If I pretend I have it, then I don't*

I am getting so far behind on entries! Sorry! I just didn't want to post all my New England posts all at once and run the risk of overwhelming all three of you who read.

Last Saturday we had a ward river trip.  I don't usually do ward activities, or rivers, or anything like that.  A few weeks ago when I bought a bathing suit for the first time in - ever, I was all set to make myself go.  Then the week of, I kept thinking about not going.  My friend, Vivienne, texted me on Friday to see if I was going and so I felt obligated to go.  Later in conversation, I found out that she didn't really want to go but when I texted back saying that I would she decided that she would make herself go.  I thought it was funny how we tricked each other into going without meaning to.

So Saturday morning, Kami, Vivienne, and I met over at "the boys" house so we could carpool/caravan.  Christian and Chris were for sure coming and Chris' friend from DC was supposed to and then we talked their roommate, Nick into coming.  So we ended up taking two cars.  We all pile in and it's decided that my car will lead the way, except that NO ONE knows where they are going.  We pull up the Facebook page for the activity and figure we'll use the directions on there.  The directions started out by saying, "Take 360".  For non-Virginians, 360 is all over the place.  I could take 95 South and drive for awhile to get on there or I could take 95 north to 295 and get on there, or (as the GPS ended up taking us eventually) I could take 95 south to 64 east.  I couldn't understand why they didn't just make the directions to start at the church building since that's where the carpool was coming from...oh well.  We made it after a while and that's what counts.

We were some of the first people there so we took a walk down the world's longest dock to where the boat was and sat on the dock for a while talking.

  Some people came out to swim and I got some action shots of them.

Then "my group" started talking about Kayaking - I'm fearful of kayaking because then I'd be solo.  Wanting to branch out and not just sit around for the whole activity, I asked Nick how he was with canoes and when he said he was good with them I asked if he would come with me.  So we went up to get the canoe, where I almost killed Nick about 3 times with the canoe carrier thingy.

Then I went in and changed into my bathing suit and took forever to come out of the bedroom where I was hiding, talking to three girls.  I finally just did it and it took some time to get comfortable, but I finally did. 

Getting in and out of a canoe has got to be on my top ten list of most terrifying things to do.  I finally got in and Nick informs me that I am backwards.  I for some reason thought you faced the other person in a canoe...I ignored that for a second and he mentioned it again.  HE ACTUALLY EXPECTED ME TO TURN AROUND! Had he not realized how hard it was for me to get in in the first place?!  So I cautiously turned around and we got going.

Nick and I just met about a week ago when I gave Christian a ride home from the airport.  In total before this canoeing experience we have probably spent no more than 6 hours in a room together.  Now here we were, alone on the river with me freaking out in the front that we might tip.  Add that to me being super weird about which life jacket to wear and wearing it before we even set foot on the dock.  Then...also add to that, that when we got to the dock and some friends saw that I was going to go out they stared in amazement and asked me, "But what about the sharks?", "I hear sharks are adaptable to fresh water", "What about alligators."  I told them all to shut up - I didn't need any help changing my mind.  (P.S. these were all in good fun - never at any point during this activity did I feel emotionally abused or attacked).

Then I started to talk about dry drowning, and how I don't like the plants on the riverbank, they cause me great anxiety.  Then I told Nick that most people don't get to know these strange things about me right away.  He said that I had certainly given him a lot to think about...and a lot to be afraid of (sign up one more for a fear of dry drowning).  We eventually came back in and then some of us played Rock Band, then I got pulled into an epic ping pong match, then I talked to some friends about Frisbee and relationships, then I had a rematch of ping pong.  Then when I was ready to change back into my normal clothes Nick told me that if I had said I wanted to go back out on to the canoe he would have come with me.  To the canoe!

I thought since I had done it once I would be more relaxed....I thought wrong.

We went to the other side of the river and into the river weeds...I told Nick that it wasn't really the weeds - it's what might be in the weeds and that if anything grabbed my paddle I was just going to let it go, but by that point we'd pretty much be screwed.  I wouldn't want to rock the canoe by fighting something off and if we didn't have the paddles we weren't going anywhere...I may or may not have screamed once when the boat hit some plants - but Nick has promised not to tell anyone. 

We ate dinner when we got back and then our little group headed back to Richmond.  We were only planning on staying for maybe an hour or so, but we ended up staying until the activity ended at 8 pm.  I think that would mean the activity was a big success!

I even have a little souvenir of the adventure - Christian's fingerprints in suntan lotion. I should probably clean those off.