Sunday morning we woke up & decided it was time to feel the ocean. For me, that meant lying on the beach & dipping a toe or two in. For Jacey, that meant surfing! We packed up the tent, ran over to the San Mateo loop campground, and got a campsite. (Our waitress Monica had raved about this site, saying it was a "SoCal must!") Two-person tents are awesome. They take about ten minutes to put up, and you're done! We got on the road, going north to Laguna beach pretty quickly. As we drove through Laguna beach we saw a cute little place called "orange inn", so we pulled over & got some brunch. It was so adorable! Quaint, artsy, breezy, with surfboards in the rafters & surfer pictures on the wall. We ordered & the only seats left were next to this older couple. They were happy to have company, so we ate breakfast with them & talked! It was so fun! I forget their names now...they had lived their whole lives in the Orange County/LA area; the husband a movie director/photographer/editor, and the wife a stay at home mom to their cats. They just kept raving about how awesome SoCal was, how great the weather is, and how the Mr. can't watch a film without critiquing it.
Finally around 2pm, we made our way to the surf shop, Jacey got suited up, and then her surf lesson began. She did awesome!! I'm pretty sure she got up on the first try & definitely had a handful of good riding the wave experiences before wiping out. The very last wave she rode, she stayed on it the whole time & rode it all the way in to the beach. It looked like so much fun.
I made a resolution right there & then to take adult swimming lessons when I got to Phoenix. I am afraid of water. I don't like the feeling of water encompassing my head. I don't like the shower over my face. I force myself to jump in water. Every time I think I'm going to have a heart attack, I am so scared. When I was younger, the Kresges at a skinny little board that went over their pond. It was pretty high up. I was so afraid to jump off it, but I didn't want to be a sissy. So I jumped. I almost drowned. I inhaled so much pond water my lungs have never been the same. Someone dragged me to shore. I was happy that I did it, but couldn't understand what was fun about it. The summer I lived at aunt Marilyn & uncle David's, I vowed to jump in the pool every single time the pool was open. Some days I would go put my suit on, jump in, and then get out because I didn't even have time to stay & enjoy it. But I had to atleast jump in & be completely submerged & feel scared & learn that it was okay. And it got easier. And it could be fun. I blame all of these jumping in "the deep end" fears on two things:
1. My mom never enjoyed going under water. I think I picked up on that when I was little. She didn't like it. So neither did I.
2. Roberta Pennock's swimming lessons. At the end of the week, we all lined up near the deep end & every one took turns doing a dive in to the water. I just started crying so no one made me jump. Sissy. Enabling. If that was my kid I would have strapped a life jacket on to them & thrown them off. You have to learn. And it's easier when you're younger.
This last year, it was May & it was warming up. We were in Chicago. People were all hanging out at the lake shore & it was the first day you could jump in the lake & stay in longer than 30 seconds. So Jacey & I decide to go kick summer off, & jump in. After about 5 minutes of quoting Eleanor Roosevelt's "do one thing every day that scares you", we finally leap off the edge. You'll have to ask Jacey for the story sometime. I kind of panicked. And inhaled a lot of water. And it was really really cold. I thought I was swimming to the edge like a normal Chicagoan would, but apparently I was thrashing around like a drowning cat. People were alarmed. I also happened to be rapidly & shallowly breathing since all I could feel was Lake Michigan in my lungs. For some reason, I was dissatisfied with my leap into the lake. So we tried it again. Mild success. Just wait, in 2016 I will come back & dominate the leap in to the Lake. And it will be fun. And there will be no thrashing or wheezing. And even though being completely submerged in the water will scare me, I will enjoy it & I will find the things about it that I love.
These were the things I thought of as I stood in the surf shop, contemplating whether or not I should try to learn to surf today. I chronicled my history of swimming. The logical answer was not today, but someday.
After surfing, we just laid on the beach, listened to the ocean, watched all of the people & their dogs walk by, and enjoyed the sunset.
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