Crazy From The Heat

The Friday Five:

1. Is your favorite beach at the lake or ocean?
I suppose if I think hard enough back the only non-ocean beach that I have ever been to was a lake out in Ferrum, Virginia back when I was in college. It was a hot spring day and a bunch of us drove up to the lake in the mountains, with a small sandy beach and a beautiful lake with an anchored raft out on the center. Being that it was still technically spring the icy mountains were still melting from the winter and the water was colder than any that I ever experienced, and most of us only managed to wade out up to our knees before we scampered squealing back to shore. One girl swam all the way out to the raft and back, and we all declared her nuts. It was beautiful, though, and I would love to go back sometime. Preferably in the summer this time around.

2. Do you wear a life jacket when you go swimming?

Nope. I'm a damn good swimmer. And I come equipped with my own flotation devices. ;)

3. Do you enjoy water sports, such as skiing and boating?

Tried water skiing years ago, but just didn't take to it. I've been on fishing boats, small catamarans, etc. but I always had the most fun on speed boats. As a kid I used to spend summer weekends at my then-best friend's family cottage on the Currituck sound in North Carolina, and her father would take us out in his motor boat with she and I sitting right up front while we got bounced around at top speeds.

4. Do you ever think about the animals that live in the water when you are swimming?

All the time. In Currituck we always had to be on constant lookout for cottonmouths while we swam. The beaches at Hilton Head Island were always alive with fish darting between your legs, and starfish and sand dollars underneath your feet. And once in the shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Acapulco I found what looked to be this bizarre purple sea mushroom with a large bulb at the end of its root that still wigs me out just remembering it.

5. Do you like to just lay in the sun or do you want to play in the water as well?

Relieved to say that I haven't sunbathed since the 80's, so here's to hoping I haven't done too much damage to my skin since my teenage years. My mother is already getting little cancerous tumors taken off her skin from the years of suntanning that she used to do in just our backyard alone. But my mother also does not know how to swim so she has always kept on the beach towel on summer vacations anyway. Part of the reason why she was so determined that both her children know how to swim so we would never fear the water they way she does. And I love the water. Part of the Pisces in me, I reckon.