SharkESP
10-06-2003, 01:32 AM
I woke up at 1:30pm today after working in Busch Garden's Howl-O-Scream attraction. This is a park-wide halloween event.
I was called in at 5pm for my first day of work, at 6, I was given my assignment: I would sit inside the eye vat in 1 hour on/half our off shifts until 1am.
The Eye vat is a cylinder with a 2 foot radius and about 30 inches tall. IT is covered with pantyhose-style material with tennis and basket balls painted like eyeballs. THere is a slit in it that is not easily seen, and I must leap from it and scream at the people that approach.
The entire walkway there is set up to move people towards this vat. Thus, I leaped between 100 to 150 times per shift. The heat inside the vat is about 100 degrees, the humidity is 100%, and my costume is a brown wool suit with a hood.
although i drank 15 cups of water on each shift, my body began to break down as the night went on. At 9:30, I became dehydrated. At 11pm, I began to have back spasms.
At 1am, I crawled from the vat unable to sweat and barely able to stand. I limped along the railings to the bus, stripped off my costume, and trembled back to the office. I then returned my costume, walked to the bathroom, laid my head under the sink, and turned on cold water to cool myself.
At 1:35, my temperaturewas under control, but I was praying with my barely audible voice that I wouldn't throw up. I laid on a bench and shivered till 2, when my friend came to pick me up. In soaking myself to cool off, my body became soaked in the night air.
I laid down to sleep at 2:30. woke up 11 hours later, and have stayed in bed watching baseball all day. My voice trembles, my body aches, and I can feel pain in my abs with every word i speak.
I'm getting better, but this is the worst pain i've ever known. My dad believes I had a heatstroke last night, and my body is not recovering quickly. I'll live, but I don't know how I survived last night.
<P ID="signature">Peace Sells, but who's buyin? - Dave Mustaine</P>
I was called in at 5pm for my first day of work, at 6, I was given my assignment: I would sit inside the eye vat in 1 hour on/half our off shifts until 1am.
The Eye vat is a cylinder with a 2 foot radius and about 30 inches tall. IT is covered with pantyhose-style material with tennis and basket balls painted like eyeballs. THere is a slit in it that is not easily seen, and I must leap from it and scream at the people that approach.
The entire walkway there is set up to move people towards this vat. Thus, I leaped between 100 to 150 times per shift. The heat inside the vat is about 100 degrees, the humidity is 100%, and my costume is a brown wool suit with a hood.
although i drank 15 cups of water on each shift, my body began to break down as the night went on. At 9:30, I became dehydrated. At 11pm, I began to have back spasms.
At 1am, I crawled from the vat unable to sweat and barely able to stand. I limped along the railings to the bus, stripped off my costume, and trembled back to the office. I then returned my costume, walked to the bathroom, laid my head under the sink, and turned on cold water to cool myself.
At 1:35, my temperaturewas under control, but I was praying with my barely audible voice that I wouldn't throw up. I laid on a bench and shivered till 2, when my friend came to pick me up. In soaking myself to cool off, my body became soaked in the night air.
I laid down to sleep at 2:30. woke up 11 hours later, and have stayed in bed watching baseball all day. My voice trembles, my body aches, and I can feel pain in my abs with every word i speak.
I'm getting better, but this is the worst pain i've ever known. My dad believes I had a heatstroke last night, and my body is not recovering quickly. I'll live, but I don't know how I survived last night.
<P ID="signature">Peace Sells, but who's buyin? - Dave Mustaine</P>