That's what I looked like after yesterday. 10 hours in the sun will do that to ya, even with (probably less than adequate) sunscreen. Maybe I'll put a little more on next time...
So St. Louis kinda has a big problem this summer. Cicadas. Gross, big insects with no purpose other than making noise, dying all over the pool deck, crawling around, flying at your face, being disgusting, and scaring the living sh*t out of you. Problematic, my friends. Highly problematic.
And they're everywhere. Almost literally. The pool has definitely seen it pretty badly. They litter the pool deck, line the edges of the zero-entry pool, and float around in the water. They fly around and frequently land on unsuspecting victims. Yes, victims. Walking around, one can avoid the dead ones with relative ease. But when sitting on stand, one is imprisoned. I experienced this yesterday. After about 7 hours of testing for lifeguard re-certification, I worked for about 3 hours for someone who wanted to leave early because he was going out of town. While sitting on stand at rec 1...the cicadas came. Apparently I didn't get it too badly, but one cicada counts as utter misery in my book. The wind often blows towards rec 1, and the cicadas come with it. One flew towards me, I quickly and rather involuntarily stood up and it landed in the seat behind me. I then plucked up my courage and didn't scream (though I assure you, I wanted to) and after a few attempts, knocked it off the seat with my guard tube and prayed it fell to its death in the waters below. I then sat back down, only to have one LAND ON MY ARM a few seconds later. Again involuntarily, I let out a small shriek and Mary (who was taking chemicals behind me) got it off. At this point, Luis, who was on rec 2, was dying of laughter. Knowing I looked hilarious and definitely ridiculous, I laughed too. Then one flew up into the umbrella above me and just sat there. I was in hell. Still trying to keep my eyes on the pool below and the patrons swimming there, I kept glancing up to see if it was still in the umbrella. Part of me wanted it to stay there, simply because I was so terrified it would fall onto me, the other part wanted it to just disappear. Becoming progressively more afraid, I tried to calm down, not think about how awful it would be if the large insect was ON ME and breathe. When the wind finally flew hard enough to get it off, I twisted and moved a bunch to keep it from touching me. I'm pretty sure Luis had the best time ever watching my antics. It'll get funnier as the summer goes on, since I'm deathly afraid of any sort of bug or insect or crawly thing. Butterflies are the only ones I can deal with because they're really pretty and all. I'm 95% sure this summer will result in 1. a panic attack, or 2. me getting over my near-disabling fear of bugs (and when I say bugs, I'm counting spiders and all those things that aren't technically bugs, they still count). We shall see what this summer holds...maybe I'll just never sit on rec 1, I'll just stand for easier escape from my newest terror.
While sitting on stand (the longest 15 minutes of my life thus far) I was thinking about how much I passionately HATE cicadas. There is nothing good about them, they simply should not exist. I tried to think of at least one positive thing. Their wings are pretty cool looking. And when they fly in front of the pink, orange, and purplish hues of the setting sun, it shines, sparkles, and reflects through their iridescent wings. That's the only mildly positive aspect. Needless to say, this does not make up for the innumerable negative and awful parts of the bug, so they should still all just die and then disappear so I don't have to clean them up. And then they should never come back. And then I'll go see a therapist :P
When I first started this blog I had an assignment for one of my classes. That assignment was to document three observations a day. It was a great assignment. It forced me to look more often, and really see the world. I'm going to start doing that again. Not necessarily every day, or three things, but just more often. So one thing I saw yesterday was the cicada wings. And then there are these fountains. Sometimes they mess up and start spurting and spraying the water up super high. The water splashes up in beads of water. It was right in front of the setting sun, so the burnt oranges and pale lavender shades of sunset were reflected in the tiny balls of water. Just lovely.
Being back at the pool today was so great. It felt like home. As I sat on stand, watching kids swim, blowing the whistle, bellowing "DONT' RUN!" at small (and big) children, it felt natural. Sitting in the guardroom, chilling with my pool family, smelling the sunscreen and hearing the pool-sounds, was natural. It's kinda weird because I have so many homes now. Denver is home, DU is home, Passage is home, St. Louis is home, my house is home, my St. Louis friends are home, the pool is home. But so far it isn't really confusing. I just feel like I belong in a lot of different places. Right now it works, I guess one day I'll have to pick a permanent home, but I'm not worrying about that yet. I'm just gonna live in the here and now. The past, the future, spending time worrying about them isn't going to get me anywhere. But today, right now, that's what I'll think about. That's what I'll live. Smiling and loving and hugging and being joyful today, here, now. That's the important thing.
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