I did it!

Kayaking on Saturday went off without a hitch. We met on campus a little before 8am, gathered the gear and then headed off toward the lake and where we were going to put in. By the time we drove there and got all of the gear out and on (wetsuit, neoprene boots, spray skirt, paddling jacket and PFD), it was about 10:30am before we actually got on the water. Once successfully getting into the kayak (without dumping myself, yeah!), I set off onto the water with a bit of trepidation. Because of expressing my nervousness, one of the 3 instructors basically trailed me all morning. I was grateful for her presence, but at the same time I was also unhappy with it because it hurt my pride. But, I'm sure having here there was also a source of confidence for me, so in looking back on it, I'm glad she was. We were taught a number of different paddling strokes including the sweep stroke (used for turns) and the draw stroke (used to bring yourself sideways in one direction) in addition to paddling backwards and stopping quickly.

While out on the water, I chose not to eat anything because I wasn't feeling hungry, but by the time we made it back to the put-in point, I was weak. I'd thankfully brought my lunch meat and cottage cheese because what they provided for us, while good, wasn't very high in protein. After eating my food, though, I tried a little of the provided southwestern rice and veggies with a little dab of hummus and southwestern sourdough. It was really good! And, I guess since I was out there doing so much physical activity all of the carbs weren't a horrible thing.

The afternoon was filled mostly with free paddling and rescue techniques. They weren't teaching us how to roll the kayak, so most of the rescue techniques were wet exits. And, in 50 degree weather, that sucks! Thankfully, most of them were demonstrations with one of the instructors having to go underwater. Just before we were ready to leave, though, they wanted us to try a rescue ourselves, both being rescued and rescuing others. I was pretty exhausted by this time and feared not being able to pull myself out of the water and up onto the kayak, so I elected not to try being rescued. But, I did rescue my husband successfully. :)

Overall, I had a great time, and when we went back out after lunch, I no longer had any nervousness, and not once was I fearful of the deep water. Granted, had I capsized in the middle of the lake there might have been a different story. I've been thinking I may want to learn to roll the kayak so that I wouldn't have to do a wet exit, and I definitely enjoyed myself enough to want to do it again!

Yesterday, I went to church at my parents' church, and while I was walking up from the lower parking lot to the church's front door, I thought I saw my brother and sister-in-law driving into the parking lot. I wasn't sure but decided to wait in the church's foyer a few minutes to see if it was them, and when they walked in they both had these giant smiles on their faces. I hadn't seen them since early December (the day after my husband told me he was leaving, as a matter of a fact, so I wasn't looking so hot), so when they saw me walking up the driveway, my sister-in-law said to my brother, I think that's your sister. He says, no way! That's not my sister! She said, yes, I think it is, so when they got out of the car, he shouted my name. I was too far away and didn't hear him, so he said, see, she didn't turn around; that's not her. So, when they walked in and saw that it was me they were both surprised. My sister-in-law said I looked absolutely fantastic, and my brother was rather speechless.

This new perspective that I now have is so odd. My goal was never to be smaller than most people I know, but now that I am smaller than my mom and my sister-in-law, two people who were always smaller than me, and I can recognize it, it's just such a surreal feeling. I'll tell you what, though, I'm looking forward a week and weekend of not much planned. Last week was just crazy!