Chagrined

I had to look up the meaning of this word after using it, and was chagrined to see it fit. My days have been so busy with summer and work I totally forgot to update the Word of the Day for, not just one week (as I first thought), but two weeks! Yikes!

However, it has been updated now and the word this week is Red Kayak. Last week, after finishing my 10 hour + work day I proceeded to take an Intro to Whitewater Kayaking course. 6:30 each evening found me making my way down to wherever we were meeting, stuffing myself into a wet suit and buckling into the required helmet and lifejacket, grabbing my paddle and cramming myself into the red kayak I was using.

It was something I always wanted to do and it's something I'm at least not a total idiot about either. Having a healthy dislike of flipping over I work very hard to make sure I stay upright. I still do not know how to roll, but really liked what the instructor said when he said, "If you are in a situation where you have to roll you've already made a mistake." Kayaking isn't about rolling it's about riding the water and I totally love the feel of the water under the kayak. I'm not so thrilled with going through large whitewater, with that I seem to have a love hate relationship; Deep down I totally and absolutely love it while consciously I find it hard work and am so concerned with staying upright I find it hard to enjoy the way I want to. Hopefully that will go with practice.

And so my red kayak and I enjoyed 3 evenings of adventure and I the only time I flipped and swam on the river was when I stupidly grabbed the sweeper instead of continuing to try and paddle around it. All in all it was a good run, although tiring and I look forward to doing more in the future while finding a way to turn this last adventure into a story.

I hope you all have as much fun navigating through storyland on this weeks word as I did in kayaking with it.