Never Swim Alone - Seriously!

Okay. My story comes in the form of humor but the serious underlying issue is truth. Never swim alone.

I am not one that seeks wild abandon or even wild adventure, anymore. I'm just fine being me, at my age now, and that's all.

After swimming all afternoon at my precious friend's, the Conrad's, pool I took a little break to see the nephews and then headed out to Piedmont to spend a nice relaxing evening with my best bud, Heather. We hung out for an hour or so and then decided to swim in her pool.

She got right in. I hesitated. Then I went for it. The water was so warm. Surprising, I know, since it's only been in the three digits all week. Since my middle name is "Grace-ful" and I try to avoid anyone finding out about that, I do all I can to avoid the curse. This event should rank no less.

I go in using the ladder... and immediately slip my leg inbetween the ladder and the side of the pool while falling backwards and down into the water. Usually I'd pop right back up to the surface (we are in three feet of water at this point) but I'm a little concerned about being trapped in the ladder. The entire episode lasted less than a minute but in my quick, genius mind it lasted much longer as I am under water unable to find the surface. Heather bravely reaches into the depths of the three feet of water to rescue me by pulling my arms out of the water. As I come up fighting with the ladder for my leg, I win! I break through the plastic step and pull my leg to safety... NOT!!! I pull my leg through the broken plastic step and gash it open right into the pool. It doesn't bleed... immediately. We think we're in the clear until I pop it up onto my floatation device (raft). OH MY! I did not want to see that and I'm pretty sure Heather didn't want to see that in her pool. When we hit the wide open air, the blood found it's way to the surface. We jumped out of the pool and the rest is left to a scar on my left leg from the knee to the calf in a crested moon slit. Lovely.




I was very impressed with Heather's immediate action in saving my life and doctoring my wound. We did go have it checked out by medical professionals after we calmed down a bit. She did everything correctly and no stitches needed... which I questioned after the ER Tech pulled the now dried wound open to see the depth of it. OUCH! Great! Now it's bleeding again. Heather did her doctoring all over again and even trimmed the hanging skin. Then we shared some popcorn and watched Bride Wars. What a great ending to such an exciting 60 minutes.

I'm Smarter Than This

Tuesday was a wonderful day. BJ and I got up around 7 and watched an hour of the Today Show. Then we decided to take the jeep out and get some breakfast together. We hardly ever get to do that since I work so early during school and when I'm off I love to sleep.

We had a very nice breakfast at Jimmy's Egg and then went back home so he could trade for his pickup and get to work. I started working on a craft for my husbands Grandparents 65th Anniversary celebration later this month. I'm in a time crunch. Another story.

I had plans to meet with Stefunk at her pool later in the morning and was so looking forward to it. When I was growing up I spent every weekday at the community pool. My parents got by with a $32.00 a summer and had me out of the house for at least 25 - 35 hours a week. Monday through Friday I spent a C. H. Ripper Park swimming for fifty cents a day. They were open from one to eight daily and I would go by myself. I was a sun-princess. When I got all grown up and had to actually work for a living all my summer fun times came to an abrupt stop. I was in a culture shock. I needed my summer time.

Okay, so now I'm headed to Stefunk's house and I've got my sunscreen on my face, ears, neck, back, shoulders, arms... I'm good to go.

We had a great time. I laid on that raft from eleven to four, minus the minutes I played with Reagan and we had swimming races and she showed me her favorite tricks. I had a blast. I saw friends I hadn't seen in what seems like years. I saw children of friends that I can't remember them being past toddlers. BLAH!!! Where have I been? Oh yeah. Working!

I had to pack up and leave at four to make sure I had time to get some domestic chores complete before BJ returned from working all day. I promised I'd see them next week right there poolside and then left.

I don't think I made it 15 minutes before my legs started shooting pains of fire through them. What? What is this horrible feeling? I raced home and hit the shower. Cool water never felt so good coming out of my shower before. It soothed my pain, initially. The more time went by the more I hurt.

By eight that evening I was unable to walk. It felt as if my veins had been sunburned and the blood traveling through them was my worst enemy. It didn't bring me to tears but it did cause me to take 800mg of Ibuprofen, lather up with lotion and go straight to bed. If I was going to be in pain, I wanted to be sleeping right through it.

Two hours later I was awakened with the pain. No more sleeping. It was horrific.

Wednesday was spent in the recliner. I was unable to get myself water which turned out to be alright seeing that I would only have to get myself to the bathroom. There I sat. Hurting.

Thursday has proven to be better. I did sleep quite a bit better. Well, sleeping at all made the difference from the night before. I have missed out on a few events because I've been confined to my house. I was looking forward to breakfast at my favorite place in the world this morning, Panera Bread. I was supposed to meet my mother and Saundra. That didn't happen.

Here I am, still in a little pain and typing on this blog about my stupidity. I hate being wrong and I hate showing stupidity. Not putting sunscreen ALL OVER my body was the stupidest thing I've done in a long long long time. It has caused me great suffering. Suffering that could have been easily avoided.

Thank you for enduring my blog with me.