We stayed in a hotel where you were not allowed to swim in the pool after 5 p.m., but I wanted to. My husband advised against it, but I was stubborn. The sign said \u201cPool Closes at 5,\u201d yet the water glowed turquoise under the dusk, whispering rebellion. I slipped in at 5:01, grinning like a teenager.<\/p>\n
I come back happy, dripping chlorine and triumph. He looks at me wide-eyed. Then he laughs: \u201cHere\u2019s your punishment!\u201d He shows a video on his phone: I\u2019m swimming, gliding through the cool embrace, when a sleek hotel cat saunters to the edge. It squats, tail high, and with perfect timing, deposits a tiny, steaming gift right where my next stroke would take me.<\/p>\n
I shrieked mid-lap, flailing backward as the cat trotted off, unbothered. My husband, hidden behind a palm, had captured every second. For the rest of the vacation, he replayed it at dinner, in the elevator, even during sunset cocktails. \u201cInstant karma,\u201d he\u2019d crow, wiping tears of laughter.<\/p>\n
I believed him. From then on, I obeyed every rule, especially the ones with feline enforcers. Some rebellions aren\u2019t worth the splash, especially when nature\u2019s got a litter box and perfect aim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We stayed in a hotel where you were not allowed to swim in the pool after 5 p.m., but I wanted to. My husband advised against it, but I was stubborn. The sign said \u201cPool Closes at 5,\u201d yet the water glowed turquoise under the dusk, whispering rebellion. I slipped in at 5:01, grinning like …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/re10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2006,"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004\/revisions\/2006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifestorybuffering.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}