I have been super busy the last week. Taking three summer classes and working might have been a little much for me. I mean, people sometimes take like five classes during the summer and work full time (I am taking three and working part time). But I just dont have the work ethic for that. My moto is to put in as little work as possible. I'd rather go to the lake.
Really its just one class thats giving me a lot of trouble. 'History 17A' is another name for the devil. I hate this class. The chapters are ridiculously long and even more boring, there are about twelve other side chapters to read, and its just so god damn boring. boring boring boring.
But, following through is part of my Happiness Project so, lets follow through shall we.
I have a sun burn. The first of the year, its sort of an annual event. Sunburns suck. They are prickly and tender and you have to walk awkwardly so your thighs dont touch...well I do anyway. To all those out there who dont, well screw you you well proportioned assholes. Hmm, that was not nearly as satifying to say as I thought it would be. I take it back. Enjoy the blessings of the circumferense of your thighs, color me jealous.
I went to the river with my boyfriend for a couple hours yesterday. He went fishing and I sat on a rock in a bright pink bathingsuit, armed myself with a blue highlighter and tried to get through a chapter of my history book. My mission was unsuccesful and I came out of it with an unhappy pink sunburn and a run-in with a sea serpent. Actually just a snake, but sea serpent sounds a lot more immpressive. It wouldnt really be a sea serpent either, more like a river monster. Anyway, we rode our bikes down the rivertrail, jumped off under the pedestrian bridge and made out way to the water.
Or, more acuratly, my boyfriend jumped off his biked and ditched me, running to the rivers edge like a toddler at the playground who caught sight of the swing set. I muttered to myself and tied the bikes up. 10:30 in the morning and sweat was already trickling down my neck. I have no idea how he got to the water so quickly there were big grey unneven boulders everywhere. It took me a good ten minutes to reach him but to be fair I had on a pair of pink floral grandma slip ons. By the time I did make it to the same rock as him, sweating and panting like an overweight kid in gym class, he was packing up and moving down river. "I'm just gonna find a flat rock and study alright." I said. He nodded and answered "Alright I'm probably going to move around a lot, I'll check in on you." With that he turned and started navigating through the rocks balancing a tackle box and fishing pole in his arms.
About an hour and half later I was in a hot sweaty heap scowling at my history book and re reading paragraphs in an atempt to absorb some small amount of information that must be hidden inside, when I heard a strange disturbance in the flow of the water. The Sacramento river is big and loud. And where I was sitting there were a couple shallow rocks turning the flow of water into a sort of repetative musical beat. I sat up and looked around, in the shallows about three of four feet away from me something was moving around under the water. Was that a fish? That was a weird ass looking fish. All the same I got really excited and leaned foreward to see better. Something flung out of the water and clung desperatly to a small bush hanging over the rivers edge. "Snake!" I shouted scrambling back from it. It was big. "Snake, snake, theres a snake!" I called out excited and scared at the same time. I like snakes, honest. I like boas and what not. I like peoples pet snakes with their beady eyes and glass cages. I do not like large, wild, unidentified snakes jumping out of the water at me.
It wasnt moving. It was just draped there over the branches. I couldnt see most of it, it was hidden in the bush. I could only see a couple loops of it's body and the tip of it's tail still drifting in the water. I started to feel a little silly. It wasnt really that close to me and it seemed really exhausted...still no movement. Was it dead? Then I heard my boyfriend distantly calling
"Angie?! something something something." Well crap he sounded worried. After a couple minutes he came scrambling over the boulder next to me out of breath and looked around.
"Oh hey. So theres a snake." I pointed to its lifeless body sheepishly and tried to act cool. "I was really worried" he said
"I heard you screaming 'snake snake'" he immitates me and waves his arms around his head. "I thought you were being attacked or something."
"Nope, just uhh...nope not being attacked. Sorry I scared you." We both go silent and stare at the snakes body for a while. It still hasnt moved.
"Looks like a rattler" he says. I didnt know that they could swim but he tells me they can. That is not a comforting thought. We stare at it a while longer and I ask
"Is he ok?"
"Yeah" he replies "Hes just tierd, that waters cold."
My boyfriend went back to fishing and in theory I went back to studying, but actually I just kept stareing at the snake. After a long time he slowly started to move. He was even bigger than I had thought. Loop after loop of scaly skin appears and then dissapears until hes gone.
Hes, gone. Where the shit did that thing go? I keep looking around me feeling paranoid. Suddenly everything is a place to hide a toothy reptial. There are deep crevasses all around me, small shrubs, hollowed out corners. Its time to go.
In the end my boyfriend caught a pretty rainbow trout and let it go. I never did finish the chapter of my book, and I need some aloe vera.
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