Today we floated down the river. my butt still hurts. I was thankfully a bit more prepared this time. and thanks to bigJ I now had my own personal lil raft. our friend cloo was supposed to come today but ended up having to take care of something with his boy so that meant the only raft we had ever used was now out of the picture. A and SB's raft would definitely only hold them. We had a tube floatie from last week but apparently we left it in cloo's car. so we head to Big5 to get more tubes and come out with a 2 person raft instead. I would end up using bigJ's one person raft. He was going to ride with C and help her not drown since shes scared of water and all.
we make it out of the house like an hour after we originally planned but thats fine. drop off one car and ride to the set off point. SB brought a pump that hooks to the car battery so the rafts are all inflated pretty fast.
C and A have life jackets on and we're not even by the water yet. silly silly. As we put our rafts in the water people start to make fun of my tiny one man raft. har har guys. I dont make things easier for myself when I get in because I am just so not full of grace. I let about a gallon of water in with me.
How the hell do I steer this thing? I cant sit up with my legs stretched out because this dingy raft is too short and my legs go up over the edge. my butt is in the middle of the raft so I try to scooch back and then more water comes in. awesome. I scoot forward and thats definitely a bad idea too. I give up. I stick the paddle in the water and start to make my way away from the launch site. only I dont actually do that. I very quickly realize that this raft doesnt steer well if youre not sitting in it right. and only one paddle makes me spin. thats fun. I havent even barely gotten into the river and Im already bumping into people. thats nice.
finally we're all on the water and I think I kinda know what Im doing to make myself move. I cant decide if I would rather have someone take care of me so I could not have to think about things as much and let someone else make the decisions or if I prefer to just have to worry about myself and not have to try to pretend like I have everything under control.
Here comes the first "rapids". as a group we choose a side to stick to and down we go. this is way more comfortable in the raft as opposed to the chair thing I took last week. and having a paddle to steer with is so much nicer.
I sure wish I could figure out a better way to sit in this stupid thing. its already much better than last week. we hang out close to each other ion the calm spots and take the rapid on our own. well me on my own...I definitely felt a little lonely out there and wished I had someone to take charge in a rafting type situation.
Im doing my best to not hit rocks this time. I make sure Im not going to hit a wall or a tree (like last week). I remember this bend...theres a rock wall and I remember cloo had to use his feet to keep us from hitting this last week. I can see C and bigJ in front of me trying to keep themselves away from the wall. I prepare my feet and at the last minute realize its just not going to work so I stick my paddle out and suddenly Im spinning around and then I see another rock and then Im in the water. it's deep and thankfully I dont hit a rock. I come up for a second and realize I have to grab my raft before it floats away. I hop on it but it's upside down so I cant get in. why cant I get in? I gotta flip this over. I can hear bigJ yelling at me to see if Im ok.
I got this. I am ok. I flip the raft over and try to get in but thats totally not going to happen. so I float on top for a second before I realize I have to gert my paddle! my oar is running away. grab grab grab! bigJ says not to worry about it. eff that! its basically right there. swim swim get. I lost the bottle he gave me to use for getting the water out of my tiny dingy raft. too bad. I gotta get back in this thing. Ill just swim over to that wall and hop back in. swimming sure is hard in rapids while trying to also hold a raft and a paddle. I see a couple stairs in the wall a couple feet in front of me and decide to get myself over there. and then suddenly Im on stairs...in the water. this staircase goes way underwater. my whole body is shaking. why is my whole body shaking? my whole body?? I cant even figure out how to get in. finally I get back in. bigJ is asking if Im ok again. yes Im fine. Im fine damn it. ignore the shaky appendages. I can see my bottle floating ahead. Im totally gonna get it. thank god for calm water.
And then theres not calm water. floaty floaty. paddle paddle. OUCH! rock in my butt. Im pretty sure that instantly turned purple. I can actually feel it turn purple. wanna know what purple feels like? pain. thats what.
Another bend, another issue. This time we (me and A and SB) find the vortex in the water. we had to avoid the tree in the water! and then no matter how hard we paddled we barely moved. isnt that awesome. Somehow we finally got moving.
You know whats fun? spinning your one man raft in circles really fast. I did that a lot.
This day on the river was much more comfortable than last time. I do still have water in my ear from that flip though...
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday 6/30
After work I went to dinner at C's cousins house.
which by the way is 30 minutes from my house.
Way on the other side of town.
in a different town.
It has been forever since I last saw B and holy hell I forgot how funny that chick is. Downside: she of course has a child. Im not saying that children are a downside. just that for me....well I think they can sense that I dont really like them. This one was no different. She was trying to play with C who was sitting right next to me and as soon as she saw me she just stopped. and stared at me.
Stared into my soul.
she wouldn't get close to me at all. not that I mind that. Much less pressure to pretend like I know what Im doing. She looked at my face and I said "whats up?" and she looked away and occupied herself by playing with C. C told the little girl to give me hugs. She stared at me again. B said she's not normally so shy and I told her not to worry about it. I know she's not being shy she just knows better than to try and get close to someone that isn't child friendly.
B finished the spaghetti (home made sauce with fried onions and peppers....yummy!) and set the baby up in her high chair with food. She made the baby strip to her diaper so she couldn't get sauce stains on everything in sight. Apparently that wasn't going to be a problem anyway because she didn't want to eat her noodles and sauce. just her salad. and some of her moms salad. she likes salad. Kinda fun to watch a child eat noodles with her fingers...
There was a cat by the door. the way it was laying down made it look like it only had 3 lets. I was certain I would have been told the story of the 3 legged cat so I knew there had to be a fourth leg in there somewhere...I decided not to ask about it. That's why everyone was so confused when the cat got up and I suddenly said "there's the other leg! I knew you had 4 legs!". B and C looked at me like I was crazy. I had to explain myself...as I so often have to.
At one point we were at the table and B was telling us to be careful when petting the not 3 legged cat because he likes to give love bites. I said cats never give me love bites. I always assume theyre going to give me a love bite so I dont pull away and then they bite me. They don't give me love bites. They give me hate bites. And then C was spitting. My "hate bites" remark made her laugh and she had just taken a drink of her water so she spit a bunch of it out. she caught some though. not really.
The baby (I suppose she would technically be a child not a baby) played with C by standing on her legs and bouncing like a loon. up and down up and down up and down. her dirty feet are leaving weird marks on C's jeans. another reason I dont like them. theyre messy.
Eventually we made our way from B's place back home before going to the same bar we go to every friday. The bar is on the opposite end of town. because I like to drive like a pinball as often as possible.
On the way to the bar C texts the karaoke DJ (she's known him forever and a half and thats how we ended up going to the same bar every friday in our early 20's, to keep the KJ company) and asks if Dale is there. Dale is the old creeper at the bar. he's not there every week but when he is I get scared. Hes gotta be in his 60's and once he told me my toenail polish was the perfect color for the season. Hot pink = summer I guess. The next week he told C the same thing. It was the same shade. He also once kissed C's hand when he introduced himself to her. He claps super annoyingly loud along with songs and he snaps and does this weird old guy dance and his tongue sticks out just a little bit when he concentrates. Like when he concentrates on someones boobs. ick.
So anyway she asked J if Dale was there and he text back saying he was there. I mentally crossed my fingers that mayne Dale wasn't really there. Sure enough when we get there...theres Dale. Luckily he hasn't spotted us yet and he seems to be occupied with a woman at least slightly closer to his age. J comes up and hugs us hello and then the girl that Dale is talking to says "which one of you is C?" and was looking at us. so I pointed and C raised her and and we asked why... She just smirked... I felt weird. J, who is now sitting next to me, starts snickering. Like actually snickering and words start coming out. "I told Dale you asked about him. *snicker snicker* I told him some girls were asking about him *snicker*"
I swear to god I almost punched him in his face.
Instead I said " WHAAAAAAAAA?!"
C looked mortified.
Then J left.
And Dale pounced. Suddenly he was at our table laughing his weird creeper laugh and staring with his eyes that are just slightly un normal...like theyre perpetually unfocused. He made some bad jokes. And then introduced himself to me (for the 5th time). I shook his hand. He just kinda help mine. Held it. For way too long. waaaaaaay to long.
ick
he left (thank god) and C started texting bigJ to see if he was coming and how far away he is. C has known bigJ forever too. Shes known everyone forever. Apparently he's bringing a friend with him. The one that came last time. Oh you mean the one that kinda reminded me of K's ex? oh cool.
They get to the bar fast. thank god. I'm scared of Dale. He also seemed a little hurt when he finally left our table. I was being kinda rude I guess. Oh well. Creepers get rudeness. Sorry bro.
looks like we're gonna play pool. Sweet. I don't play pool enough. which is why I'm not good at it any more. oh great...the boys are now playing the lotto machines and we're basically guarding the pool table.
Eventually they find quarters and I start to rack but all the balls aren't in the lil thinger that holds them. What the hell. shove, jimmy, shove, push, and bam theres the rest of them.
Playing.
he goes.
other one goes.
she goes.
I go.
why is bigJ snickering now?
apparently I need to check my phone for a text.
a text from C saying bigJ's friend R might like the idea of liking me.
hmmmm
this is the one that reminds me of K's ex. and he's definitely kinda loud. which whatever. but annoying still. and kinda rude sometimes for no reason. and just kinda so not totally not my type.
Let's go to the park!
The park with the good swings? Hells yes!
bigJ's driving. Awesome. I drive all the time. This is a nice break.
and I get to sit in back. with R.
awesome :-/
we're riding. he's singing. oh and theres the clapping. I definitely have to tell him to stop that and why.
Get to the park. Walk to the swings. down a very steep hill.
SWING!
C's an awesome swing pro. she gets all super high up and then does this crazy twisty thing. So crazy looking. I can do it to. but not as good. I think its because I weigh more. honestly.
The boys think we're insane. Whatever. Sooo much fun.
I have to stop because swinging makes me feel funny. like slightly nauseous. and scared. Pretty sure we just decided to walk to the cemetery behind the park. we walk a ways and have to turn around. all the way back to the car, up that hill. on our way back down the hill...C takes a step and I watch her foot keep moving when it should clearly be still and suddenly C is sitting on her other leg on the ground. It kinda looks like a natural way to sit until you see her face cracking up from laughter. and now we're all laughing. I have to apologize to her for laughing but I just cant help laughing when its because someone fell. people falling is just funny! you know its true!
we make it to the cemetery. I may be slightly scared of zombies but this cemetery actually isnt too bad. quiet. kinda peaceful. walk walk walk
boys hear the sound of fighting so we all stop to listen. keep walking. we're going to walk around the block instead of back through the cemetery because bigJ is paranoid that we're being followed and since the cemetery is technically closed and we may have possibly walked around a couple of closed gates. maybe. definitely.
we start getting closer to the fighting noises. and then we get across the bridge and then we can see them. a huge group of people. yelling. I cant see much of whats going on. but I dont like the idea of gangs or fighting or getting in any way involved. so we turn around and decide to cut through back to the park via the springwater corridor. good thing the boys are here. and on our side. and its a short walk. then funny bigJ decides to tell us people jump out from the right side. the side Im close to of course.
basically we make it back to the car after the boys get really ridiculous about a cop patrolling the park. we see about a thousand cops all going to where the big group was. we definitely got outta there just in the nick of time.
Home by 3:30 and passed out in no time. gotta go the river tomorrow!
which by the way is 30 minutes from my house.
Way on the other side of town.
in a different town.
It has been forever since I last saw B and holy hell I forgot how funny that chick is. Downside: she of course has a child. Im not saying that children are a downside. just that for me....well I think they can sense that I dont really like them. This one was no different. She was trying to play with C who was sitting right next to me and as soon as she saw me she just stopped. and stared at me.
Stared into my soul.
she wouldn't get close to me at all. not that I mind that. Much less pressure to pretend like I know what Im doing. She looked at my face and I said "whats up?" and she looked away and occupied herself by playing with C. C told the little girl to give me hugs. She stared at me again. B said she's not normally so shy and I told her not to worry about it. I know she's not being shy she just knows better than to try and get close to someone that isn't child friendly.
B finished the spaghetti (home made sauce with fried onions and peppers....yummy!) and set the baby up in her high chair with food. She made the baby strip to her diaper so she couldn't get sauce stains on everything in sight. Apparently that wasn't going to be a problem anyway because she didn't want to eat her noodles and sauce. just her salad. and some of her moms salad. she likes salad. Kinda fun to watch a child eat noodles with her fingers...
There was a cat by the door. the way it was laying down made it look like it only had 3 lets. I was certain I would have been told the story of the 3 legged cat so I knew there had to be a fourth leg in there somewhere...I decided not to ask about it. That's why everyone was so confused when the cat got up and I suddenly said "there's the other leg! I knew you had 4 legs!". B and C looked at me like I was crazy. I had to explain myself...as I so often have to.
At one point we were at the table and B was telling us to be careful when petting the not 3 legged cat because he likes to give love bites. I said cats never give me love bites. I always assume theyre going to give me a love bite so I dont pull away and then they bite me. They don't give me love bites. They give me hate bites. And then C was spitting. My "hate bites" remark made her laugh and she had just taken a drink of her water so she spit a bunch of it out. she caught some though. not really.
The baby (I suppose she would technically be a child not a baby) played with C by standing on her legs and bouncing like a loon. up and down up and down up and down. her dirty feet are leaving weird marks on C's jeans. another reason I dont like them. theyre messy.
Eventually we made our way from B's place back home before going to the same bar we go to every friday. The bar is on the opposite end of town. because I like to drive like a pinball as often as possible.
On the way to the bar C texts the karaoke DJ (she's known him forever and a half and thats how we ended up going to the same bar every friday in our early 20's, to keep the KJ company) and asks if Dale is there. Dale is the old creeper at the bar. he's not there every week but when he is I get scared. Hes gotta be in his 60's and once he told me my toenail polish was the perfect color for the season. Hot pink = summer I guess. The next week he told C the same thing. It was the same shade. He also once kissed C's hand when he introduced himself to her. He claps super annoyingly loud along with songs and he snaps and does this weird old guy dance and his tongue sticks out just a little bit when he concentrates. Like when he concentrates on someones boobs. ick.
So anyway she asked J if Dale was there and he text back saying he was there. I mentally crossed my fingers that mayne Dale wasn't really there. Sure enough when we get there...theres Dale. Luckily he hasn't spotted us yet and he seems to be occupied with a woman at least slightly closer to his age. J comes up and hugs us hello and then the girl that Dale is talking to says "which one of you is C?" and was looking at us. so I pointed and C raised her and and we asked why... She just smirked... I felt weird. J, who is now sitting next to me, starts snickering. Like actually snickering and words start coming out. "I told Dale you asked about him. *snicker snicker* I told him some girls were asking about him *snicker*"
I swear to god I almost punched him in his face.
Instead I said " WHAAAAAAAAA?!"
C looked mortified.
Then J left.
And Dale pounced. Suddenly he was at our table laughing his weird creeper laugh and staring with his eyes that are just slightly un normal...like theyre perpetually unfocused. He made some bad jokes. And then introduced himself to me (for the 5th time). I shook his hand. He just kinda help mine. Held it. For way too long. waaaaaaay to long.
ick
he left (thank god) and C started texting bigJ to see if he was coming and how far away he is. C has known bigJ forever too. Shes known everyone forever. Apparently he's bringing a friend with him. The one that came last time. Oh you mean the one that kinda reminded me of K's ex? oh cool.
They get to the bar fast. thank god. I'm scared of Dale. He also seemed a little hurt when he finally left our table. I was being kinda rude I guess. Oh well. Creepers get rudeness. Sorry bro.
looks like we're gonna play pool. Sweet. I don't play pool enough. which is why I'm not good at it any more. oh great...the boys are now playing the lotto machines and we're basically guarding the pool table.
Eventually they find quarters and I start to rack but all the balls aren't in the lil thinger that holds them. What the hell. shove, jimmy, shove, push, and bam theres the rest of them.
Playing.
he goes.
other one goes.
she goes.
I go.
why is bigJ snickering now?
apparently I need to check my phone for a text.
a text from C saying bigJ's friend R might like the idea of liking me.
hmmmm
this is the one that reminds me of K's ex. and he's definitely kinda loud. which whatever. but annoying still. and kinda rude sometimes for no reason. and just kinda so not totally not my type.
Let's go to the park!
The park with the good swings? Hells yes!
bigJ's driving. Awesome. I drive all the time. This is a nice break.
and I get to sit in back. with R.
awesome :-/
we're riding. he's singing. oh and theres the clapping. I definitely have to tell him to stop that and why.
Get to the park. Walk to the swings. down a very steep hill.
SWING!
C's an awesome swing pro. she gets all super high up and then does this crazy twisty thing. So crazy looking. I can do it to. but not as good. I think its because I weigh more. honestly.
The boys think we're insane. Whatever. Sooo much fun.
I have to stop because swinging makes me feel funny. like slightly nauseous. and scared. Pretty sure we just decided to walk to the cemetery behind the park. we walk a ways and have to turn around. all the way back to the car, up that hill. on our way back down the hill...C takes a step and I watch her foot keep moving when it should clearly be still and suddenly C is sitting on her other leg on the ground. It kinda looks like a natural way to sit until you see her face cracking up from laughter. and now we're all laughing. I have to apologize to her for laughing but I just cant help laughing when its because someone fell. people falling is just funny! you know its true!
we make it to the cemetery. I may be slightly scared of zombies but this cemetery actually isnt too bad. quiet. kinda peaceful. walk walk walk
boys hear the sound of fighting so we all stop to listen. keep walking. we're going to walk around the block instead of back through the cemetery because bigJ is paranoid that we're being followed and since the cemetery is technically closed and we may have possibly walked around a couple of closed gates. maybe. definitely.
we start getting closer to the fighting noises. and then we get across the bridge and then we can see them. a huge group of people. yelling. I cant see much of whats going on. but I dont like the idea of gangs or fighting or getting in any way involved. so we turn around and decide to cut through back to the park via the springwater corridor. good thing the boys are here. and on our side. and its a short walk. then funny bigJ decides to tell us people jump out from the right side. the side Im close to of course.
basically we make it back to the car after the boys get really ridiculous about a cop patrolling the park. we see about a thousand cops all going to where the big group was. we definitely got outta there just in the nick of time.
Home by 3:30 and passed out in no time. gotta go the river tomorrow!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)