Hello, Adventure. That’s what Week Thirty-one was about, and I’m ever so grateful. I needed the getaway. And I needed the time by myself (though some of my adventures were not solo).
It was my last hurrah before shutting myself back in to my house and strictly avoiding contact with other humans. I had a rather terrifying conversation with one of my neurologists on the drive up to Rhode Island, and though he said some things I did not want to hear, the things he said were what I needed to hear. So Week Thirty-One was Hello, Adventure and Hello, World. Week Thirty-two through Week Indefinite… will be Hello, Hermit Life.
Sunday
I needed to run a few errands, but Grey Kii was chilling under Ozzie and didn’t want to get up.
Monday
I had to switch vehicles with my mom (because I’m so close to the lease mileage cap), so naturally I stayed to chat for a wee bit. When my dad took Bailey outside (in the middle of my explanation of the literary agent querying process, I might add, but whatever…) she was happy to accompany him at first. But she has serious FOMO and knew my mom and I were still on the front porch. Without her. Here you see her in the background looking longingly in through the screen door on the deck.
Tuesday
Tuesday was the first day of my solo camping trip. But I wasn’t solo the whole time. Narragansett is a little under two hours from where my brother lives in Boston, and he brought Dexter to visit me in the evening after I spent the day surfing. I was grateful. It was nice to spend some quality time with both of them, and it helped me to feel comfortable at the campground on the first night. After getting dinner, we had a small campfire until he left around 10:30.
Wednesday
This was my campsite. Nice and shady.
I’m proud of myself for going through with this. I’m actually a little scared of the dark and didn’t know if I’d be able to handle a wooded spot on my own. But I’m shocked how comfortable I felt sleeping in my little tent all by myself. Well, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t necessarily comfortable… and there’s no way someone else would have fit in there with me anyway. I discovered I could not actually lie with my legs straight unless I slept diagonally. Even then, my feet pushed against the canvas. But I managed.
And I got some quality adventure time in because of it.
Thursday
Tuesday when I returned my rented board to the tent, the guy said I was definitely ready to level up to a regular long board (I’d been using a foam beginners one). I was stoked! But the long board and I didn’t love each other.
I did okay on it once I caught a wave, I suppose, but found it difficult to actually catch one. I felt too far back on the board, and being too far back is essentially like hitting the breaks. But when I scooted myself up, I would end up nosediving. I had a hard time finding “the sweet spot,” and unfortunately the waves were too crowded to give me any real space to practice. There were several times I finally caught a good wave only to have to pull back after looking forward and seeing a giant wall of people in my way.
Thursday, after only about an hour and a half in the ocean, I wiped out. No biggie. Happens quite frequently when I attempt surfing. And I plugged my nose and raised my arms to protect my head like I’d been taught. But when I stopped getting swirled about and found my footing on the ocean floor, I pushed myself up, lowering my arms to my side. I thought the board had been pushed ahead of my. False. I came up just in time to have the hard plastic fin whack me on the top of my head and send me back under. I was fine, but mildly concussed. I did the responsible thing and quit while I was behind.
Friday
This is what the majority of my Friday looked like. The cats were happy I was home.
Saturday
I was on way to pick up my CoreLife lunch order while listening to the SoulSide songs Dr. Erion recommended when I decided this was a music cranked, windows down type of occasion. Except as I went to roll down my window, I found this little fella (feller?) hitching a ride. So I closed that window back up right quick.
To all those concerned: We both made it back safely.