(Couples) Weekend at the Lake

When Vanessa sent out her Evite for "Weekend at the Lake," I think she should have been more specific. Let me explain.

Saturday morning I woke up at 10 a.m. in an attempt to meet my scheduled departure time of 11 a.m. I was headed to my friend Vanessa's cabin at Lake Limerick, and I was super excited for a relaxing weekend in the sun. After showering and packing, I swung by the liquor store for a bottle of Vodka before picking up two other girlfriends. By this time it was about 11:30 – not too badly off schedule, but we still had to stop at Safeway for mixers, and then Noah’s Bagels for breakfast. I think we were finally on the road a little after noon.

We arrived at the cabin about an hour and a half later. After being introduced to about 10 people I hadn’t meet before, we sat around on the beach playing cards for a few hours. They had already tapped the keg early that morning. The sun peeked out every now and then before shyly ducking back behind the clouds. It was nowhere near warm enough to swim, or every really sunbathe properly. Disappointing, but we did climb into the boat and watch Vanessa try to catch some air wakeboarding. I think she actually got about 3 inches at one point!

Later that evening we combined forces to make a really awesome dinner that included BBQ chicken, Asian chicken salad, fresh fruit, and sweet potatoes. (I still have no idea why someone brought a Thanksgiving dish to a summer BBQ, but it was pretty damn good!) After a rousing word game tournament, we mixed some drinks and headed down to sit by the fire pit and roast marshmallows.

Now, it had already become apparent that me and two other single ladies were the odd ones out. We had felt the exclusion before, but as the three of us huddled near the fire, we noticed that the other guests had paired off… Each couple was connected in a subtle but obvious way: A leg slung over a boyfriend's thigh, a head on a shoulder, fingers interlaced, a girlfriend on her guy’s knee. *gag*gag*gag* I had never felt so single in my life.

I tried to entertain myself by watching someone light marshmallows on fire and then consume the charred mess that was left. I also got to listen to a very amusing story about a guy who was arrested while naked and on mushrooms. But eventually the combination of watching the happy couples, and the smoke, was enough to drive us into the house, where we passed out on the most uncomfortable hide-a-bed in existence. And as if that weren’t enough, throughout the night I was forced to listen to one of the happy couples wake up every hour on the hour to give each other little smacking kisses as they slept in each other’s arms. Talk about aggravatingly disgusting.

I woke up the next morning determined to make the best of the day. After breakfast, we put on our bathing suits and I spent about an hour lying on the dock in the sun talking to the other girls, who were alone for the moment since the boys had taken a testosterone-only wakeboarding trip. Once the men returned with the boat, I was excited for my turn to try wakeboarding. But we were shoved aside as the boat quickly filled with girls anxious to go boating with their boyfriends. My single threesome, sadly without any male companionship, was pushed back to a later boat trip.

As the odd women out, us three single gals spent the rest of the afternoon by ourselves. Not that I really minded, because I could lie in the sun and chat with girlfriends for days on end. But it was still glaringly apparently why we were being excluded. So we floated on the water in the sun and talked to Vanessa’s dad about the fabulousness of being single. Once the couples boating party returned, we did make it out wakeboarding – well, one of us did, anyway. After a few sad attempts, I gave up and headed back to shore. It only took about 20 minutes before I realized that I had seriously injured my back. Today, I am still in pain. Serious, severe pain. I can’t even move without my eyes filling with tears. Great.

We headed home Sunday evening with full bellies and sun-bronzed noses (mine complete with raccoon-like lines from my sunglasses). We thought we were being incredibly clever by leaving early in the evening so we could get back to Seattle fairly early. Everyone else in Western Washington thought the exact same thing. It took us twice as long at a crawling pace to get back to the city, but music and girlfriends tend to make the time fly.

Once home, I crawled happily (and glaringly alone) into bed, exhausted from a weekend of sun, swimming and liquor. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to sleep more than a few hours because my pulled back muscles made it impossible to get comfortable for more than 10 minutes. Which means today I am cranky, sleep-deprived and sore.

Overall, I would give my weekend at the lake a B-. I had a great time hanging out with my girlfriends, but it would have been nice not to feel like such a misfit. Boo on sappy, love struck couples. And my back still hurts. Ouch.