Roller coasters

Yesterday I rode them all day long. I like to ride roller coasters because I like adrenaline, free fall, speed, all the pretty views you get from such great heights, and I like anything that fills me so full of excitement. My favorite ones are the ones that take you up the highest, because then you get the best views combined with the longest free falls.

My favorite ride from yesterday was one called Superman. It's 168 feet tall (nearly 16 stories), and it is made even better by the fact that the ride is built up right along the side of the cliffs and waterfalls that surround the Six Flags in San Antonio. The ride starts by taking you up to the top of one of those cliffs, then makes a curve and drops you so you are falling right along the side of one of those cliffs and heading straight for one of the little ponds at the bottom.

I digress from the point of this story. The point of this story is that on the bus ride home, if I closed my eyes, I still felt like I was twisting and falling through space like I had been all day long. In fact, every time I closed them I had to open them again just to reassure myself that I was NOT on a roller coaster. And, even though I took my knee brace off as soon as I got on the bus, I could still feel its pressure and itchy material on my skin. I also had to double check that to make sure that I had actually taken if off like I remembered.

So, the point of this story is that sometimes things stay with you long after the situation has changed. No matter how many times I told myself that it wasn't possible for me to be falling, nor was it possible for the brace to still be on my leg, my brain was so used to those feelings and activities that it could still make me feel like those things were going on. Now, the things that I was doing only lasted a day, and the subconscious memory of those things only lasted a few hours, but I can understand how it can be so hard for people to change who they are or how they see the world.

I don't know where this train of thought is taking me, other than to cliches. I really want to understand how the brain works. It fascinates me.