June 29, 2006
I woke up a with a titch of a hangover as we killed 2 bottles of wine the night before. I was on vacation but Wilson was not so I was celebrating. He had a breakfast meeting and then I was to drive him to work so that we would not have both cars at the marina. Needless to say, I quickly adapted to the day off - pretty much since the minute I hauled my tired ass out of bed and quickly moved to the couch to watch Good Morning America (I grew up near the Detroit border and have watched it since the David Hartmann/Joan Lunden days). Prince was on that morning - shout out to Patterson as she loves Prince more than anything (even her boyfriend).
Sidebar story - 3 years ago or so, Terri buys herself a ticket to Prince (this was in his jazz/blues, I don't want to play my previous hits phase) and takes herself on a date to see him. The seat was on the aisle on the floor and he walked throught the audience at one point and touched her arm. Please know that at the time she was wearing her Purple Rain shirt from high school. At that moment, as the man in purple wearing his mom's high heeled shoes touched her arm, I do believe she had an orgasm. When she came back to my place and recounted the story (this through a herb induced haze) and while watching copious amounts of Sex and the City, I think she had another orgasm.
So he played his new song - 'Get on the Boat' which I quickly downloaded from Limewire as I thought it was appropriate for the weekend. I then realized I had to get off my lazy ass and get dressed and get stuff packed for the boat and our weekend. At this point, my brain is mush and I forgot to pack so much stuff - like the food in the fridge for the boat.
I go shopping and run an errand (it was too an errand, I did not arbitrarily go shopping and leave Maggie in the car on a hot day). Traffic is terrible and by the time I am going downtown, it is much later than I thought it would be. In fact, it is so late that really I should have bought the food and be on the boat right now but I am all - la-di-da relaxed and singing in the car. Wilson calls and says that he is almost ready to be picked up and where am I. OOOPS - so much for being Miss Organized and on Ball. We go and get get groceries (at this point he is not all that thrilled with me and is good mood buzz kill) and my good mood kind of starts to go away. Our friend TV is launching his brand new 40' sailboat - called Manhattan - and Wilson really wants to see it in the water. We haul ass and get to the boat, rip Maggie off of her usual lengthy walk and sniff the entire marina and get the boat out and go.
We find Manhattan all her crew on the backside of Centre Island and this is where the story gets interesting. Wilson, sees them and speeds up - no problem. I am thinking, are we coming up on the starboard (right) side (like my use of the nautical term???) but no. He decides to hot dog it and turns the boat at the last minute to come up on the port (left) side. What was DiDi doing at this moment do you think - getting her cameral line up to take shot of Manhattan. What happens to DiDi when Wilson cranks the boat...she goes flying and slams (that's right people - I slammed) into the side of the boat. I have a large purple bruise on my ass to prove it. I think that Wilson was still pissed at my pokeyness earlier in the day and got me back but good. Needless to say - I was not amused. The boys on Manhattan loved the hot dog move - DiDi not so much.
I take a pile of pictures of the boat - here are some of the best ones...
Anyhoo, we follow along as TV makes his way to his slip at the RCYC (for those of you not in the know - Royal Canadian Yacht Club). Snob and sail central. They dock the boat and all get off and get her secured. At this time, Wilson, Maggie and I are blowing do-nuts outside the RCYC harbour waiting for the sign that they are ready for us and are going to show us where to dock Summer Breeze (Wilson's boat). We are patiently blowing do-nuts when a very large sailboat asks us to wait around as their engine is dead and they can't get their anchor up. The RCYC is sending our their Zodiac to help tow them in but just in case the Zodiac wasn't enough, could we wait and help. Sure we say as you always help a boater in need and so we do. We wait and watch the Zodiac can't move the sailboat as the anchor is stuck in too much kelp/seaweed/gunky stuff (at this point Wilson tells me that the anchor Bruce Plow type of anchor that is made to dig into kelp/seaweed/gunky stuff. Not that any of you needed to know this but it was Wilson's addition to the story. So in we come to help and they toss us the line from their boat. Let me segue for a moment and tell you that as we approached RCYC, I went below in our boat and on make-up, change my shirt (lovely white shirt) and otherwise make myself much prettier than before as we are going to a swishy private club. The rope that they throw me is older boat rope and not only that it has been in the smelly water for quite some time. The sailboat throws me the rope and, yup you guessed it, it hits me square in the chest of my lovely white shirt. Dirt is all over my shirt, white capris and my face. Wilson is giving me instructions and I am listening and trying to feed the line out so that we can tie them to our boat and then tow them in. Wilson is slowly trolling out so that we can extend the rope and the the sailboat shifted and moved really fast one way while we wre going the other. The next thing I know is that my left arm is being slammed against the back seat as I try to hold on to the rope and if I hadn't had my leg braced against the side of the boat I would have been pulled out the back of the boat. That would not have been good. I haul some rope back and tie it off and then we slowly and carefully manage to tow the sailboat back to their slip at RCYC. They are very thankful and then TV shows us where we are to park Summer Breeze.
We pull the boat up to the spot where we are to park the boat and get ready to tie it off. All hands are helping us and it is quick and easy. At this point, Maggie needs to have pee BUT we are told by our friend Mel (a long time member of RCYC) that dogs are not allowed on the island. At this point, you can imagine my reaction -- we have just towed a members boat in and out sweet and beloved fur-child needs to pee and she can't cuz of the pretenious club people (can you tell that I am not really a private club person). Mel says that we need to carry her off the dock (yup - carry our girl off the dock) and then walk her on the outer grounds and I know that she is hoping that no one will see us. My cynicsm and "I can't believe that you are serious about this attitude" is coming through in every pore of my body but this is what we have to do, so I do it. Wilson gets the boat secured and I take care of Maggie. She is thrilled by the new ground to sniff and all is good in her world. Wilson come to find me and we walk back to Summer Breeze and some member from her sailboat calls out to us that 'dogs are not allowed on the island'. Wilson takes this one as I think that he saw my 'seriously people' attitude and answered for the 3 of us by explaining that we just towed a members boat in and blah blah blah. We carry Maggie back to the boat, get her settled and then proceed over to Manhattan to see what see looks like and toasther maiden voyage.
We are on the boat long enough to get a glass of champagne each and for DiDi to have a piece of bread with cheese when our friend Shave says "Hey isn't that Maggie in the water over there?" At this point, everything goes into slow motion for me. I turn, see my baby in the water and panic. I turn, get off TV's boat as fast as I can and start running (in my ungainly, klutzy way) down the dock to get to my baby as fast as possible. Wilson is right behind me but has taken a moment to relieve himself of wallet, BlackBerry and keys as he believes that I am going to jump in the water after my baby. He is very smart because that is what I was thinking I would have to do. I get to our boat and jump aboard and Maggie gets closer to me and I grab her harnass to haul her out of the water. At this point, Wilson is right behind me on the boat and I am holding my sweet puppy for all that I am worth. She is freaking out and so am I - but we are both calming down sitting there together. After a few minutes, we move her into the boat and dry her off. At this point, I say to Wilson that he can go back to Manhattan but I am not leaving her. Wilson goes back to the boat to collect his wallet, BlackBerry and keys, finishes his beer, says goodbye to all and sundry and makes his way back to Summer Breeze.
We leave RCYC and head back to the calm and un-snobby atmosphere of our marina to make dinner, dry off and relax. Maggie is much calmer and so is her mom. We have a great dinner, a nice bottle of wine and laugh at the beginning of our long weekend. At this point, anything else would be anti-climatic. We spend Saturday at the boat and when I get up, I realize that I have a bruise on my left arm the size of Manhattan and it is swollen as well. After discussing what I did and how I could have done this to my arm, we piece it together that this mammoth bruise is from my arm slamming against the back seat of our boat before I could tie it off. Owie, owie and owie. It hurts a lot let me tell you. We spend Saturday night and some of Sunday at the boat. We leave mid-afternoon on Sunday to come home, water the garden, walk Maggie and get ready to go to Eggsy's house for dinner with him, his girlfriend The Young'n and the rest of Wilson's university friends and their wives. We sleep at home Sunday evening, in air conditioned comfort and then head to the boat for the last day of our weekend.
Monday arrives hot and wonderful. We spend the day on the boat in the sunshine and wind and have a great day together. We leave the marina and come home, relaxed, tanned and happy. There is nothing better than a long weekend!!! I hope that you all had a weekend like we did - a bit of excitement but overall very relaxing and happy.
Happy Canada Day to all and to all a good night!
DiDi
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