Wipeout

          When I woke up early on Sunday morning, I had no idea what I would be in for.  I signed up for a water skiing class with Anthony and Riley a couple of months ago not knowing what to expect.  Whenever we arrived at the Alabama River in downtown Montgomery, we were greeted with people with a wide variety of tattoos and such.  They told us that we could choose to start off our day with barefoot skiing, water skiing, wake boarding, or slalom skiing (skiing on one ski).  Some of the guys that were teaching were trying to convince people to barefoot ski.  They made it seem like no big deal, and so me, Riley, and Anthony ended up going with them.  I've never waterskiied in my life, but I thought that it certainly wouldn't be that big of a deal.  To teach you how to barefoot, there's a big metal bar that sticks out of the side of the boat that holds a rope swing with a plastic piece that you put your legs through.  The object is to hold on to the bar, sit in the swing, bend your legs with your thighs together, but have your calves apart and be pigeon toed.  And then you try to stand up. Sounds simple right?

     After the guys went, it was my turn to give it a shot.  I went into it pretty calm and confident.  I got into the swing, and the boat starting going ever so fast.  My squatting position soon turned into straight legs and I began to flail around in the swing as the water flew into my face and I felt like I couldn't breathe (went into freakout mode).  The water kept whipping my feet out from under me.  The practical thing to do would be to swing them around towards the front, but whenever I'm being splashed so much and can't get a good breath, I began to get frazzled.  I decided to give it another try, but this time i must have gotten caught off guard and let go of the metal bar, but was still caught in the swing.  Everything was so fast that I don't remember what happened, but it seemed like the swing drug me along for a little while and it even seemed like i might have flipped over the bar, until finally the swing broke.  After having the breath knocked out of me, they pulled me back into the boat and they instructor told me, "In my six years of teaching, I've never had a swing break." Lovely.  Sometime during all of this the ski instructor said, "I'm about to pee in my pants.  Do you mind if I pee off the boat?" He was asking me since I was the only girl on the boat.  OF COURSE I MIND!  That's disgusting.  But his question was more like a warning, not a question.

     So anyways, after the guys tried barefooting again, it was my turn to try once more.  I was really dreading it this time.  I could barely even stand to watch Anthony and Riley, it kind of hurt me to watch them and I probably looked green because I was thinking about how much I was dreading it.  But I jumped into the frigid water again and gave it another shot.  After about 15 seconds of getting yanked around I motioned for them to cut it out.  I said, "I just don't really like this... I'm really sorry :(" but they were all nice and understanding.  I was completely embarrassed about the whole thing.  I didn't see anyone laughing at me, but I think it was because I probably looked a little sad being jerked around like that! Thankfully one of the guys on the boat was telling me that barefooting is one of the hardest things to do, and that I should enjoy the other things more.  I was certainly glad to hear that other things may be better!  For the rest of the day I kept replaying the feeling of not being able to breathe through my mind. 

     After all that, we went out to eat and I had the best banana pudding ever!!!  Whenever I returned, the barefoot ski instructor said, "Are you gonna go skiing with me again?" and I replied, "Maybe one day"... shoot... ! Then I was able to go waterskiing, which I was actually able to do and it was kind of fun once I got the hang of it!  I felt like Bambi hobbling around. Today I am so sore right behind my shoulders and on the back of my arms.

       Group fitness training is becoming something that I'm really starting to enjoy!  The other day I got to perform my warm-up in front of the other trainees.  I did mess up alot, but I just felt so energetic and happy up there!!  I'll get to teach an exercise to a song on Wednesday... we'll see how this goes!

      Just to clarify something in my last blog post (someone asked me about it), when I said certain guys need to man up I wasn't talking about manly in terms of they need to shoot more guns, eat nails for breakfast, and act tough all the time.  I mean that they need to quit being whiny, step up and be a leader, and be confident enough in their own skin without being paranoid that someone's going to call them gay (why is the last one such a problem?)! 

   Oh, and in other random news, my organismal biology teacher brought a greater siren to class.  It's an eel-like aquatic salamander.  He may not look like it, but he was a sweet little guy!  He's my favorite so far ;)