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kaydeefalls
The boyfriend is gone, and I had something resembling a near-death experience on Sunday. Par-tay.
Well, not quite near death, because I later learned that I wasn't actually in any real danger, aside from the potential for a few bumps and bruises, but I had no way of realizing that at the time and for a few ridiculously long moments I seriously, honestly thought that I might die.
There was a huge family shindig at my aunt's house on Long Island on Sunady, and sometime early in the afternoon I went with a few cousins, an uncle, and my boyfriend out on a smallish motorboat to go waterskiing on the bay. I've never even tried to waterski before, so this was to be a very interesting spectacle. So most of us aren't very good at it, and most of us can't even manage to stand up on the skis in the water, let alone actually WATERSKI for any significant period of time (say, two seconds), and finally it's my turn. Now, I'm the only one who has never even tried this stuff before -- and I've never even put on normal skis, let alone waterskis -- and it takes me a good five minutes of floundering about helplessly in the bay trying to get the damned things on without drowning myself or whacking myself over the head with a ski accidentally in the process. And once I finally get them on, I have to figure out how to move enough to grab the rope-handle thingy thrown at me, because for a novice waterskier, let me tell you, those things are cumbersome. It's hard just to keep treading water with them on. If it weren't for the life jacket, I'd have been twelve feet underwater within seconds.
Eventually, I'm at the point where the boat tries to drag me around the water, which is really just a game of how-many-seconds-can-kaydee-hold-onto-the-rope, and forget about actually using the skis that are currently trying to get tangled up in my legs, the rope, my swimsuit...yeah, loads of fun. And when I inevitably lose control and drop the rope, my cousin has to swing the boat back around close enough to throw the rope at me again, when I get it tangled up in my skis again and spend another two or three minutes untangling myself enough for the boat to start dragging me around again. Rinse and repeat several more times. Now, I get nervous every time the boat swings around and comes past me, because with these skis on I can't do anything even remotely resembling swimming, and when I try, I just sort of get tangled up again and don't actually GET anywhere. So when the boat somes near me, I get scared that it'll come too close to me and I won't be able to move out of its way.
Which is exactly what happened.
The motorboat was coming too close. I could tell that it was coming too close. I tried to swim, to at least flail myself out of harm's way, but true to form, the skis just got tangled up with my legs and I couldn't move an inch. I had nothing to grab on to to pull myself away -- this was the middle of the fucking bay! -- and no way of moving. I was trapped in the middle of open water, and the bow of the motorboat was heading. straight. for me.
The boat was moving slowly, but still. Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to see something bearing down on you, slowly, and be absolutely frozen, knowing that if it weren't for those fucking skis you'd have plenty of time to swim out of the way but being completely unable to move? Splashing about frantically but not going anywhere?
The very tip of the bow just missed me, but not the rest of it. I was bumped up against the port side of the bow, and now my legs were tangled up in the skis underwater, and I couldn't get any leverage with them to push off the boat itself because the skis were weighing them down and tangling them up so much. The boat kept moving, and I could feel myself being slowly pulled down under it -- the way the bow is curved, unless I could get awy from it off o the side, I wouldn't be able to stop it from going right over me. I pushed at it, triying to shove myself away, but the lifejacket and skis made me too heavy and my legs were caught underwater under the bow and I couldn't get enough leverage. Then I tried to grab onto the wood somehow, to reach up to the declk and pul myself up, but the deack was a good five feet above sea level, and I couldn't reach it. The boat kept moving. I kept slipping further under. By now, I was screaming for help, really panicking. I couldn't get away, I couldn't get out, I'd be sucked under slowly and drowned, or mashed up by the propeller, or something. I was being dragged over to the tip of the bow, where my legs and skis were -- pulled around the front of the bow -- trying desperately to keep my head above the water -- and then suddenly I was on the other side of the bow, the starboard side, and I was free.
I'm pretty sure I stopped screaming for help and started screaming curses at my cousins. I yanked my skis off and threw them at the boat, then managed to swim over and was pulled up onto the deck. I was told that I'd never been in any real danger -- my cousin had realized at the same time I did that he was going to hit me, and killed the engine immediately, so at worst I would have been pushed along by the bow until the boat drifted to a stop. They asked why I hadn't just kicked at the boat and gotten away, but I told them about the skis and the being tangled and whatnot, and they agreed that there really wasn't anything I could have done. They couldn't do anything, either, except listen to me scream -- THEY knew that I would be all right, but they didn't have any way of getting that information to me (they were shouting at me, but I didn't hear them over my own screams and the sound of the water and the boat and the panic and whatnot), so all they could do was wait for the boat to stop. As long as I was still screaming (and for help, nothing more specific) they knew I wasn't hurt.
So I'm fine. But for a few really long moments, I honestly thought I was going to drown under the bow of my cousin's boat. I hadn't realized that the motor was off, I couldn't move. I was scared out of my fucking mind.
So what did I miss this week?
Well, not quite near death, because I later learned that I wasn't actually in any real danger, aside from the potential for a few bumps and bruises, but I had no way of realizing that at the time and for a few ridiculously long moments I seriously, honestly thought that I might die.
There was a huge family shindig at my aunt's house on Long Island on Sunady, and sometime early in the afternoon I went with a few cousins, an uncle, and my boyfriend out on a smallish motorboat to go waterskiing on the bay. I've never even tried to waterski before, so this was to be a very interesting spectacle. So most of us aren't very good at it, and most of us can't even manage to stand up on the skis in the water, let alone actually WATERSKI for any significant period of time (say, two seconds), and finally it's my turn. Now, I'm the only one who has never even tried this stuff before -- and I've never even put on normal skis, let alone waterskis -- and it takes me a good five minutes of floundering about helplessly in the bay trying to get the damned things on without drowning myself or whacking myself over the head with a ski accidentally in the process. And once I finally get them on, I have to figure out how to move enough to grab the rope-handle thingy thrown at me, because for a novice waterskier, let me tell you, those things are cumbersome. It's hard just to keep treading water with them on. If it weren't for the life jacket, I'd have been twelve feet underwater within seconds.
Eventually, I'm at the point where the boat tries to drag me around the water, which is really just a game of how-many-seconds-can-kaydee-hold-onto-the-rope, and forget about actually using the skis that are currently trying to get tangled up in my legs, the rope, my swimsuit...yeah, loads of fun. And when I inevitably lose control and drop the rope, my cousin has to swing the boat back around close enough to throw the rope at me again, when I get it tangled up in my skis again and spend another two or three minutes untangling myself enough for the boat to start dragging me around again. Rinse and repeat several more times. Now, I get nervous every time the boat swings around and comes past me, because with these skis on I can't do anything even remotely resembling swimming, and when I try, I just sort of get tangled up again and don't actually GET anywhere. So when the boat somes near me, I get scared that it'll come too close to me and I won't be able to move out of its way.
Which is exactly what happened.
The motorboat was coming too close. I could tell that it was coming too close. I tried to swim, to at least flail myself out of harm's way, but true to form, the skis just got tangled up with my legs and I couldn't move an inch. I had nothing to grab on to to pull myself away -- this was the middle of the fucking bay! -- and no way of moving. I was trapped in the middle of open water, and the bow of the motorboat was heading. straight. for me.
The boat was moving slowly, but still. Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to see something bearing down on you, slowly, and be absolutely frozen, knowing that if it weren't for those fucking skis you'd have plenty of time to swim out of the way but being completely unable to move? Splashing about frantically but not going anywhere?
The very tip of the bow just missed me, but not the rest of it. I was bumped up against the port side of the bow, and now my legs were tangled up in the skis underwater, and I couldn't get any leverage with them to push off the boat itself because the skis were weighing them down and tangling them up so much. The boat kept moving, and I could feel myself being slowly pulled down under it -- the way the bow is curved, unless I could get awy from it off o the side, I wouldn't be able to stop it from going right over me. I pushed at it, triying to shove myself away, but the lifejacket and skis made me too heavy and my legs were caught underwater under the bow and I couldn't get enough leverage. Then I tried to grab onto the wood somehow, to reach up to the declk and pul myself up, but the deack was a good five feet above sea level, and I couldn't reach it. The boat kept moving. I kept slipping further under. By now, I was screaming for help, really panicking. I couldn't get away, I couldn't get out, I'd be sucked under slowly and drowned, or mashed up by the propeller, or something. I was being dragged over to the tip of the bow, where my legs and skis were -- pulled around the front of the bow -- trying desperately to keep my head above the water -- and then suddenly I was on the other side of the bow, the starboard side, and I was free.
I'm pretty sure I stopped screaming for help and started screaming curses at my cousins. I yanked my skis off and threw them at the boat, then managed to swim over and was pulled up onto the deck. I was told that I'd never been in any real danger -- my cousin had realized at the same time I did that he was going to hit me, and killed the engine immediately, so at worst I would have been pushed along by the bow until the boat drifted to a stop. They asked why I hadn't just kicked at the boat and gotten away, but I told them about the skis and the being tangled and whatnot, and they agreed that there really wasn't anything I could have done. They couldn't do anything, either, except listen to me scream -- THEY knew that I would be all right, but they didn't have any way of getting that information to me (they were shouting at me, but I didn't hear them over my own screams and the sound of the water and the boat and the panic and whatnot), so all they could do was wait for the boat to stop. As long as I was still screaming (and for help, nothing more specific) they knew I wasn't hurt.
So I'm fine. But for a few really long moments, I honestly thought I was going to drown under the bow of my cousin's boat. I hadn't realized that the motor was off, I couldn't move. I was scared out of my fucking mind.
So what did I miss this week?
