breaking my water?
this was the summer i swam.
i am actually quite a competent swimmer, lifeguard level. i haven’t had a traumatic water incident. yet i rarely am in the water.
the reason for this is my hair. i have very thick, very fine hair (read: no body to it) and whenever it gets wet and is unaccompanied by conditioner, it gets all snaggly. the pain and hassle of combing out the snarls has made me water shy over the years. those detangling products i found made my hair limp. ah the joy of fine hair.
however, i now have very short hair. you’ve seen the pictures. and just about all summer long i wore it in bunches, or, gasp, loose. (the erstwhile ponytail has complained to the union.) and i was getting uncomfortable, wondering if my kids were only going to remember me as a dock-lingerer, aka: the person always with the camera but never involved in the sport. i know my kids see me as active, they race around the house to retrieve my grotty running shoes when they see me in my running kit, they know i exercise, but they don’t SEE it.
with short hair, i determined there was no excuse to stay dry. so i shucked off my drears and spent time in whatever lake we were near.
the first day we were at fintry, mum and i were in the water and i surprised her by diving in. after a short three minute swim, she said, "tess, this is the most i have ever seen you in the water!"
i was totally affronted. i had been in the water once and it was a record?
everyone else commented as well. so i know i did the right thing by getting into the water at least four times a day. some mornings, i would wake up, throw on my suit, and not get out of it until 9pm. how i don’t have a massive yeast infection is beyond me. there were mornings i would get up and would be hot, and only diving into the water would cool me off.
there were other days when we would be sitting on the dock, me wearing towels so that i wouldn’t get too much of a tan and covered in spf 30 just in case i did, and anne and pam sharing spf 4 and 6. and every five minutes or so we would say, "soon?’ and the others would respond, "yes, give me five…." and after three or four minutes, we would all dive in.
of course, skinny dipping is a big part of any vacation, and while in ontario i was a night time dipper, in bc i was a day time skinny dipper. a little more difficult this way. basically you dive in avec suit, then lose it, then drape it over the ladder, collecting it on your way out of the water.
one afternoon a few of us were floating naked in the water when sebbie jumped into the water, wearing his boat coat. he looked at me and declared the obvious, "mummy, you are naked." he looked around and said, "everyone is naked. you all have boobies." i then agreed that we were sans clothes, and he looked at me and asked, "but why?" i offered to let him try it, to take off his suit and just wear his boat coat, but he declined. "maybe when i am grown up" he told me later on.
yes, i bet when you are grown up.
one night we did go into the water at dusk. the people in the dock next to us were outside, so pam, anne and i tossed off our suits behind the adirondack chairs. our sweet nathan ("nafan") was there, and we instructed him to look the other way. the poor fellow nearly twisted himself off the dock in order to keep his eyes pure, and one, two, three, we were in the water. we then commanded that he bring our towels to the ladder, and he complied. eventually he came into the water to join us, but made the comment, "man, this would be so much more fun if i wasn’t related to two of you girls." nevertheless, skinnydipping is the best, and i’m glad this is the summer i took the plunge.
