MS Gets On My Nerves

BIBLE LESSONS

I was shopping with my daughters in Lodi on a trip to visit family and we were in a very expensive shoe store, “just looking”.  The music was raunchy rock from the cross-dressing group Queen.  I commented that the music was straight from the pit of Hell.  Stephanie, not hearing me well, asked, “from where?”  I replied, “from last week’s Bible lesson.”  She immediately understood, knowing that the lesson had been on “The Reality of Hell.”  After a brief pause to look at a pair of especially tacky shoes in a bright patchwork of colors, I commented that they were not something I would want to wear.  Stephanie piped up and asked, “Who in the Bible lesson would want to wear those shoes?”

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MS Gets On My Nerves©

   The Sandpaper
It had been 30 years since I rode the narrow gauge rails at Roaring Camp.  I wanted to introduce my husband to the fun of an open air steam train ride through the redwoods for our 28th anniversary in July.  So we ditched the heat of California's central valley for the coast and a weekend of cooler weather and good old fashioned fun!

On Friday we headed for the 98 year old Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.   It is California’s oldest amusement park and home to two National Historic Landmarks: the 1911 Looff Carousel and 1924 wooden-trestle Giant Dipper roller coaster.  Naturally, we rode both of them, plus took a ride on the Ferris Wheel after dark and had a blast listening to the teenage boys scream!

We both joined Weight Watchers® last fall and are enjoying the results.  We fit comfortably into the seats on the Giant Dipper!  Yea!   One of the cool things we both love about Weight Watchers® is the flexibility of the menu plans.  We can eat anything we want, as long as we keep track of the Points® value and stay within our daily allowance.  We planned our meals around the evening, had a light, healthy breakfast and lunch, drank plenty of water, then shared some garlic fries, a corndog, a sourdough bowl of clam chowder and some deep fried artichoke hearts at the Boardwalk.  So maybe it wasn't the most nutritious meal of the weekend.  It was FUN!  Plus we walked a lot, so that had to count for something.  But my legs tire easily.   For a kid that used to run up mountains and rappel down them, MS has been a big, disappointing energy drain!  So I must look for humor where it lurks, and coax it out, come what may.

Saturday was the day we chose for Roaring Camp Railroad, and it was pretty warm.  The photo above is of my husband Mark and myself seated on the train.  I had my "MS Kit" with me, which I had purchased and put together several years ago after reading a short article in one of the MS journals on being prepared.  Among other things, the kit includes a bottle of drinking water (preferably cold) and a spray mister for cooling me off instantaneously on demand.   I kept using the mister and it felt wonderful in that heat!  Our cute little conductor shouted the history and scenery descriptions, deftly stepping in between the moving cars as he walked along. 

While on the trip, we had an opportunity to stop and get a picture in front of the engine and trek around a bit, and I noted that my legs were getting more and more tired with every step.  When we pulled back into the station, I was delighted that Mark suggested shopping at the General Store, where I found hand crafted wooden trekking poles with leather straps.  I had read about them in one of the MS journals and was determined to come home with one before summer was over.  I bought two.  I have since used them on a fishing trip and in Yosemite, and they are very helpful in propelling me along the trails.  I highly recommend them.

The humorous part of this story turned out to be one of those situations where "it's not funny now, but some day we'll laugh about it."  I had booked our hotel after doing some online research and remembering someone I knew who had stayed there years before.  Well, let me tell you, times change, and so do hotel owners.   We arrived early Friday afternoon, checked in, paid 100% of the bill in advance and rested a bit before hitting the Boardwalk. So far, so good.

After an enjoyable evening at the Boardwalk and a summer concert by Colin Hay, watching aging Boomers sing, dance and rock to the music, we packed it in and headed back to the hotel.  It's an older little place called the Sandpiper Lodge.  Sounds romantic and beachy, doesn’t it?  We had to check out the TV remote control at the front desk.  A little weird.  There was no room service.  Okay.  We were on the second floor.  At least there was a rickety elevator in working order.

During the night I kept waking up and feeling something "not quite right" at my feet.  We had a room with a King size bed and I was way too tired to get out of bed and attempt an investigation in the wee hours.  There was something kind of scratchy and something else that felt distinctly like a mattress with no cover or sheet.  I kept telling myself I must have kicked something off, and worked my feet to rearrange the sheet.  Perhaps in my weariness I was imagining things and should just go back to sleep and wait for morning.

I succeeded in waiting for morning, but was up with the sun.  As soon as Mark was up, I pulled back the covers to have a look, and sure enough there was no sheet or mattress pad across about two to three feet at the bottom of the mattress.  Weird.  I went down to the office to try and check out so we could go to one of the other plentiful inns in the area and seek lodging, but was refused and told in broken English that I had booked through a website (NOT true).  I had actually spoken to the owners' daughter and she had booked the room for me, but I didn't figure that out until checkout the next morning.  They told me I could not have my money back, and for some reason, I chose not to fight. 

Feeling very frustrated and slightly angry, I went back upstairs.  When I spied the proprietor's wife, I asked her for clean sheets so I could make the bed properly.  She seemed shocked.  So I offered to show her the problem.  When we had pulled the sheets back, we found the mattress pad was not only too small for the bed, but had hairs and blood stains on it.  Eeew!  I insisted on fresh linens and checked them thoroughly before placing them on the bed, assuring the owner's wife that I was very capable of making a bed, I'd been a registered nurse for 30 years, and NO, I did NOT want maid service if this was an example of the best their maids could do.

After we calmed down and got cleaned up and dressed, we stopped at Denney's for breakfast and enjoyed a healthy meal while we talked things over.  I started thinking about the scratchy mattress pad and the overall abrasive attitude of the staff and christened the place the "Sandpaper Lodge."  Then we started laughing!

A few hours later, after the train ride and our visit to the General Store, Mark and I went outdoors and enjoyed cooling off with root beer floats at picnic tables covered with red and white checked cloths under the shade of some lovely old trees.

After we finished our refreshments, we got in the car and drove up the road through one tiny coastal mountain town after another, marveling at the quaint architecture of the older buildings, enjoying the shade and cool sweetness of the redwoods and laurel trees, then back down into a café for some gourmet coffee drinks and a cel phone call to one of our daughters. 

Altogether, it had been a good day.  We went back to the Sandpaper for a freshen up and decided where to eat dinner.  We ended up at a lovely fish restaurant overlooking the water where we could use a meal coupon.  After dinner, we strolled along the pier arm in arm as we listened for the call of gulls, watched the lights of the Boardwalk glimmer and shine from a distance and counted our blessings.

In keeping with my quest for a good turtle, Mark bought me a tiny turtle charm for my bracelet and I also found a cute sea turtle for "Grandma's toy box."  He bought a 1/8 pound piece of peanut butter fudge and a smidge of chocolate something-or-other.  We're keeping it real.  Both of us have lost 50 pounds since joining Weight Watchers® and we love those times when we can just have a bite of something really yummy without guilt.

We've discovered you can burn more calories when you have a good hard laugh too, so our goal is to keep up that internal jogging by learning to lighten up, laugh and live!