A Good Day to be a Californian

And not just because of the weather.

I seriously wanted to congratulate and hug strangers.

Love is love is love. Just because I want to marry someone of the opposite sex doesn't mean that everybody has to.

So, the dive yesterday. The stats:

water temp: 57 degrees

visibility: 5 feet

depth: 25 ft

bottom time: 11 minutes

I was least comfortable with the 5 foot visibility and overall murkiness of the water. I didn't really see that there was anything to look at, and I had a difficult time equalizing, but I am super glad to get this first dive out of the way.

I had been most worried about the cold, which turned out to not be a problem at all. The wet suit really does work. Who knew?

I had taken an excedrin PM and half a zanny and was asleep between 7h30 and 8 Weds night. And it was lovely. I LOVED going to bed so early. I'm sure the drugs helped. And when my alarm went off at 3:37a, I marveled at how weird it felt to be so well rested so early in the morning. I thoroughly enjoyed my hour and a half drive in the wee small hours of the morning through LA. It really is the best time to drive around this city. And it was me and Ira Glass and This American Life and it was really cathartic. I enjoyed the sunrise over the mountains...It's like this whole world that I never concern myself to see.

I'm going to be seeing it a lot over the next couple of days. Tomorrow I have to be at the boat by 6. The boat is in a different harbor than the one I went to yesterday but still like an hour and a half away. (Yay! more drugs for an early night's sleep!)

My instructor can no longer make it so I'm going to be with all strangers, which doesn't thrill me, but the substitute instructor called me yesterday and seems nice enough.

Unlike the Catalina Express which only takes 45 minutes to get to the island, the dive charter takes 2 and a half hours. one way. the goal is three dives, but i can get by with two. i've been promised both slightly warmer water and better visibility. fingers crossed. because this time I'll actually have to perform skills underwater. The boat's set to return to the mainland at like 7 at which point I have to bust a move to the store to get an air fill BECAUSE...

Sunday morning, at 5h30a, I have my beach dive here:

Um, yeah, look at those waves. All I have to do is swim through them and then dive down. What? Like that sounds hard?

Needless to say, I'm gonna be wiped Sunday night. Monday we're taping our Summer Movie Guide at the beach, so that should be pretty chillaxed. And then we have a ridiculously long Memorial Day weekend in which I'll be prepping for the big GC. WHERE, by the way, the water temp is 80 degrees and the visibility is 100 feet.

Keeping my eye on the prize.