BrownSuga's Sweet Spot: Proud Mary

“Left a good job in the city

Working for the man every night and day

But I never lost one minute of sleeping

Worrying ‘bout the way things might have been

Big wheels keeping on turnin’

Proud Mary keeps on burnin’

Rollin’ (rollin’) Rollin (rollin’)

Rollin’ on the river”

~Proud Mary by Tina Turner

Last weekend that song played through my mind thousands and thousands of times. Usually I get annoyed when that happens, like that d*mn Barney song, or the song that doesn’t end. Y’all know what I mean. It’s playing when you’re trying to read, watch television, do work or even talk to someone. However, this time I was not annoyed. In fact whenever the song popped into my head, I started singing. I belted it out; loud and proud just like Mary.

On Monday afternoon my husband, best friend and one other person protected ourselves with lifejackets, strapped on our helmets, grabbed our paddles and headed out on the PigeonRiver, in Tennessee, for an afternoon of whitewater rafting.

Let me take you back before I get ahead of myself. As most of you know, I am a business owner. And I can honestly say that in the time I’ve worked there is much more stress dealing being the boss. When I worked for a company, I left everyday at a certain time. I never had to bring my work home or if I did it was a choice I made. That won’t fly with owning your own business. Instead of a 9 to 5, I have a 24/7. But the difference is, I’m happy. I welcome the stress of it because not all stress is bad. In that last few weeks, I had to make some big decisions regarding the future of my business. Instead of getting emotional about some doors closing, I decided I wanted to go whitewater rafting. Spend a weekend not thinking about work (ok not thinking about it ALL THE TIME), relax a bit with my husband and best friend and get a little wet in a river. So we rented a BEAUTIFUL cabin up in the mountains.

The first time I’d gone whitewater rafting, I didn’t have much fun. Like many states in the south, North Carolina was having a drought so water levels were low. In addition to almost no water to raft on, we were the unlucky bunch to get in a raft with someone who refused to paddle her own weight. In fact she didn’t paddle anybody’s weight. She sat there the whole time looking at the rest of us struggle over each and every rock on the Nantahala River.

This time I refused to have that happen. I gave everyone a pep talk before leaving for the river. Yes, I admit, I may have sounded like I didn’t trust people to carry their own weight on this trip but seeing as how I was the only returning rafter besides the guide I wanted all of us to have the best time. And yes they were annoyed with me. They swore that I was overreacting. They would never chicken out and the last minute. They would work harder than anyone on the raft. They could handle anything. Whitewater rafting is a piece of cake, they said. But take a minute and imagine if I hadn’t said anything. While rafting I still heard:

“Oh my God are we going to fall in the water.”

“I think I’m going to throw up.”

“I’m just waiting for my Xanax to kick in.”

“Uh…what happens if a stick punctures the raft?”

STICK??? Are you kidding me? A more intelligent question would be what happens if the BIG @$$ ROCK punctures the boat. But let me not get started on some of the stupidity that we dealt with in Tennessee.

I won’t call anyone out and say who said what, but I’m thankful each and every person made it to the bottom without throwing up in the raft or drowning *rolls eyes*.

The river was great. It’s a dam controlled river and due to some heavy raining the previous weeks we got more water than expected. The river had a nice mix of category 3 and 4 rapids including one we got to “surf”. The trip lasted approximately 2 hours and by the time we were done not only were we wet and exhausted, but I think they appreciated my push to do it right. Well that’s how I figure it.

And as we raft a class 4 rapid I began singing *smiles*. Gotta love some Tina!