kid fantasy/adult nightmare

on wednesday after the holiday weekend, several people from CSz went to six flags great america, about 35 miles outside of chicago. boy, it was a grand old time. we left around 10am and had high hopes for the holiday rush being over. we sure were right.

what was once a dream quickly became reality - and we realized that everything we had hoped for was right in our laps... a theme park with no lines. until about 6pm, everything we rode had maybe a 15 minute wait. that was nothing. bits flew in the lines we waited in, making those short waits even more bearable. we rode anything we could get our paws on, only breaking for quick, gross items served only on sticks and in funnel shapes, then taking a hiatus at the water park to cool off. at 7pm, we saw maybe the best thing ever created - a tribute to the stars performance that was REMARKABLY GOOD AND SIMULTANEOUSLY BAD, giving us a full day of everything we dreamed. at 8pm, though, it got even better. everyone, everyone - they all left the park. we went back to the raging bull and rode it within 5 minutes. we then sprinted to batman, rode in the first car, and returned to the station. upon return, we realized there was no line. do you guys want to go again?, the 6 flags operators asked, and we excitedly screamed yes. we went on three times in a row until we almost gagged on our own giddyness and vomited from concussions. we closed the night out with the superman ride, a coaster that suspends you horizontally to the ground. this bad boy threw us all over the edge.

we stumbled to the parking lot, beaten down and abused for our overachievements, around 10pm. each of us had turned from a sun-pinked youth to a green-faced cripple.

it was worth it.