i think i'm ready to talk about it...

summer is over, it was official when i sat in a room filled uncomfortable desk and listened to and elderly brittish gentleman talk about the koine greek language.

i was sad to see it go.

summer 2009 will forever be one of my favorite summers. plenty of playing, watching people i love get married, and spending time with favorites.

as i look back on the summer the memories flood my mind and bring me great joy.

however, there is one memory that brings no joy.

it only haunts me.

truly, i am haunted.

so there i was, enjoying one of these wonderful summer days at hurricane harbor with my good friend/new roommate julie. julie and i had spent the day riding rides, catching waves (artificial of course) and generally laughing our faces off. we were just about done with the day, out of the lazy river for the last time and headed to pick up our stuff and head out the door when we saw it.

it was a sight i shall not soon forget as much as i would like to.

a girl had pooped her pants.

this was no little girl, this was a teenage girl who had pooped her pants.

this is how it went down from what i could tell. (this might not be the most accurate, it's what i could gather from the scene i observed...from a far.)

said girl was playing in the wave pool, disregarding her growing discomfort in the name of fun. her group tired of the wave pool and exited. she then pooped her swimsuit bottoms. in a desperate effort to avoid further embarrassment she took of running toward the lazy river which was about 30 yards away. about half way she was busted by a hurricane harbor employee (who i'm guessing at this point was hating his life) and forced to remain less she spread her excrement further across the water park and dangering the health of other attendants.

so there she is stuck, held captive by the employee and forced to remain in the middle of the crowds, poop down her leg and in a trail behind her.

another employee quickly brought her a disinfectant spray, paper towels and a trash can with which to clean herself and dispose of properly.

to recap:

-she pooped her pants in the middle of the water park
-is now cleaning her poop off her leg in the middle of the water park

as you can imagine at this point she is pretty angry/embarrassed. embarrassed about what happened, angry at the harbor's policy to not let her run and hide.

so this is where i come in. but what do i do? this was the question at hand. what can you do in this situation to help this poor girl.

anyone?

really, are there any suggestions? there was nothing.

nothing.

absolutely nothing we could do.

we kicked around the idea of gathering other ladies to help us and hold our towels up around her but that would have just drawn more attention. also with the trail of poop she left someone would have had to stand close to it to form a solid circle.

so we walked away. we continued in our task of leaving the park in utter shock, horror and sadness of not being able to help. as we left we knew it would be an event that took time to process and sink in.

only now is what i saw real.

that evening i called a creative friend who i thought might have had a really good idea had she been in that situation. (it should be said about this friend that she was much more compassionate than i was) anyway, after some thought she spoke...

"the only thing you could have done, was gone, stood next to the girl and poop your pants."