It’s TRUE! I got STUNG!!
Let me back this thing up! Last Sunday, Brian and I went to Blacks Beach where I had a blast on my boogie board. I decided I wanted to get a surfboard and finally learn how to surf. The next day, I borrowed his car while he was at work to drive to Imperial Beach to pick up an extra-wide shortboard from some guy on craigslist. Well, my schedule has been hectic this week, and I didn’t have a chance to get back to the beach until today. I drove to Solana Beach up north, strapped my board’s leash to my ankle, and headed into the water to assess my skills.
After an hour and a half, it became clear that while I was getting the hang of catching waves, I have a long way to go in learning to surf, and I decided to go in. I rolled off of my board, put my foot down and ZAP!!! One of my greatest fears realized…I got stung by a sting ray!! I shimmied back onto the board and tried to paddle myself or catch an oncoming wave back to the sand. For a second, I wondered if the blood that was surely pouring out of my foot would attract hungry sharks.
Anyway, I wasn’t making any progress towards shore, so I had to put my feet down again and run out of the water as the ray’s venom began to burn through the new hole in my foot.
An old man sitting on the beach got up and asked if it was a ray. I said yeah. He said to run up to the marine safety station by the parking lot and that they would soak my foot in hot water for an hour. The first thing I thought was "I don’t have an hour!" but as the pain grew, my schedule freed up real quick. I grabbed my towel and bag and hobbled up the hill to marine safety. The lifeguards were really friendly and helpful. They immediately set me up with a bucket of hot water and told me all I never wanted to know about stingrays. It took about an hour and a half of soaking in scalding hot water before I felt okay to leave. Even then there was the slightest bit of pain, but I really couldn’t soak any longer. I had a group presentation tonight, and it was my job to print out and bring everything to class. See, that’s why I hate group projects.
There was a couple with boogie boards walking down towards the beach as I was hobbling, but I was hurting too much to warn them about the rays. On the bright side, I had a great view of the ocean as I was soaking, and there was an awesome surfer. I was watching him carefully to learn how to pick a wave and how to stand up quickly. I just don’t know when I’m going back to the beach. Maybe Sunday. Apparently there are very few surfers around here who haven’t been stung so I guess I feel initiated to some extent. I also feel like I stepped on a knife that was coated with poison.
In other news, I’m bf-less this weekend. Brian went to Arkansas. All I have to remember him by is his car. I rented "Bring it On: All or Nothing" tonight. It’s pretty good. Not as good as the first, but better than the second. Solange gets props for being a better actress than Beyonce while my favorite in the film is my GIRL Hayden Panetierre. You might know her from Neutrogena commercials, "Raising Helen," "Ice Princess," "Malcom in the Middle," "Lies My Mother Told Me," and she was the little girl on "Ally McBeal." She used to be friends with Paris Hilton.
School sucks, and I have job interviews next week. BLAH!
