Countdown

This week my story will debut on Hooking Up. It is a bit unnerving. I am looking forward to it, but at the same time I have not seen the episodes. There is no way for me to know how they have edited my 200 hours of footage down to a cumulative of one hour. Many words (and actions) taken out of context could mean something different than intended. This is my primary concern. I am fully aware that this is a documentary filmed by the NEWS division of ABC, but it is also a show that needs to get ratings. I have seen how they have drawn in interest by using clips of my dates that look like more is going on than what was actually happening. I have taken it all in stride because I know that is the nature of the business and I am pretty confident at this point that the circumstances will be revealed when my episodes air. I won’t mention more because I am interested in hearing reactions to the footage prior to my commenting. (However, I was shell shocked when the latest version of the Hooking Up commercial came out last week. There is a scene where I was lying down with just a sheet covering my lower body- more was exposed to the camera than I realized or had intended! The show this Thursday will be more than interesting.)

To cool my nerves, I went to the beach today. I have a client meeting tomorrow in the Florida panhandle. So, I arrived into Florida early today so that I could go to the beach. The heat index was 101!!! Luckily, there was a nice breeze in the shade..and I found a beach chair and umbrella for rent . Those blue pads on the chairs are really quite comfy. I have used them before but just never focused on the comfort factor. I was in bliss. I was really nervous about sharks though. Yes, I have heard that statistical rationale about “You are more likely to be hit by lightening than to be attacked by a shark”…but neither is desirable…so I stayed in just knee deep water. I felt silly crouching down to try to get in enough water to cool off, but felt quite sane when I saw a bunch of people (on several occasions) running out of the water from a large creature that they thought was a shark. Each and every time I saw it all coming from my post; it was just a skate. It looks like a stingray but is harmless. The scary thing is that the skate was huge and they couldn’t see it until it was only two feet away.