Surreal moment

[JSample]

As I imagine is the case with many if not most of the members here, no one in my family knows about my quicksand fetish; it's a personal secret that is best kept a secret. However, my having such a secret fetish that no one in my family knows about can make for some surreal moments on the rare occasions when one of my family members brings up the topic of quicksand, either as a metaphor for a situation at work or at school or in a relationship, or as a reference to actual quicksand, whether in a movie or a news story. I find myself wondering, "Now that the topic has been raised, just how much can I say about quicksand without tipping my hand to the fact that I spend a lot more time and energy thinking about the stuff than anyone in my family would ever imagine?" So you can imagine how surreal a moment it was for me a few hours ago when my youngest daughter, age 21, who is working a summer internship for the state government that involves her traveling to various locations around the state to take water samples from rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes, sent the following group text to our family:

"Well, I can cross falling into quicksand off my bucket list."

Of course, my immediate, incredulous response to her initial text was to reply, "What?" accompanied by all the mental wondering and worrying that I mentioned above as I asked her what had happened and made sure she was okay. After all the other non-quicksand-fetish members of my family had chimed in with similar questions and comments, I finally replied, "Never a Tarzan around when you need one..."

She's okay, by the way; she said that she stepped into a stream to take a water sample without realizing that the bottom was unstable "quickmud" (her term) and "kinda just sank" to her knees. She said that she was wearing wading boots that were hooked to her pants and that her feet slipped out of her boots when she grabbed some tree roots to pull herself back out. Oh, and she still got her water sample.

[Boppinabe]

Interesting that falling into quicksand was even on her bucket list.

[Fred588]

Probably not but maybe there are two quicksanders in your family.

[bogbud]

Wow, that's a story!
Let's hope she will not google terms like +waders +stuck +mud and find out that there is a whole industry of producers for exactly that kind of thing. Especially when it includes a young woman!

Also intriguing that she used "Quickmud". That's a word almost exclusively used within our community

[quickman]

Nice, did she elaborate on what it felt like?

[JSample]

Interesting that falling into quicksand was even on her bucket list.

Knowing my daughter's sense of humor, I suspect that the "bucket list" reference was a joke in light of how unexpected the circumstance was.

Probably not but maybe there are two quicksanders in your family.

I'd lean toward the "probably not."

[JSample]

Wow, that's a story!
Let's hope she will not google terms like +waders +stuck +mud and find out that there is a whole industry of producers for exactly that kind of thing. Especially when it includes a young woman!

Yes, that would be even more surreal than her original text: "So, Dad, I was looking online and found there's this whole thing about people making videos of girls wearing boots and waders getting stuck in mud. Have you ever heard of that?"

Also intriguing that she used "Quickmud". That's a word almost exclusively used within our community

Given the kind of governmental department she works for and her own prior interest in geology and the environment, she may have encountered the term previously in her studies and training. I'm certainly not going to inquire of her about it; that would take things from surreal to weird!