The Beach: Musings

Today I went to the beach with some friends. I decided I wanted to test my swimming skills, so as my friend paddled about in an inflated smiley-face inner tube, I floundered in the water beside her. "Let's go out where it's deep," I said, confidently. So we paddled out to where the bottom of the lake disappeared in a deep green murkiness, and I struggled to maintain a casual conversation as I tried to keep my ears above the water.

Anyways, as we looked around, we began talking about girls, and our hangups regarding our bodies. My friend mentioned that her boyfriend thinks she is nuts for the little things about her body that bother her. In fact, most guys we have talked to like their girls with a few extra pounds rather than too few. So we got to thinking: who are girls really trying to impress? And the obvious answer: other girls. While sad, this fact to me is painfully obvious. When I go out, I am way more judgmental of girls than I am of guys. I wish I could say that I didn't judge (and I try really hard not to), but sometimes I slip, and I find myself sizing up the other females in the room.

Flash forward, back to the image of me coughing water out of my mouth, and trying to stop my ears from pooling with water. The beach today seemed awash in hot bodies, male and female. I think both my friend and I found our selves wishing, just a little, that we looked that good in a bathing suit. But, oh well. I know I never will, so it doesn't bother me that much. Just a momentary, mid-afternoon, semi-drowned wistful thought.