I am aware of my obstinancy. I know when I am being 'uptight'. I have certain fears, complicated ones, beset by past experiences and colored by mere physical emotion that force words to come out of my mouth and deem me the official 'uncool' party pooper. And mostly I am ok with that. I also know that mostly I can be a delightful and charming soul. And I was looking forward to canoeing, I really was. Being on or near bodies of water calms me and rejuvenates me. I had the pleasure of paddleboating the day before and was generally enjoying the last day of what proved to be a lovely weekend out of the city.
But when Eileen and I got out on the lake, rowing far enough out that we were the only humans around, she started talking crazy and my uptight side reared it's ugly head. Neither of us had suits, and though I had the sense to leave my bag and phone and shoes at the dock with the rental gal, I still did not fancy a swim. She did.
Visions of lost jewelry, contact lenses, soaking pants, and tipped over boats swirled in my head as I tried to dissuade her from her intentions whilst avoiding looking like a complete scaredy-cat. She was nice enough to not take the mickey out on me and her kindness relieved me enough to modify my protestations to a form of brave detachment: "Well, if you really want to and you think you won't tip the boat over when you get back in...." Splash!
It was all she needed in terms of permission. She swam like a fish for mere minutes before getting back in the boat. When she crawled over the side and sprawled part on the canoe bench and mostly on the floor, I turned around to tell her she was my hero for doing it without incident. I suddenly felt brave and hopeful...if she could do it...then maybe......I was verbally applauding her and mentally hoping she would sit on her bench soon so we could balance correctly and get a move on when I found myself under the boat and submerged in water.
"Omigod! Do you totally hate me?" she cried from the other side of the boat as I marveled at the buoyancy of my capri jeans. I was laughing hysterically. We had capsized. I turned the canoe over but it was filled with water. I grabbed the oars and Eileen's plastic shoes and started using one to get water out. She asked me what I was doing-I was totally committed to sitting there for ever how long it would take to get the water out but apparently you cannot 'unswamp' a boat like that. So we gathered ourselves and began to swim ashore, dragging the boat behind us.
Apparently she was a boat something or other and knew about things like unswamping boats. Almost to the dock, we were 'rescued', sort of, well, the boat was. The rental gal took our boat and we crawled up the side of a concrete wall to land with the help of a nice lady and dripped our way over to the docks where Erik took a picture of us. After I had changed, we left Green Lake behind..only to contemplate next years memories. Sigh.
4 comments:
Oh, man. Leslie, I'm so glad you posted this story! Wonderfully written! I was well-nigh riveted.
oh my goodness. im so sad i couldnt go. erik needs to send me that picture! priceless....and probably a little liberating; right leslie?
hilarious, leslie! it was funny to read this story after having that brief boat conversation with you while waiting for the youth. i had no idea this had happened :-)
Yeah, it happened right after everyone left on Sunday! I am sort of glad no one was around to witnesss my sopping trip to the bathroom to change. All was well, though, all was well...
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