Rui Chiu

I had a great opportunity to go white water rafting this Saturday. I was incredibly nervous that my underdeveloped muscles would not be able to keep up w/my fellow rafters. I'm notoriously wimpy and very pussified that way.

Here's a little FYI, you cannot, under any circumstances ever, wear cotton whilst paddling down a river. Which meant I had to wear bathing suit bottoms instead of underpants, no bra & a GIGANTIC synthetic fiber shirt of Sexybeast's. After putting on the wet suit, I resembled a black marshmallow.

After a quick bus ride and even quicker tutorial, we were on our way. Couple things I learned, never take yr hand off the T-grip of the oar. My hand resembled a claw by the end of the day for fear that I would accidentally knock the teeth out of my head.

We headed out on our 20 mile journey. I started out in the middle and then like any good game, we rotated. I needed up in the front w/ Sexybeast. Our awesome tour guide, Madd Pup, decided we needed to have some more fun. I ended up leaning far out of the raft to paddle paddle paddle like a crazy chick. Which was all well and good and righteous except there were ginormous waves. I got smooshed, choking and coughing and trying to paddle. But I did remain in the raft. And I kept the pace the entire time.

Then I ended up in the back and Sexybeast pig piled w/ 3 other people on the front of the raft. And unfortunately, the back of the raft got sucked back into an eddy we were trying to raft over and Sexybeast and company flew into the drink. I got knocked about in the raft pretty hard but I did not fall out. Woo hoo!

Then came the hard part, the last 3 1/2 miles there were no rapids and that's when I really felt the cold and wind and did I mention the snow showers? You paddle to keep warm and I had to make a decision if I was more exhausted or cold.

The best part was the end of the trip, we landed near the rafting center & I had a nice cup of hot chocolate waiting for me. Of course, I had to wait until my hands stopped shaking to drink it but still....

And I found out that peanut butter and granola sandwiches taste really awesome.