The place on my arm where I got my jellyfish sting is all red and swollen.  My shin, where I got my other sting, looks fine, it’s the one that’s more itchy and bothersome now.

There was a lot of little stuff keeping me busy at work today.  I planned to go to a client’s office at some point, but all that stuff made me keep putting it off.  I was about to go when my brother, Adam Dotsey, called and said he and his fiancee, Renee Sikes, were just about back from the Jack Johnson concert they went to last night, so I stuck around so they could pick up Dobja, their Pappilon.  He was good overall, although he had some trouble controlling his bladder and wasn’t find of being outside.  At least when he pees inside it was on the wood floor, which is much easier to clean.

Adam said Renee hadn’t enjoyed the concert- apparently she doesn’t like Jack Johnson.  Who knew?

I finally got to my meeting, which was downtown.  I found out that our main contact there is pregnant, so congrats to JG!  I’ll miss her when she’s on maternity leave.

After all that, since I was downtown, I stopped by the Port City Java where Michael Mercer, my brother-in-law, works.  I got a steamer and a muffin (thanks, Mikey!) and tried to work for the remaining ten or fifteen minutes of the day, but apparently their modem needs to be reset and it’s in a hard to reach place.

Amanda thought about stopping by, since the Port City Java was only two blocks out of her way, but it had been rainy and nasty all day long so she just wanted to get home.  Plus it’s her you-know-what time, so she probably just wanted to not do anything.

I headed out to Wrightsville Beach after that.  The surf report said the water was choppy but that there were good waves.  I got to the Frazelle house and hung out with Barry, my uncle-in-law, for a bit.  He looked at the waves and said that we were in for a beating.  We stuck around and listened to Vampire Weekend until Lars (Mike Boscaljon) showed up.  He and Theo, who also showed up, headed on out but I followed Barry, who had let me borrow a wetsuit top to keep warm, since it was rainy and cold (70 is cold in Wilmington in August).  We walked down towards the Oceanic, since the rip current was strong and was pulling down the beach.

We got out there and I felt my adrenaline jump.  There were head+ high waves just pounding all over the beach.  There was no rhythm to them, they were just crashing and pummeling and doing whatever they wanted to do.  I tried to make something spiritual out of the scene, and what I came to was that if this was merely the result of an offshore storm, I didn’t want God to ever be particularly ticked at me.  The sea was angry.

Barry and I headed on out.  He made it put past the breakers, I never did.  The first time I went back to shore I felt a side splint, like I’d been running or something.  The waves had just been crashing and crashing on me and would not let me out.  The whole shallow area in front of the waves was nothing but foam, all roiled up and thick.  I remember looking out and seeing specks of people on top of giant waves, just in awe of what simply sitting on top of one of them would feel like.

I tried a few more times to go out, but I never made it.  There were surfers up and down the beach just sitting in the wet sand watching, wishing they could get out there.  Some people were out past the breakers, mind you, but it was tough.

Eventually I walked down towards Lars and Theo.  Josh was also out with them, along with Jeaneane, whom we later reasoned out I had met at a party at Kristen Philips’ place before.  We all grumbled about not being able to get out to catch a wave, although Josh didn’t give up and by the time I left later he still hadn’t given up.  Mike, Jeaneane, Theo and I decided to just mess around in the water and even tried surfing some of the whitewater, but the current was so strong you could hardly stand in place.  I almost got pulled right into Jeaneane while holding the board (I took out Little Blue for the first time today) and once while trying to surf the whitewater, I slipped off the side of the board then it jumped up and the edge smacked me square in the bottom of my chin.

Barry came by and told us he was going in, that it should be good in the morning so he was going to save his strength.  The rest of us (except Josh) headed in after a little bit.  I called Michael after taking a warm shower outside (with two guys and a girl- odd, huh?) to tell him we were all already inside because he was planning on coming on out, but he pulled into the driveway as I was talking to him.

To make his trip worthwhile I walked on out to the beach with him.  It wasn’t raining anymore and the sea wasn’t nearly as angry as it was before, but it still looked pretty tough.

Michael and I left.  I talked to Amanda, who told me she wanted a blueberry muffin.  I stopped at the Port City Java at Lumina Station and changed in the car real quick (it was dark and nobody was around) before heading into the coffee shop, but they didn’t have any muffins out.  I told Amanda I’d try Lowe’s Food.

My dad called as I was walking into the grocery store and told me that John Quinn had died.  I was upset and bummed, of course, but I was also glad he wasn’t suffering anymore.

I couldn’t find any muffins, and the news I’d just received probably didn’t help my irritability at the fact.  I looked everywhere you’d think to look for muffins.  I looked in the bakery section, I looked by the bread, I looked in the snack aisle, in the breakfast aisle- nothing!

I was finally starting to go up and down each individual row and I was near the front of the store when I heard a girl, she was maybe twelve years old, say “Blueberry muffins.”  I looked around and saw a few boxes of muffins on one of the tables by the checkout lanes.  I went so far as to literally thank her for having mentioned those words, because I would probably not have ever noticed them there.

Of course when I got home with them Amanda told me that she probably wouldn’t eat the tops because they had icing on them.  She didn’t know how much frustration I’d gone through in getting them, and I consoled myself with the fact that I’d be able to have the tops for myself.  We watched some Ghost Hunters International then called it a night.  I’m getting up early tomorrow to go surfing.

Russia and Georgia do’t seem to be getting along.

Zach Dotsey