We Almost Got Attacked By a Goose! (According to The Lawyer, That Is)

First of all, thank you for all of your wonderful comments on the last post.  I've stopped freaking out, and I think I've found my groove with studying.  So far, I've been spending my days like this:

Morning:  Review concepts that I don't know from First Aid
Afternoon:  Listen to 3-5 DIT lectures, depending on the day and their length
Evening:  Do Kaplan questions

It's working well, and I feel like I'm making good progress.

As for me talking about an argument with The Lawyer, thank you also for not being alarmed about that.  I wasn't sure if I should disclose our well-kept secret that we are not perfect.  But alas, we occasionally disagree, have "discussions," cry, and spend half of the day sitting under our desks listening to Maroon 5 on repeat.

(Kidding on the last one.)

He apologized for making me upset and more importantly, for distracting me from valuable study time by creating dissension.  He really was trying to help, and as he sullenly said, "I'm a man and I don't always know the right thing to say or do."

Internet, if ever there was truth about relationships, it is that statement right there.

Anyway, this Sabbath, I finally had enough energy to want to do something besides sleep.  I don't talk about what Seventh-day Adventists believe/do often here, but I keep Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.  Sabbath is a day of rest from work, which in my case, includes schoolwork.  On Friday night, I usually go to the gym and then read, and on Saturday morning, I go to church.

Since starting medical school, my church attendance has been somewhat sporadic, though, because I'm so tired.  On these days, I usually sleep pretty late, get up and watch an online sermon or do my own devotion, and...go back to sleep.

I know.  You are enthralled.

Anyway, I was surprisingly awake this Sabbath, so I suggested to The Lawyer that we go boating at Burke Lake after lunch.  Since a suggestion like this has pretty much never come out of my mouth since we've been dating, he jumped at the chance.

Burke Lake Park is about 25 miles west of the city, in Fairfax County, VA.  In addition to the lake, which is open to rowboats and canoes, there is a mini-golf course, outdoor volleyball courts, and a miniature train and carousel.

This is where the terror began.

It was pretty busy on Sabbath, so The Lawyer and I waited for an available boat, got it, and then rowed out onto the lake.

It was pretty much a perfect day, with clear skies, and an ambient temperature of about 70 degrees.

At first, I was letting The Lawyer row us, as I sat idly in the boat, offering to make myself useful by singing.  (The Lawyer wisely declined.)  Finally, I asked if he wanted me to sit next to him and man one of the oars.  We both knew that it would take a significant amount of coordination for us to row in tandem, but we are both competitive and stubborn.  

What ensued were a number of team-building moments that could easily be taken out of a couples therapy guide, where we realized that:

1. We were not steering towards the same destination.

2.  I am apparently the "slow" rower.

3.  We use the phrase, "You never told me that!" too much.

Anyway, we found our stride after about 10 minutes and started zipping around that lake.  At one point, the Burke Lake marine boat came to make sure that we were all right, because we were out so far.

Hello, Marine Patrol!  We're not lost!  We're just surprisingly agile for a medical student and lawyer!

Then, someone else showed up:

Dun-dun-DUN!

Now, mind you, there are plenty of geese at Burke Lake.  Notice this one here, near the shore.  

I intentionally didn't crop this photo, so that you can see the leg of a small child standing nearby.  Incidentally, the goose did not turn and maim him.

As the goose got closer...

And closer....

And closer...

The Lawyer was not having it!

I suspected that the geese at Burke Lake have become desensitized to human presence, and hang around boats hoping for food, but The Lawyer assured me that I was incorrect.

Apparently, the internet is full of videos of geese attacks on humans--some of them fatal--and the goose had obviously swum over to our boat with the intention of killing us.

Please take note of The Lawyer's death grip on the side of the boat.

As I continued to snap photos with my iPhone, The Lawyer chided me for talking to the goose in a baby voice and prepared himself to be mauled within one inch of his life.  Noticing that I was not displaying the same level of distress, he said,

"You'd better keep your phone out, so that when I get attacked, you can get it on video!"

(Right, because if my boyfriend actually got attacked by a goose, my first priority would be videotaping it.)

Sadly, the goose found us to be both uninteresting and too stressed out to make a successful kill.

He or she swam away without attacking...

And we lived to tell the tale.

Hope your weekend was equally terrifying relaxing!