A True Halloween Experience!

So, I went out to lunch with my family, just a regular old fun activity, trying to keep it simple. As I left my cane in the car, I mentioned to David that I should grab it. He said, "Oh, it's not a big deal, we are just going to walk in, sit down, eat our food, and walk out. It's not that far. If you need help, just lean on me." I thought to myself, "Oh, I can do that, no big deal." That's what we thought...

We get there, not many people. Perfect. No music. Perfect. Not a lot of stimulation. Thank goodness. Then the restaurant starts to fill up a little bit more with people. Soon, the owner decides to turn on some Salsa music. How do I explain what happened next? The music was so much stimulation for my little brain, that the rest of my body decided to shut down. While sitting on the bench, I slumped over (falling onto my son), I couldn't talk or walk. Seriously, I was trapped and couldn't do anything about it. Oh, let's just add, I started sobbing uncontrollably. I felt very stuck. I guess the stimulation was so drastic, that I could not respond to anything else. David, was begging me, "What should I do? Carry you out? Ask the owner to stop the music?" I could not even nod my head in response. All the while, my son, was scared, wondering why I was crying. 

So, how did we fix this problem? My husband finally figured it out, that in order to get me out of there, we needed the music off. He kindly and awkwardly asked the owner to please turn the music off-- his wife had a large headache. Luckily the owner complied. Once the music was off, you could only hear my sobs. My crying was amplified with the lack of music...so David sweetly asked me to "keep it down." After about 10 minutes of recovery time with no music, I was able to become responsive again, calm my nerves, and eventually escape that Halloween-ish experience. (Needless to say, David wished I had brought my cane as I walked out using him as a surrogate cane.)