Can't stay at work ... Surf's up!

All night I ruminated over how I could get out of work in the morning. There was the constant checking of the weather to keep me on full alert. "Seas ten feet at fourteen seconds, seas nine feet at eleven seconds, seas six feet at nine seconds." By 5 am, I had been whipped into a frenzy. I had to get out there! But work! What to do? There could be the doctor's appointment that I had forgotten, but that was much too transparent. There could be car problems, but that would be another lie that was too wrong, and even more wrong to lay on the Prius, and well, the lying just bothered me. There could be the careful usage of words, "My doctor only has appointments in the mornings (truth), and I had to make one for 9am... (truth, but the appointment is not until November). All this was making me feel sick to my stomach, thus providing me with an actual truth which I used to get out of work by 10 am. This was balance, I told myself. Life is short. This kind of day is rare. Just thinking about sitting in that little room with no windows, going out of my mind with longing, was already making my neck seize up. So when everyone seemed to notice I wasn't myself this morning, I agreed with them. I needed to go home, I said sheepishly, and they even encouraged it. So by 10 am, I was waxing my board down in the parking lot at 8th street, looking up at the clear blue sky, feeling the cool, light offshore breeze. Once out in the surf, it was a different story. Maybe it was the fact that I needed to be punished for my misdeeds, but I have never taken the axe so much in any surf session for a long, long time. The waves were mostly closing out with the outgoing tide, and they were breaking with uncharacteristic power. The wind was just strong enough to hold you up at the top, and on three of them I became airborne and was pitched out and down with my board. As I fell, I thought about how close to the board I was, how hard I was hitting the water, and how if I hit the board just right, it might be the last time I ever had to come up with an excuse for doing this. Just then, Andy paddled out and on his first wave did the same thing - except that he banged his foot into his rail and dinged his new board. He was rubbing his foot, afraid to look in case it was cut, but it wasn't. This was really no good, so we decided to go check Crossovers again, since the tide had been too high earlier. We saw Bob's car in the parking lot, and decided to check it out. Ugh, what a crowd scene! People were coming from everywhere. It was a joke. Gabe and Jody walked up then, which meant forget getting any waves. Later, Bob told us he only had one wave the whole time he was out there. Andy and I decided to go check Middles. Bruce kindly let me borrow a bike, and Andy rode his, and we found the Holy Grail. As we approached the break, we could see that this was what we were looking for. A-frame peaks threw out and peeled off down the line. Only about six or seven people were out. It was beautiful. This afternoon was what it is all about. Andy's first wave had him grinning ear to ear. The one I will remember most is the one rogue wave I caught that was one of the biggest waves that came through, and I was right in the spot. I could hear Andy hooting as I scratched for it outside. I became nearly airborne as I dropped in, and as I began to drop into it I recall thinking, "This is crazy, I don't think I am even connected to the face. I am going to buy the farm on this one." But, some miracle happened and I drove down it, with Andy watching. He said it looked like only two inches of the tail of my board was even touching the wave. It felt like I was riding an airplane. When l touched down, I did a series of turns ending with a hoot to the heavens of "FIREWIRE!" just before my board flew up in the air and landed, DONK! right on my head. I was laughing so hard I was choking on saltwater. We had so much fun out there, and afterwards, as we sat up on the beach, Andy said it all, "This was the best call ever." We finally headed back, sunburnt and starving. We ran into Karen, who had just gotten off work and was grumpy. I said, "C'mon girl, we are going surfing!" And so we did. She caught some good ones at the entrance, and I watched the smile return to her face. There is just nothing like surfing to make everything seem alright again.