TRIPS WITHIN TRIPS

Today. 

It's been a week since my salute with a surfboard and the day the doc said I could get my eye dressing wet so I feel like I'm ready to talk about the the part of the Kauai trip I ignored in my last entry.

Where do I start?

Growing up I loved being up to bat.  I couldn't wait to swing at that softball just to see what would happen.  It was different every time.  For me, waiting for a wave is like being up to bat all over again.

Ouch.

The first trip to the emergency room was kind of funny.  The second trip was embarrassing and the third trip was stupid.

'That's right.  I do remember hearing that.'  I nodded to myself in hindsight. 

Rule #1  Never let the surfboard get between you and the wave. (no kidding!)

Rule #2  When you're underwater and separated from your board cover your head with your arms.

...so much to keep track of.

After the #1, I got right back on the board like nothing had happened.  I was a bit concerned when my left wrist started to swell but was able to get out to where I wanted to be if I  paddled mostly with my right arm.  Because the board wanted to go in circles with this one arm technique, I had to head off in the opposite direction I wanted to end up.  My new knee pain, easily tolerable in the water, made walking nearly impossible once I got out.  The good thing was I was able to forget about all of my blisters because my knee pain completely overshadowed the blister pain.  I was sure my wrist was broken (what is that lump?) but didn't mind being wrong, FOR A CHANGE, when the x-ray told me it wasn't. 

Leading up to the #2...'The instructor told me I was ready to learn to turn.  Flattered, even though I wasn't tired of going straight yet, I hoisted a board up on top of my head and staggered to the beach trying to make it look like my knees weren't about to buckle and then followed the young surf instructor/good salesman and Vince out farther than I maybe should have.  I'd been practicing my turning about 2 hours when the board snuck under water and whacked me in the face.  In typical 'Kathy' fashion I surfaced as if the board hadn't snuck under water and whacked me in the face.  I was pretty sure blood was coming from somewhere on my face since the drips on the top of my board were a watery pinky-red but I continued to paddle out with my right arm anyway while splashing my face with sea water almost continuously.  

"Is that blood all over your face?" a nosy surfer called out while sitting on his board waiting for the next wave.

I glanced around.  'Could he be talking to me?'  "Is it coming out up here? " I pointed to my eyebrow, "or here,"  I pointed to my nose. 

 He leaned toward me squinting,  "Both."   

'OK I give up.' I thought, bummed I wasn't able to pull of pretending nothing had happened.

Looking in the mirror at the emergency room I was trying to decide if my nose was broken or it had always hung a bit to the left when a 40 year old emergency room doc with sand in his hair came in and glued the gash above my eye shut* assuring me it would heal every bit as well as the one he pointed at in his eyebrow, "Coral."

We left for Vermont the next day.  Ten minutes into our flight from Honolulu the stranger next to me turned and said "You look familiar.  We're you at Hanalei Bay yesterday with a bloody towel and ice pack over your face?  

*Feeling guilty and embarrassed for me, my sweet little surf instructor, that probably had a soft-spot for his grandmother, kept telling me how easily that area above the eye splits 

Happy New Year.