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Home > Wendy Does Waco > Archives > 2008 > October > 03 > Entry
Sleepy girl seeks vicarious scary fun
Once again, it’s the end of the week and here I am, handing out assignments to you, my dear readers.
See, I was flipping through Waco Today today and noticed the millions of things that are going on in the area this month. And I want to do ALL of them. But there is a certain genre of activity which, despite my desire to attend, I must stay far away from. Haunted houses.
I love the real thing (and that’s a whole nother blog post), but I CAN NOT go through a Halloween haunted house. It’s actually a medical problem.
You probably thought narcolepsy was weird because it’s a brain disorder that makes people fall asleep, but the sleepy part is actually the most normal of the narcolepsy symptoms. There’s something else called cataplexy that means when I feel a strong emotion, I lose muscle control.
Examples: Eddie Murphy’s Delirious stand-up makes me laugh so hard, I fall over on the sofa and pass out. Sometimes at work I get so angry about this or that, I have to immediately sit in my chair or I will literally crumple to the floor where I’m standing (have you ever tried to win an argument when you’ve lost the ability to stand or even speak? You kind of lose all cred at that point). And if someone jumps out at me in a Jason mask with a chainsaw (mixing my movies, I know), I will fall like a sack of potatoes and pass out.
Show of hands, who learned of narcolepsy by watching a film in your high school psychology class where a dog is running across a lawn and suddenly drops and passes out. That’s me at a haunted house. I’ve been to one ever. In 9th grade, as my narcolepsy was just showing up, but I had no idea I had it, I went to a haunted house with friends. After the first scare, I nearly lost it, I had to grab on to the person in front of me just to make it through (like I wasn’t already enough of a freak in high school, I really needed THAT to happen).
Now I’m a grown up narcoleptic and I know my limits, but still long for a good scare. So I’ll make you a deal. I’m going to the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art Saturday morning with my super cool Dallas friends Susie and Shawn. I promise to tell you about it if you promise to tell me about local haunted houses.
So go, get your pants scared off and think of me, the poor sleepy girl who can’t partake in that kind of fun. Tell me which places are the best and why. Make me jealous. Do it. I dare you. I double dog dare you. (so now you have to)
Have a great weekend!!!
Comments
By Clyde L Harris
October 5, 2008 8:03 AM | Link to this
I have had that feeling of not being able to speak at times, but it is generally my wife talking and I really don’t want to say anything, too dangerous.
I get weak knees when frightened, but then I was cured by driving down Hillsboro streets and waiting for a stop sign runner to t-bone me.
By Fred
October 6, 2008 4:08 AM | Link to this
Hey Wendy……you want “scary”? Try driving around the numerous East Waco Crack-houses…..at night?
By El Diablo
October 6, 2008 6:02 PM | Link to this
I ain’t narcoleptic, but I have been known to be narCOTICaleptic. And Mark too. We used to consume various chemical compounds and other materials that would make us sleep spontaneously, for days at a time, and even spontaneously.
It was out in Roxboro, NC. The year was 1987. Mark uttered the words that would ring in my ears for decades to come. After ingesting copious amounts of narcotics and Budweiser, he was participating in the North Carolina Ceiling Fan Rodeo when, all of a sudden, he dropped his beer can…which landed softly and in an upright position upon the shag carpet — without spilling a drop.
After a few more minutes, I said, “Hey, why don’t you pick up your beer?”
Mark eventually climbed down from the ceiling and calmly replied, “What’s the hurry, maaaan?”
(Just for the record, when Mark was in the US Navy, he once won a staring contest with a victim of the Mt. Vesuvius disaster.)
By KDF
October 6, 2008 6:07 PM | Link to this
You and me are deleted again, El Diablo. I will have to take my blogs elsewhere. Of course, no one else will want to see them. Love all of you!!!!! <><
By mark
October 6, 2008 6:28 PM | Link to this
Please take me back to Pompeii, I miss my Vesuvius de Milo.
By Lurker
October 8, 2008 9:01 AM | Link to this
Wendy! Where are you? I’m a lurker who’s finally speaking out because I miss my daily Wendy fix. How can I start my day off right if I don’t have a new post to read?
By Q
October 15, 2008 11:25 AM | Link to this
W- I had a ‘Wendy does Waco’ marathon this morning! I’m all caught up now. I finally made it in your blog-Yeah!