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Went to my sister's bachelorette party.
Jun. 28th, 2003 04:17 pmFive of the bridesmaids (myself included) took my sister down to Point Pleasant, New Jersey, a Shore town with a boardwalk and entertainment area. I wasn't looking forward to it, since parties of this sort inevitably involve a lot of drinking in loud places, and I neither drink nor like being subjected to excessively loud music. It turned out okay, though. The early parts were filmed by the people from Buff Brides, the Discovery Health Channel TV series that'll be premiering in October; the later parts only really involved one bar, and aside from a few very drunk men (one of whom looked like he could be a Baldwin brother, albeit the one the others all call 'Skanky'), everyone respected the fact that all I wanted was a non-alcoholic pina colada. We ran into a couple of Marine Corps recruiters, who were on the sozzled side themselves but were really pretty cool despite that - so much for unflattering stereotypes. My sister eventually decided that we needed to go back to the hotel well before last call, I think mostly because she's been on a pretty strict diet since March and her stomach was giving her grief. We made our way back, watched some really crap late night TV, played a couple of silly games, and went to bed.
In the morning we went to the beach. My sister and the other bridesmaids all opted for sunbathing, claiming the water was 'about twelve degrees' without even getting within ten yards of the lifeguard's chair. I figured I'd give swimming a shot, and I gotta say... getting into the Ocean, the real live honest-to-Poseidon seaweed-jellyfish-and-all Ocean, for the first time all year more than made up for any aspects of the party I wasn't enjoying. I have no idea how long I was in the water trying to bodysurf the bigger waves, but it was long enough that if I sit very still I can still feel the wave motion like a pair of sea legs.
It is probably not wise to look out to sea in search of a good wave and call out 'Bring it!' while making the get-over-here gesture, if one has had the Sea attempt to haul oneself out into the depths for safekeeping before. The answer came in the form of a wave about twice as big as I'd been expecting that left me in the pebbly part of the shallows with very small rocks in my suit, and no time to get out of the way before the breakers splashed into my face. Ah, well, I shall deal. I have discovered that the high T stance from my karate classes works wonders in keeping undertows from getting very far with my feet. I expect this is because I not only anchor well with the feet but because I present a minimal profile to the current. I had reasonably good luck with the waves, and excellent luck with the jellies - despite the fact that several of them were the size of my fist or bigger, and the little ones were very common, I did not get stung once. No crab bites, either, for that matter. Just rocks in the suit for being foolish enough to briefly challenge Poseidon, and once we worked out exactly who was boss, that wasn't a problem again.
I told my mother once, years ago, that if reincarnation were true I should like to be reincarnated as a humpback whale. She didn't understand this at all. I shall let her go on not understanding, I think, as I'm not sure that kind of dealings with the ocean are something that can really be explained.
In the morning we went to the beach. My sister and the other bridesmaids all opted for sunbathing, claiming the water was 'about twelve degrees' without even getting within ten yards of the lifeguard's chair. I figured I'd give swimming a shot, and I gotta say... getting into the Ocean, the real live honest-to-Poseidon seaweed-jellyfish-and-all Ocean, for the first time all year more than made up for any aspects of the party I wasn't enjoying. I have no idea how long I was in the water trying to bodysurf the bigger waves, but it was long enough that if I sit very still I can still feel the wave motion like a pair of sea legs.
It is probably not wise to look out to sea in search of a good wave and call out 'Bring it!' while making the get-over-here gesture, if one has had the Sea attempt to haul oneself out into the depths for safekeeping before. The answer came in the form of a wave about twice as big as I'd been expecting that left me in the pebbly part of the shallows with very small rocks in my suit, and no time to get out of the way before the breakers splashed into my face. Ah, well, I shall deal. I have discovered that the high T stance from my karate classes works wonders in keeping undertows from getting very far with my feet. I expect this is because I not only anchor well with the feet but because I present a minimal profile to the current. I had reasonably good luck with the waves, and excellent luck with the jellies - despite the fact that several of them were the size of my fist or bigger, and the little ones were very common, I did not get stung once. No crab bites, either, for that matter. Just rocks in the suit for being foolish enough to briefly challenge Poseidon, and once we worked out exactly who was boss, that wasn't a problem again.
I told my mother once, years ago, that if reincarnation were true I should like to be reincarnated as a humpback whale. She didn't understand this at all. I shall let her go on not understanding, I think, as I'm not sure that kind of dealings with the ocean are something that can really be explained.
