Welcome to the World of Thin

For my niece's 9th birthday, I take her to the local amusement park. (I take her and her brother every year. It was just "the girls" this year.) Somewhere along the last year, she outgrew the kiddie rides. It was fast and furious roller coasters on this trip. (which of course, I do not like.) I tried as hard as I could not to show her my anxiety, since she was being so brave. (sidenote here: You know how you can buy those pictures at the amusement park that show the look on your face while you're riding the coasters?? I bought three of them.....plus the video. Eyes closed, teeth clenched, white knuckles, hair askew and a little bit of drool in the corner of my mouth. You can actually see the silent scream coming out of me. That's how freaking funny it was. Mr. Hummingbird hung one picture in our hallway, for all to see. He'll regret that one later...trust me. )
I was on swings. (ACK!)
I was on flippy cars. (ACK! ACK!)
I was on pendulum pirate boats. (ACK! ACK! ACK!)
I was soaking wet, riding logs. (ACK! ACK! ACK! ACK!)
Finally, I convinced her to "just see" what was in the kiddie area.

We make our way over to the kiddie rides. She rides a few rides with me, just for old times sakes. She's a little bored, so we make our way over to the "kiddie roller coaster". It's small, and rickety. (It looks like an instant backache.) As we're waiting in line, there is a .....ummmm.....scary guy standing in front of us. (Scary in the sense that he's probably familiar with the inside of a jail cell. Maybe several times over.) He's standing in line with a young girl, around 6 years old, and a similarly scary woman. Obviously, they are a family. They are also very overweight. All of them. The young girl is maybe "chubby" while the mom and dad are seriously about 200 lbs overweight. Since I've been in those shoes, I don't judge them.

In front of them in line, there is a younger girl, maybe 4 yrs old. She is with a man, obviously her father. This man is pretty big too. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt, that must have been custom made because of it's size.

We all stand in line, avoiding eye contact. We slowly make our way to the platform. Right as we get close, Scary guy gets out of line, leaving Scary mom and their girl. (later, I realize that there was no way he could fit in the seat.) Scary mom strikes up a conversation with Hawaiian shirt. She asks him if he thinks the two girls can ride together. (Again, I don't realize this until later, but there is no way either of the two parents would fit in the ride.) They agree, and they looked relieved. My niece and I climbed into our seats. The two young girls fill the seats in the car in front of us. Suddenly, the older girl starts to freak out a little. She doesn't want to go on without her mom. The mom is trying hard to convince her to stay. The girl isn't buying it. She wants out. And if she gets out, the younger girl can't ride either. The Scary mom is looking desperate.
"I'll ride with her," I say.
I turn and look at my niece.
"Go sit with the little girl." She gets up and moves to the cart in front of me, sitting next to the younger girl. The older girl sits next to me. She's still afraid. Scary mom and Hawaiian shirt are herded towards the exit.
"Are you scared?" I ask her as the ride starts.
She nods.
"Do you know how to ride a bike?"
Her face lights up when I ask her this.
"Yeah, I can ride really fast too!"
"Well, there you go. Your bike is going to be faster than this ride."
She starts shrieking, as the ride is making it's first turn. For a second, I start to worry that she is crying. Then....I realize that she's giggling. The ride is over before we realize it.
My niece helps the younger girl out of the cart, and we all head to the exit. Scary dad is there, and his daughter is telling him, "again! again!" He's so happy that she loved the ride. (I no longer see a scary guy, but a regular dad who was excited for his daughter.) He corners me, and asks me how I convinced her to ride. I repeated our conversation, and halfway through it, he starts laughing and cheering.
"Good answer! Good answer!" He thanks me again, and takes his daughter back on the coaster.
A few minutes later, we see Hawaiian shirt walking around. He stops and thanks me for taking his daughter on the ride.

It's not until way later that night that I realize that I was now one of those "thin adults". I never gave it a second thought on whether I was going to fit in the rides. Before, I would just walk the kids to the entrance, and then wait for them at the exit. This time, I was completely in the experience with my niece.
It's now a different world for me.