Seasickness is pretty brutal. I'd heard that many times, and Waugh's references to it in Brideshead Revisited stand out for some reason, but I experienced it for the first time yesterday.
One of my law partners leases 30-foot sail boats on Lake Michigan. For a set fee, he gets 11 days of sailing during the summer. He took the rest of us and our spouses out yesterday. The entire trip lasted about two hours, and most of it was spent furling and unfurling sails, but I wasn't very helpful: (1) I don't know anything about sailing (it was my first time on a sail boat), and (2) I thought I might be feeling a little nauseous as soon as the boat started rocking. The waves were fairly big (four feet maybe), but nothing intimidating. It didn't matter. Within an hour, I was unsteady and could feel the Mal der Mer coming. I was going to ruin everyone's trip.
Fortunately, the firm's managing partner saved the day. He lost it about an hour into the trip, so we headed back (no seasick goat for me). Despite sitting in rocky waters for 30 minutes while the healthy people brought in the sails, I was able to get back to dry land without getting sick. Though I promptly violated a bush about 200 feet from the dock, it was better than telling everyone on board that "My name is Raaaaalph." In fact, even though it was a public dock, no one walked by while I was looking for my contact lens in the bush (my prepared excuse if anyone asked what I was doing, though I suspect the noise and full body heaves would've belied the excuse).
After I felt steady enough to move, Marie and I went to Four Winds, Michigan's newest casino, to eat lunch and celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary (which was yesterday). It opened 16 days ago. It's very nice. Its gaming floor is huge, far bigger than the other casinos in Michigan (and, I'm told, bigger than all the Las Vegas casinos's gaming floors, except one). It also, based on my experience yesterday, has better slots and video poker odds than other Indian casinos, which have a bad reputation for tight slots (a reputation that is deserved, based on my losses the last five times I've gone to one of the other Indian casinos). The blackjack tables are pricey compared to other Indian casinos ($15 minimum, and this was on a Friday afternoon, when many tables were open), but I was able to play slots and video poker for an hour and walk away with a 50 cent profit.
Things finally return to normal today, more or less. From now until after Labor Day, we have no visitors or trips planned (with the exception of one day trip with the children). We've had visitors all this week and most of the previous week, we were at Frankenmuth last weekend, and two weeks ago we vacationed up north. I'm craving to get back to normal, and normalcy starts now.
In fact, it's even a little better than normal. My wife is leaving for Detroit today and taking all the kids with her, except Alex. But he's 14 and can diaper himself. He's also a highly self-entertaining kid, so he won't mind reading or just hanging out while I catch up on my sleep, go to the office, read, and write. I'll take him out to dinner tonight and a movie tomorrow afternoon, but other than that, we should have a nice weekend. I'm intensely looking forward to it.
