New Jersey

This weekend, I had the chance to go out to the ocean in New Jersey for the first time, and I had a blast. I went out overnight on Friday with a group of people from the church I go to (Redeemer Presbyterian) for a weekend getaway at a bed & breakfast. It was nice mostly just to be able to go and relax, get out of town for a little while, but the highlight for me was definitely the ocean itself.
The ocean has always been a powerful symbol for me personally, for reasons that are too complex to go into here. But it is a powerful symbol in a good way. The last time I went to the ocean was about three and a half years ago, when I was still living in Washington State. But I didn’t swim that time, since the beach that I was on had a lot of debris near the water, and I didn’t feel like swimming.
This time, in New Jersey, I did go swim, in surf that from what I was told by people who swim on the East Coast frequently, was pretty intense. And it was … in a word … awesome. I got smacked around, turned upside down, pulled under by the current, and even had a few seconds that I thought I might be in real danger (since I was under the water and couldn’t tell if I was being pulled towards the shore or away from it). I probably swallowed a gallon of seawater. (Which by the way really is salty, I mean, seriously salty! I’m sure anyone reading this who knows the ocean well is thinking ‘Duh!’, but not having tasted the ocean since I was very very young, finding salt crystals actually clinging to my skin after I’d dried off was really quite a novelty) When I dragged myself back onto the beach after 15 minutes or so of swimming, I felt like I’d had the shit beaten out of me.
I can’t remember the last time in my life I had so much fun.