Yesterday my best friend Allie woke me up to a text "We're going to go float down the river. So wake up." (I had planned on laying in bed all day and watching movies, but I decided to agree to do something different.) We go buy beer and Mike's Hard Lemonade (her beverage of choice) and then head to the river. We brought everything we needed, life jackets, Sunblock [spf 80!] a cooler, sunglasses and a rape whistle. It was my very first time floating down the river (I'm afraid crocodiles are going to eat me so I never go more than eyeBALL deep. Thanks Lake Placid!) To my surprise it's extremely fun. There were some rapids which freaked me out but turns out they're actually exciting to go over. Except, somehow we always managed to get shot strait to the side where all the trees/branches were.
An hour into it we see our first group of people. Six guys actually. We 'tried' to paddle away from them but we accidently got too close. (Close enough to see if they were cute or not.) We all trade glances and then float on (alright. already.) then I hear "HEY! Do you work at Videorama?!" I would just like to point out that I am on a raft, in the middle of the river, 35 miles away from my work. And I STILL manage to run into a customer. I tried to get their name so I could look them up at work but by that time we were too far away to hear. Half an hour later I have to pee so we pull up onto a little island in the middle of the river, I pee in it, then bend over to get back in the raft and I hear six loud guys scream "NICE ASS!! WOOHOO!!" Why thank you gentlemen. I do squats daily. At this point we're pretty much all floating together, it was the current, not our intention. A little while later our destination was in sight and the water was only waist deep so I decided to get in and swim with some of the other guys. This is where things get interesting..
I jump in, it's not that cold but the water is really fast and I couldn't really stand. I got kind of freaked out at how fast and strong the current was (and I didn't have a lifejacket on) so I decided to try and walk/swim over to Allie who at this point had dragged the raft to shore. I yelled at Allie that I couldn't stop because of the current. It was funny at first. I was laughing, she was laughing. But I really couldn't stop. Then the water got really deep and I got really scared. I couldn't really stay above the water and I started screaming. But I saw a huge slab of concrete in the water and it was only 30 feet away and people were jumping off of it so I thought "Thank god, I'll slam into that and be able to climb ontop of it." Well that couldn't have been further from what happened. Yes, I did slam into it but I didn't climb ontop of it. I got sucked under the water. Now, I'm under the water, trying to reach the top, I look up and I can see that there's about a foot of water above me. I tried swimming as hard, as fast as I possibly could to the top. The only thing I thought was "Not now, not like this." Then I realized I was about to die by drowning and I opened my mouth to welcome the water into my lungs. JUST as I had closed my eyes and given up I felt a hand pull me up and hold my head above water while the guy swam to shore. "The Guy" turned out to be an eleven year old boy named Dakota. Out of all the people that were on the shore at the time, an eleven year old was the one to jump in the water and save my life.
I still feel sick from all the river water I consumed and I still cry when I think about it (it happened YESTERDAY, and I still came to work.) I tried calling my mom and grandma to let them know what happened but my whole family is at a Family Reunion in Montana where there isn't any cell phone reception. (Ha, everyone gets back and my friend Allie has to tell them, hey guys, how was the trip? Miranda died.)
Ironic, I feel, that Friday I spent the morning in the bathtub practicing holding my breath. And then spent the afternoon at Barnes & Noble where I purchased "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" because I have a fear of dying.
An hour into it we see our first group of people. Six guys actually. We 'tried' to paddle away from them but we accidently got too close. (Close enough to see if they were cute or not.) We all trade glances and then float on (alright. already.) then I hear "HEY! Do you work at Videorama?!" I would just like to point out that I am on a raft, in the middle of the river, 35 miles away from my work. And I STILL manage to run into a customer. I tried to get their name so I could look them up at work but by that time we were too far away to hear. Half an hour later I have to pee so we pull up onto a little island in the middle of the river, I pee in it, then bend over to get back in the raft and I hear six loud guys scream "NICE ASS!! WOOHOO!!" Why thank you gentlemen. I do squats daily. At this point we're pretty much all floating together, it was the current, not our intention. A little while later our destination was in sight and the water was only waist deep so I decided to get in and swim with some of the other guys. This is where things get interesting..
I jump in, it's not that cold but the water is really fast and I couldn't really stand. I got kind of freaked out at how fast and strong the current was (and I didn't have a lifejacket on) so I decided to try and walk/swim over to Allie who at this point had dragged the raft to shore. I yelled at Allie that I couldn't stop because of the current. It was funny at first. I was laughing, she was laughing. But I really couldn't stop. Then the water got really deep and I got really scared. I couldn't really stay above the water and I started screaming. But I saw a huge slab of concrete in the water and it was only 30 feet away and people were jumping off of it so I thought "Thank god, I'll slam into that and be able to climb ontop of it." Well that couldn't have been further from what happened. Yes, I did slam into it but I didn't climb ontop of it. I got sucked under the water. Now, I'm under the water, trying to reach the top, I look up and I can see that there's about a foot of water above me. I tried swimming as hard, as fast as I possibly could to the top. The only thing I thought was "Not now, not like this." Then I realized I was about to die by drowning and I opened my mouth to welcome the water into my lungs. JUST as I had closed my eyes and given up I felt a hand pull me up and hold my head above water while the guy swam to shore. "The Guy" turned out to be an eleven year old boy named Dakota. Out of all the people that were on the shore at the time, an eleven year old was the one to jump in the water and save my life.
I still feel sick from all the river water I consumed and I still cry when I think about it (it happened YESTERDAY, and I still came to work.) I tried calling my mom and grandma to let them know what happened but my whole family is at a Family Reunion in Montana where there isn't any cell phone reception. (Ha, everyone gets back and my friend Allie has to tell them, hey guys, how was the trip? Miranda died.)
Ironic, I feel, that Friday I spent the morning in the bathtub practicing holding my breath. And then spent the afternoon at Barnes & Noble where I purchased "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" because I have a fear of dying.
At least now I know I want to live.
Pre Near Death Experience Photos
A lot of good those life jackets did.
xoxo
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