By Staff
Leada DeVaney, Hartselle Enquirer
June. Summer. Shorts and bathing suit season is here.
It's time to panic.
In about two months, I will be heading to the beach and wearing the prerequisite bathing suit. This is not something I am looking forward to. In the past, I have thought about getting a bathing suit with a big arrow on it and the words "Hey, look over there, someone is drowning!" all in an effort to deflect attention away from my bathing-suit clad self.
Two months. Time to get serious. And Greg was going to help me.
Sunday afternoon, Greg and I decided to go for a walk.
"Exercise," I said. "That's great. Wonderful. Good for us."
"This means you have to walk. Outside. In the heat," Greg said.
"I'm well aware of this," I replied. "Let me get my tennis shoes."
Tennis shoes. Hmmm…somewhere in my closet there is a pair of tennis shoes.
I grabbed a pair of pink sequined sandals and held them up so Greg could see them.
"Did you see these?" I asked enthusiastically. "I just got them Saturday and they go with…"
Greg cut me off.
"You cannot tell me in that huge pile of shoes there is not one pair of tennis shoes," Greg said. "Surely, you own one pair of athletic shoes?"
I finally found some. They were bright shiny and white.
We headed out.
"It's hot," I said as I passed through the door into the outside.
"I warned you," he said, eyeing me wearily.
We started walking.
"Ouch! I've been bitten by a mosquito! West Nile! West Nile!," I yelled.
We kept walking.
"Do you want to walk to the park?" he asked, as he picked up speed and headed downtown.
"You realize that's, like, far away, right?" I asked.
He nodded. I walked. And walked. And walked.
"These shoes and hurting my feet and I have to go to the bathroom and I'm thirsty," I said all in one big jumbled sentence.
Greg kept walking, though I noticed he did pick up the pace so that I was left trailing behind.
We walked through the park and through downtown. And walked and walked and walked.
"You know," I said. "If we keep walking in this direction we could go to Dairy Queen and get a banana split," I said.
He walked even faster.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, we turned the corner onto the street where my house is. We made it through my yard and into the cool, airconditioned house.
"Now don't you feel better?" I asked. "A little exercise always does you good."