Obsession

I liked Michelle Rodriguez's character in Avatar, but I really fell in love with her on LOST. When she socked Sawyer in that classic no nonsense way, it was all over. I'm now a devoted fan. I want to see more of her punching people out. She's simply spectacular. And you should check out her headshot on imdb. It's amazing.

Swimming was good today. It was nice to be on the beach again. I haven't even walked on the beach since last Sunday. The sand on our beach always surprises me, it's so soft. It struck me as very sad that I had forgotten the feel of the sand and the sun. I suppose since it's winter I should just thank my lucky stars that we had a pleasant day. The currents weren't too strong, the sun was out, and there was OK visibility. There were some huge swells though. When I first swam out I thought I was going to be sea sick. Up and down, up and down, 2 and 3 feet at a time. Like my least favorite amusement park rides. I took a deep breath and focused on the ocean floor. Things got better. The water clarity wasn't perfect today, so finding the fish took effort. Even though I was still floating on the unsteady surface, I forgot it existed and looked for some new friends to play with.

My friend the trunk fish apparently hangs out at the same spots. I saw him again in the same place as last week. I'll have to make a habit of stopping by to say hi.

There wasn't too much else of interesting going on in the underworld today. The fish looked sea sick too, swaying with the currents and trying to find calm spots in between the rocks. When I looked up again, I'd realized that I'd lost Rory somewhere in the swells. This is not good. I'm calm in the water when I'm either

1) with someone
or
2) the fish are chillin' out.

Now the fish AND Rory were out of sight. I fought off the unease by focusing again on finding the fish in the crevices, not really sure if I wanted to see anything. Swimming days with only partial visibility are the days I'm sure that Jaws is going to come eat me and I won't see him until it's too late (as if I would stand a chance anyway). So now I'm alone, bobbing in swells, and being hunted by a great white shark. This is how I know Mother Nature has a sense of humor. She chose this moment to send two huge porcupine fish to play pranks. They came up behind me, nearly half my size - a 2 footer and a 3 footer.

Hardy Har guys, thanks. I swam with them for a while, wondering if they had any defense systems I should be aware of. They seemed to be pretty easy going, but eventually swam off when I got too close.

They do puff up, I learned later. Can you imagine? A 3 foot fish all puffed up. That would be crazy.

image from: http://www.bootkeyharbor.com/images/Fish%20G86.jpg