vacation

i am back from vacation. my friend, kimberly, flew in from denver and we road-tripped it down to virginia to my family's summer house on smith mountain lake. except for a few outbursts from my father, the whole affair was very relaxing and very lovely--to be by the water, in a swimsuit, all lotioned up, listening to classic rock and cuban music. divine, really. i was a total rockstar on skis! however, i must also report that i've arrived back with the hell beat out of me. i burned my left ring finger on the oven rack one night, i fell getting out of the boat onto the dock and managed to bust both knees and put substantial bruises on both palms, and on the top of my left foot. (i've climbed in and out of that boat a million times in the last 25 years without as much as a scratch... well, i guess that was the second fall of the summer. the first was in a crosswalk back in june when i twisted my ankle in a pothole and went down in the middle of the street, so perhaps i'll get away with just two falls this season instead of the normal three i usually suffer. but i digress...) so i beat the bee-jezus out of myself getting out of the boat, then in my one skiing wipeout, which must have looked quite extraordinary from the boat, i fell forward and ran out of and over my skis but somehow managed to wallop myself in the head with one of them and hit the water hard enough to pull a muscle in my neck AND pull the ski belt against me in such a fashion as to leave a horizontal bruise about 6 inches long across my waistline. impressive, no? i bring a whole new meaning to "play hard." so that's it. i'm tan. and beat up. and there's just a week left in the summer of opportunity. get crackin', people!