Last Day

So, if you haven't figured it out already {being the smart people you are whose heads are not just hat racks I'm sure you have} Sister Pister and I went parasailing on her birthday which also was our last full day on the island.  

As I have stated before, Sister Pister is a bit of adrenaline junkie.  She does things like jump off her horse when he is running full speed ahead.  And she does things like ride that crazy sling shoty thingy at the State Fair.  You know, the one that throws you higher than any building we even have in this town.  Yeah, she does things like that.  

While I...

I sew table runners, take pictures, highlight books, have actual lists of words and phrases that struck a chord with me.  You know, normal nerd herd behavior.  

Now, I may not be a seeker of all things that make you want to pee your pants, but I am extremely competitive so knowing that Sister Pister would not back down and would be calm as a cucumber and knowing that Momma Debi and Dad-o had gone parasailing in Mexico with boat drivers that couldn't speak English, I figured I would be just fine.  Figured those competitive juices would start flowing in me and I would show no fear about being tied to a parachute and thrown behind a boat.  

That lasted about five minutes.  

I was already nervous when we paid the nice lady working at the marina.  I asked her, "Okay so these guys...are they weird?  Safe?  Going to let me suffocate under a parachute in the ocean water?"  She looked at me with that look.  The look of ---really girl, just do it.  Then she replied, "Well, one's my husband so I do consider him non-weird and rather safe."  

Perfect.  I couldn't stop there though.  Then I asked her, "So, you are telling me you trust him enough that you have done this?"  She answered, "I did it once."  

Which made me think.  Why would she do it only once?  If it was totally fun and totally a rocking good time and totally safe AND your husband was the captain, wouldn't it be something you would do...oh I don't know, every Sunday afternoon or something?  

All of that thinking led to me becoming more and more neurotic.  I tried buying sunglasses to ease the nervousness.  It didn't work.  I tried having my competitive nature come out when I leaned to Sister Pister after seeing the other two girls that were going on the voyage with us, "Oh we are sooo going first.  There is no way we are going after them."  

I wanted to grab those words back like a sticky trap sucks in a fly.  It was too late.  I had acted brave for a brief second and then I was tied to it.  Going first.  Just letting it buck.  

We boarded the boat and I instantly started the nervous chatter that I do when I feel out of control in a situation.  Just talk talk talk talk talk talk.  

I feel I should back up here and do some character introducing.  This here is Matt, husband of nice lady who works at the marina.  He is the owner of the company.  The one who is non-weird and rather safe.  At least that was the rumor.  

He was also real concerned with looking cool in this picture.
 

This is John, our boat driver.  Matt made a crucial error in saying this to me in the middle of my crazy nervous talk talk talk talking.  "This is John's maiden voyage as the driver.  He's a rookie."  

Say what now?  

John just kept looking at me like ---maybe I am a rookie, maybe I'm not a rookie, you decide---when I kept questioning him.  Then Matt did some back tracking and claimed he was just joking.  I believed him out of self preservation.  

This is Momma Debi.  She is my mom.  She has been my mom my whole life.  Momma Debi came along and took pictures and laughed.  She laughed.  

This is my aunt.  She is my mom's sister.  She has been my aunt my whole life.  Aunt E. came along and took pictures and laughed.  She laughed.  

This is Sister Pister and myself.  She has not been my sister my whole life.  Only since I was ten.  She came along to totally upstage her big sister and be the fearless human she is.  

Alright, now back to the place where this shenanigan was planned to go down.  While John drove the boat and I tried to decipher if he really was a rookie, Matt hooked us all up in our gear {remember the pathetic look I gave him} and then he gave his "worst case scenario" speech which involved, just as I suspected...the parachute and us crashing into the water.  I then yelled, "I knew it!  The parachute will drown you too, won't it?!!"  Matt calmly explained it doesn't happen fast and kept on that we would have time to un-clip ourselves from the chute before it became a suffocating situation.  Then I said, "Yeah, but you don't know me.  I will mess that up."  Sister Pister jumped in to my rescue and said, "I'll help you Amy.  I'll help you."  

Matt looked at her real serious like and told her, "It's just like on an airplane, you always take of yourself and get your own oxygen mask secured before you take care of the child."   

I assume "the child" he was referring to me was me.  

So there we sat.  All duded up and ready to go and I just kept holding on to the dumb strap things like a goof.  When I get nervous, I act weird.  I am sure I am not the only one.   

The boat came to a stop and the parachute was released making the most wicked sound ever as it flew back about a hundred feet or so and I yelled profanity and there is a video of it but I feel my language is not appropriate to share.  

Then Matt gave the last minute instructions of how to land.  He said, "When I say stand up, you just stand up."  

Got it.  Real clear.  

It was time for us to be hooked up.  Again, Sister Pister was all "Whoo hoo!!  This is going to be the best thing ever!"  

And I was giving John the death stare that was my way of saying, "Listen here Maybe Rookie.  You will not suffocate me under a parachute."  

As the boat started pulling away, all 800 feet of rope started to take Sister Pister and I up to the eventual goal of 500 feet in the air.  I actually think it's the parachute and wind factor that take you up in the air but anyway.  Up.  We went up.  

I must admit it is actually not scary at all.  It's calm.  I was expecting something totally different.  It's just floating.  Way up in the air.  Above the ocean.  With two metal clips holding you to a bar.  With one knot tying the parachute to the boat.  Not scary at all.

In all seriousness, it's breathtaking and relaxing.  I recommend it.  The clips did keep making noises but Sister Pister just told me to ignore it and I listened.

I was totally having a good time and when it came to the moment of "when I say stand up, you stand up" I leaned over to Sister Pister and said, "Just do it.  Just stand up.  We will NOT be the girls that fall."  My competitive nature was rearing its head again.  We both stood like champs.  Like we have been standing up our whole lives or something.  

 

My sister and I went parasailing on her 17th birthday.  That's a memory.  It just is.  Thankfully I didn't listen to my talk talk talk talk talk and did it.  

The next two girls went up for their turn and I felt like since we were done, I could get to the bottom of the Maybe Rookie situation.  So I asked, "Okay we are done now so tell me...are you really a rookie?"  Yes and no was the answer.  Yes he was new at it but no, it was not his first driving experience.  That made me feel so much better. 

While the other two girls were up in the air, the rest of us chatted about life.  The usuals of where are you from and what do you do and how many tattoos do you have and what is your favorite city.  And then I asked, "What is that black thing in the water?"  

Matt turned his head real slow towards me and replied, "That is the parachute's shadow."

Insert laughter on the boat by all here. 

Then he continued on, "You don't teach science do you?"  

I replied, "Nope, just fourth grade.  Wait.  I do teach them science though.  Oh.  I'm just going to quit talking now."  

Why things like that come out of my mouth I will never be sure but I just wanted to know what the black thing in the water was that kept following them.  It was nice to get the answer.   

After the other girls were done, John and Matt brought that crazy parachute back in and then did a high five spin twirl thing.  Like a WHOO HOO!  We didn't suffocate them!  Only, it was manly.  Very macho.    

 

The ride back to the dock was a little slice of pre-summer perfection.  It was a gorgeous day outside and the conversation was popping.  Once back, Matt took a picture of us and we all said our good-byes.  Sister Pister and I did run into John later on and he asked, "What are you two doing later?"  We had to reply with, "Going to meet our parents."  Never have I felt more like a 27 year old teenager.  It was classy I tell you.  Sister Pister really is a teenager so she was less phased by it.   

While walking up the dock to go grab our clothes to change into, we ran into a very classy dressed boat man that was carrying a bucket of ice down to what I can only imagine was his big ol' boat.  There's money floating around Hilton Head and the guy had some.  His loafers gave him away.  I stopped him and with a real seriousness said, "Hey.  Hey, you give 'em hell today."  He stared.  I continued with, "You let 'em know you were here."  He stared and half smiled.  Then he walked a few feet from us, threw his non-ice bucket carrying arm out in the air and yelled at the top of his lungs, "HEY!  I AM HERE!"  

Made my day. 

After our quick clothes change, we still had a whole lot of day left so we met the menfolk at Sea Pines Harbor which is the quintessential Hilton Head Island picture.  The fancy Yachts that are named.  The light house.  The lush green golf courses plopped all over.  The people walking around with sweaters tied around their necks.  All very ritzy.  Ritzy and intriguing.  It's a whole different culture that boat culture.  Sister Pister and I sat on a bench for awhile and just observed while making up stories for all of the people.  They were interesting stories.  

 

The six of us boarded one of those big boats and took a late afternoon dolphin-watching trip out into the ocean.  Those dolphins are pesky to take pictures of...I kept saying that I wanted to them to jump out of the water like they do at Sea World so I could just get the picture already.  They never really listened.

Dear House, 

You are amazing.  

Dear Sister Pister,

You make me laugh. 

Dear Ocean and Cleverly-Named Yachts, 

I miss you.  

After a brief stint of shopping, dinner was necessary.  My aunt asked the server, "What is the difference between the soups?"  Which seems like an honest question but one was named She-Crab and one was named Clam Chowder.  The server's answer, "One is made with crab and one is made with clam."  

Wham!  I am not the only one that says things that don't quite make sense.  Apparently, it's all in the family.  

This is not soup.  But, it's what I ordered.  I have not become comfortable with taking pictures of other people's food.  Feels weird.  

When I had finished eating and everyone else was still visiting, I felt an itch.  A pull.  I knew I had to get outside.  When I walked through the double doors, I knew it was not a rash causing my itch but rather the impending beautiful sunset light calling my name.

There was a reason for listening to the pull that made me stand up and push my chair in and walk out by myself.  Had I not scratched the itch, I would have missed this...

 

Sister Pister joined me while I was standing there having an inner conversation and debate.  There is a sign on the end of all of the ramps that take you down to the circular docks in the middle of Sea Pines.  It reads, "Only BOAT OWNERS allowed past this point."  You see, in that circular area is the ritziest of the ritzy.  I had spotted a flag on the back of a small yacht and wanted that flag in the foreground of a picture.  With me standing above, the angle was all off and I could not get what I wanted from the picture.  I knew I needed to get down there and stand literally right next to the boat.  As I said, when Sister Pister walked up, I was having an inner struggle moment.  The questioning of "should I just do it and who cares" versus "that area is not for me."  

Having my seventeen year old sister standing next to me sealed my decision.  I wanted her to see that sometimes all it takes in life is having the guts to ask for what you want and not being afraid to be turned away in that process.  I looked at her deep in her blue eyes and told her, "I'm doing it.  I'm asking that boat owner."  

I stood on the edge of the upper section.  The section where all were still allowed to be and said with my hands cupped around my mouth so he would hear me, "Sir.  Excuse me, Sir."  As he stepped out from the room where he had been enjoying the sunset, I continued on, "I would really like a picture of your flag with the sun setting behind it but I just can't make it work up here.  Do you think I could come..."

Before I finished he waved his arm like he was giving me a half hug in the air and yelled, "You get down here and take that picture!"  

After I passed the BOAT OWNER'S ONLY sign on my walk down to that boat, I knew that I had been an example for my sister.  I'm not always the best example for her.  This I know.  But that night, with the sun setting behind the fancy boats, as I stood visiting with the man and his wife after getting my pictures, I knew she had had filed that moment somewhere in her mind.  Filed the brief lesson that said sometimes you just have to do it.  You just have to ask and not be afraid that something is not meant for you.  Because it is.  It's meant for all of us.  

A perfect ending to a fabulous vacation.  Well, the angel food cake with strawberries to finish off Sister Pister's birthday when we slumbered into the condo that night and a one last walk to the beach to collect sand under the full moon were both sweet endings also.  

The next morning, so early that it couldn't even be considered real morning yet, we boarded a plane to start the long journey home.  A few hours later, I saw the bright rising morning sun over New York City and it was like the closing of the last page.  

Travel.  Experience.  Different.  It's all worth it.  And I was blessed to have the opportunity one more time.