No. 32 on my list is a good one, a hard one it turns out.
Darlene was my biggest advocate, enlisting a lovely group of women for a dip on our second night, but I didn't dip. I felt like I was getting sick, (I was, but not until I got home), and there were still two days left of camp. Instead Viv and I sat cuddled contently on the dock. The loons lonely call, the juiciest falling star dripping down from the heavens to the water, in a slow-mo glittering display. (I swear, Disney couldn't have done it better.)
I was a bit upset with myself when the girls came out of the lake that evening. I knew there'd be other opportunities, but waking up the next morning, without a cold or sniffle, I promised myself that it would happen.
The next evening, Friday, was a magical night. It was the night Dar and I shot this polaroid girl pairing, proving that we don't plan our shots, they really do just happen. It was fun to show our shots without showing each other; we didn't see the pairing until Dar returned home.
Sometime before or after we shot those polaroids, with Dar gently poking fun at me because I didn't dip the night before, I did something that shocked even me.
I think I dropped an F-bomb. I definitely stood at the end of the dock with my back to my friends and systematically disrobed. It wasn't broad daylight, but it was light nonetheless. In all my glory, for everyone that was on the lake in that hour between light and dark, when anything can happen, I dropped my naked body into the cold lake and I dipped.
I didn't swim anymore than it took me to swim back to the ladder. I felt pretty self conscious climbing out of the water, (full frontal, eep!) and dressed quickly, before heading up to the cabin to change into warmer clothes. Feeling proud that while it wasn't a naked swim, it was a proper skinny dip.