{"id":2469,"date":"2013-07-25T16:50:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T20:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=2469"},"modified":"2013-07-25T16:50:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T20:50:28","slug":"time-fell-yes-fell-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=2469","title":{"rendered":"That Time I Fell (Yes, Fell) in the Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"100_7420\"<\/a>Our first fall in Carolina, while we were renting a home on one island and trying to determine which of the islands in the Carolinas to settle on more permanently, we took a series of day and overnight trips to different islands, gathering relocation information.<\/p>\n

One weekend early on, we scored a hotel deal on Hotwire and took a trip to one of the islands on our short list. After dinner the first night, we went to a nearby public beach, where LCB took our older son swimming while I sat in the sand with our younger son, who was about two months old at the time. It was hot and the beach was crowded, so eventually I stood up with the baby and began walking with my feet in the water\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s edge. I was struck by how calm the waves were compared to the ones I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen on our \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rental island.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Noting the shore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gradual slope as well, I began to venture out further.<\/p>\n

By further, I mean the water was now up to my lower calves.<\/p>\n

As usual when I tell these tales, I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know exactly what happened, but I like to think it was an ill-timed rogue wave that crept up suddenly on me, sending me, before I could stop it, straight on my derriere. As I fell, I held my son closely to ensure the water wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get near his face. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t; in fact, he had little reaction to the whole thing, even after we sat submerged in what was maybe eight inches of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

The fact that no one else around me seemed moved by the rogue wave is beside the point.<\/p>\n

I, on the other hand, was suddenly faced with a dilemna. In front of a great cloud of witnesses, I had just been knocked over by a ripple, and frankly, I just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to concede this point.<\/p>\n

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I was fully dressed, sitting there in the water. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember why LCB and my older son had swimsuits on and why I did not, but there you have it.<\/p>\n

(Okay, if you must know, I was wearing a blouse and a skirt. Even from a distance, they looked nothing like any swimwear I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen.)<\/p>\n

(I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m good that way.)<\/p>\n

Thinking fast, I decided to do the only thing that made sense at the moment: I took the cool, detached approach. This means I continued to sit there for quite some time, hoping that I was giving the impression that I had fully intended to sit down quite suddenly in the water, despite being completely dressed. You know, like I was so overcome by the beauty of the Atlantic that lovely fall evening that I just had to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6baptize myself in it, right then and there.<\/p>\n

If anything, I told myself, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fall; I gave in to the allure of my surroundings.<\/i> And, perhaps no one would notice that I was fully clothed anyway if I just sat quietly.<\/p>\n

(Quick tip here: Delusions are best maintained if you avoid eye contact with those around you, lest their expressions remind you of your own idiocy. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned.)<\/p>\n

In the end, however, perhaps my approach was wise; I imagine my submersion caught quite a few eyes, and eventually, we moved to that very island. Many of the people on the beach that night were surely residents, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that future friends, neighbors, and\/or cashiers at my favorite grocery store were spectators that night.<\/p>\n

Too bad I had to go and spoil my secret by posting it on some blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our first fall in Carolina, while we were renting a home on one island and trying to determine which of the islands in the Carolinas to settle on more permanently, we took a series of day and overnight trips to different islands, gathering relocation information. One weekend early on, we scored a hotel deal on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[80,482,1525,1524,1523,105,100],"class_list":["post-2469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islandlife","tag-beach-life","tag-beach-living","tag-embarrassing-myself-at-the-beach","tag-falling-in-the-atlantic","tag-falling-in-the-ocean","tag-island-life","tag-island-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}