To Know Me Is To Have Seen Me In The Ocean

I lost another word. It was on the tip of my tongue and I went to speak it and it was gone. I stood there in a moment of confusion, frantically searching the wordroom in my brain, but I could not, for the life of me, find the word. I ended up using an ersatz one instead. Hmph.

I can't stop thinking about Mexico and the day we spent in the ocean. No one has been able to rattle me at work this week cuz when they start to, I just think about the surf and I'm gone. Take your problem and your "better than you" attitude and vamos, muchacho. No tengo tiempo para esa mierda.

Yeah, Poseidon loves me. In the past, he's shown some jealousy towards whatever boy toy has accompanied me onto his surfturf, but he was clearly able to see the diff between this boy and the others - he settled for a single mano-y-mano kick to los cajones, then let us play to our hearts content relatively undisturbed. Only one other time did he seem to be sending a subtle message, when he acted like he was gonna drag me out to sea and I panicked a tiny bit and monkeyboy got concerned. I believe the King of the Sea could tell that this mere mortal was willing to risk his own shaky footing and limited oceanic skills to save me; relenting, Poseidon sent a wave of seahorses to carry me to safer ground, a bit of "No, I'LL doing the rescuing, but dude, the expression on your face was just sooooo cute. You can love her on land, but don't forget who's her daddy when you are in MY sea, 'k?"

Whether or not handsome knows it, he won a significant battle that day and not just against the god of the sea.

THAT was a truly beautiful day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the temperature both in and out of the water was a perfect hot°F. The waves were breaking left to right when they weren't breaking right to left. And the waves rolling in were high-fivin' the waves rolling out which, by the way, were uncharacteristically not spent.

The sea bed was somewhat unreliable - I've always thought Poseidon likes his bed a bit rumply. I walked in on rough sand to stand in three feet of water when the sea bed dropped like the five-foot mark on a swimming pool - no gentle slide, just shallow, then deep. From this vantage, the five-foot swells breaking out a distance looked like giants and there was no way I was goin' in deeper.

Then Poseidon chuckled and I realized he was just messing with me. I took another look and could see sandy bottom out 10 feet or so. Sure enough, two steps and the water depth diminished significantly. A few more feet and I was standing in a foot and a half of water on fine sand, not bobbing along as I had thought I would be. Farther out, I was still in shallow water, and closing in on the crestline. I'd forgotten, though, that the waves going out were not spent, they were still carrying enough energy to meet the incoming waves with a force that shot rooster tails high in the air. Standing in the midst of that was amazing and exhilarating and wildly exciting if not the tiniest bit scary.

Then further out and time to watch the waves with assiduity. It may not be nice to fool mother nature, but turn your back on Poseidon and he will bitch-slap the ever-lovin' shit out of you. Trust me.

I have a technique that I religiously follow. I watch the waves and move closer or farther depending on how deep the water is and where the waves are breaking. I want them to just start to break and I want to be in five feet of water prior to this point. Timed perfectly and all planets aligned, I can jump and the boyancy of the salt water combined with the swell will carry me high up and head clear of the waves, then set me gently back down on the smooth ocean floor. I love this game and can play it for hours.

Of course, in an ocean where waves break L2R AND R2L, where the ocean floor slopes drastically down and up and down again like a roller-coaster at California Adventure, where waves are chest-thumpin' each other with you sandwiched between, hours turns into two at most, one is simply too exhausted to remain in the water for much longer than that. Then back up to the beach, spread thin on a towel and let the sun turn your body into a golden dry salt-lick with bits of glittering sand in romantic yet slightly uncomfortable places :)

Sigh! If I could describe that day in one word, it would without a doubt be...SHIT, I LOST ANOTHER WORD!