Guest Blog: Lisa Schroeder

Summer’s Been My Favorite for a Long, Long Time
by Lisa Schroeder

When I was in high school, I lived about thirty miles from Foster Lake, which was a popular hangout spot in the summer. I have a lot of great memories of me and my friends at the lake, but one definitely stands out in my mind, so I thought I’d share it with you guys to celebrate Summerland!

Summer was drawing to a close, and I was looking ahead to my freshman year at college, nervous, excited and a hundred other emotions I’m sure. Out of the blue, my friend Sally called me up on this glorious sunny Saturday and said her older brother (Scott, who was cute) and a friend of his (Danny, who was REALLY cute) were going up to the lake with Danny’s boat to water ski, and camp over night, and she wanted to know if I wanted to come along. It was all very last minute, and I was nervous because I had never been water skiing, but I said yes and before I knew it, we were on our way.

The funny thing is that until that day, I had swam in the lake, at the swimming hole, but I’d never been much further than that. I remember heading out on the boat and thinking, this lake is like, huge! Which, you know, of course - it was a lake!

I watched as the others took turns skiing, and eventually, it was my turn. I got in the water, and after a bit of struggle, got my skis on. Then, it was time to see if I could actually stand up on them. They had told me everything I needed to do - keep my skis pointing up and as the boat began to pull me, slowly make my way into a standing position. I actually got up on the first try, but didn’t stay up very long. It only took a few tries, though, before I was skiing all over that huge lake. And it was one of the most fun things I had ever experienced!

All day long we skied, we played music, we ate, we drank, we talked, we laughed (especially when I asked what water skiers do when they have to pee), and it wasn’t until the sun started to set and we decided we needed some real food that we headed for shore, our magical day of fun in the sun fading into the distance.

Do most people have a day that stands out as one of the best days ever? This is definitely one of mine.

A funny aside, however. The next morning, when I woke up in the tent I shared with Sally, my lips were practically the size of Texas and covered in sun blisters. It was horrible! All day long while we sat and skied in the sun, Sally and I had slathered Blistex on our lips, because it was all we had and our lips felt so dry and chapped. Sally woke up and when we looked at each other, we simultaneously shrieked. The same thing had happened to her! We were mortified. How could we possibly let Danny (the REALLY cute guy) see us like this? Of course we had to, and I think there were some laughs on our behalf. We ran into town, got some medicine, and tried to ignore our ugly lips the rest of the time we were there, which was sort of difficult and why I don’t remember that second day being nearly as fun as the first.

Lesson learned: If you ever go water skiing, take good sun block for your lips, NOT Blistex!