I'm finally getting around to telling this story about my forty-fifth birthday, which actually occurred in 2004. Sure, I was feeling pretty melancholy at the time. Not that I felt old, or even do now. I'm actually in very good physical shape and most people think I'm in my thirty's. But that was one of the things that made me anxious about this
significant event.
I didn't want to think about the possibility of not feeling this good in the not too distant future, especially given that my wife Rainy is six years younger than me.
Yes, her name is Rainy. Her hippie parents got a vision, likely from sensimilla weed, that her name should be Rainbow. Yep! So that worked out until about fifth grade when the trip to Sugar Mountain was over and her friends shortened it to Rainy, just because Rainbow was a bit too corny for them. They'd seen enough rainbows in art class by then.
My wife is a big reason for my good health. Not only does she keep me organically fed, except for my forays to my favorite steak house, but we both exercise regularly. Rainy swims like a fish and does some cycling. I do cycling and some weight training. Rainy's appearance certainly gives me incentive for keeping fit. As I said, she's six years my junior, five-foot four-inches tall, and about one hundred twenty five pounds, all of which fit in a very curvy frame. Her blond/brown curly hair is very full and striking, especially if she wears a dark blouse or sweater. Her hair is very similar to Charlize Theron's in the movie "Devil's Advocate", meaning 'hot'!
I met Rainy at a cycling event in 1984. She was a volunteer for the event (she was very into volunteering at that time in her life). At the end of the half-century ride, while other riders took cups of water from the volunteers and poured it over their heads, I took one look from this striking woman and splashed the cup of water hard against my face, shook it off, and stared at her. "Wow, you're not a mirage?"
That was my opening line. It was corny, but Rainy didn't get it anyway. She instead answered with this overwhelming compassion, "Oh you poor guy, you must be exhausted! Here,
drink
it this time, then sit down on the grass hill behind us and cool off." As she turned to get more water, I noticed her full breasts filling out her tank top. Her jeans were worn, but snug in all the right places. They were also low on her waist. My view of her from the perch on the grass hill convinced me of how absolutely stunning she was. And she wore no makeup at all! I even forgot to go look up at the finish standings, which until that moment was my entire motivation that day. I tried to tell her my name, which is Chuck, but she thought I said "shucks" and we left it at that.
Thereafter, I found any excuse to volunteer or be in any event at which Rainy was also scheduled. I got her address by offering to send her a 'thank you for saving my life' card; I was able to look up her address based upon the phone number. Sure it was her beauty that struck me, but it was also that sound of compassion in her voice. She had this innocence and nonchalance about her that must've come from her hippie parents. Rainy never thought any situation was bad. It was a miracle that someone didn't take advantage of her obliviousness.
Soon after we started dating Rainy told me that she and her entire family would skinny dip at a lake where they and some friends gathered every year. "Rainy, when you're eight years old, nobody really notices or cares." I remember saying dismissively about something she thought would get my attention. But then I thought that her Mom might have been a looker too and wondered about the whole scene of weed and free love around my Rainy.
"We went every year until I was sixteen." she replied naively. She showed me pictures of herself at that age and she already had that look of innocence on a face that was connected to a fantastic body."
When it dawned on me then that she swam in the nude looking like
that
in public. I got very aroused! "Holy crap!" I thought. "Didn't she realize the effect she was likely having on the men there? What the hell was her Mom and Dad thinking (or smoking)?"
"Didn't anybody ... you know ... make a pass at you?" I said thinking about all the guys ogling her while she walked into and out of the water showing off those beautiful curves.
Rainy looked at me like a dog that tilts its head sideways. "What do you mean? All the families were close and we all knew each other since childhood." She was putting some laundry away as she spoke and added after she thought about it more. "My parents and all of those people thought the body was a beautiful gift of nature. I don't think anyone noticed
me
particularly because almost all of the people there swam nude."
Her parents must've been in a commune or were naturalists. I'm sure many of the 'other' men in the community at that time were likely admiring Rainy's body, but also imagining some further investigation. Thank goodness no one acted on his or her feelings. Maybe they were all too stoned to try anything or maybe her parents did notice her getting a bit more attention than usual and stopped going. Or perhaps I'm just someone who equates nude women with sex, though I don't seem to be alone in that regard.
That was my first hint that Rainy had little sense of inhibition. She didn't think about nudity as sexual. It was just
natural
. I was the first person to question her obliviousness to being nude around the house, changing, or wearing limited clothing in public places.
One of my first memories of this was waiting for a shuttle in a tourist area in Arizona in 1990. Rainy was wearing runner style shorts while sitting on a wood tie in the parking lot. Her legs were spread apart to accommodate the backpack parked on the ground between her feet.
Perhaps a little background is needed to appreciate the circumstance. We had gone for a quick dip at the hotel spa earlier that morning. The spa building was about five minutes walk from our room since the hotel was more like a campus than one large edifice. I had asked the attendant to inform us when our shuttle was leaving. He did his best, but we realized we had no time to get back to the room, change, and still make it back to the main lobby where the shuttle bus was waiting. So we ran into the nicely appointed bathrooms at the spa instead.
I found out later that Rainy hadn't packed fresh underwear, and didn't like the idea of putting on the ones she wore that morning either, so she just didn't wear any! I first noticed her missing bra as we boarded the shuttle and her nipples stiffened in the air conditioning. "Uh Rainy, I think you forgot something?"
She looked to where my eyes were focused. "I know. I forget to bring a change and hate putting on old stuff after showering, yuck."
"We could have gone back to the room and gotten a later shuttle?" I inquired.
"Too much hassle, I'll be fine." She responded, but noticed my raised eyebrows and dopey smile. "I'll be doing a lot of
this
today." She laughed, crossing her arms over her chest.