Neither of us are avid swimmers and again, I shall point you to my very first blog entry wherein I depict my inherent reaction to ocean water (I suppress it well enough now but its little embers still flicker and pulse within...)
But as of late, Nick and I have decided to fully engage in swim fitness in our lagoons. After all, when else are we going to live 200 yards from the ocean that we can comfortably swim in all year round? My point exactly. Suck it up, Starmweber. This is an unbelievably unique situation. What would my currently-unwanted unborn children say to me if they found out I neglected to capitalize on such an unparalleled opportunity.
So back to the story. Nick and I grab our goggles and our towels and hit Lagoon 1 in the afternoons. This is Lagoon 1! :)
On our first excursion, I had a minor panic attack in the middle of the lagoon. Without much thought (it's best that way), I began swimming behind Nick. I had my goggles, albeit, I had no desire to open my eyes underwater. I subconsciously determined that the less I pondered the creatures skirting between my strokes, the better. Craning my neck to stay above water (and fighting the minor waves protruding from the rocky perimeter), I felt confident enough in the suppressed anxiety and fear that I was swimming in the middle of the ocean. Naturally, in the exact center of the lagoon, Nick abruptly kills his stroke and all out of breath yells to me: "Mia! Look down now!"
Down? With fish and sea urchins and sharks and whales and giant squid and little fucking mermaid, no, worse! Ursella??? I gasped yet again, swallowing profuse amounts of water. The sea salt ripped my throat and ignited fire that roared up through my cheeks as I gagged and hacked and curse Nick for reminding me that *things* swim below us. He rolled his eyes and laughed as he reiterated that I should look down at the magnificently large turtle swimming below us. Irked by my inability to immediate abort the situation and crawl from the water and remain grounded for the rest of my life, I mustered the best freestyle I had and booked it for the shoreline. That first day required copious coaxing from Nick to get me to swim back and forth, but each time, I embraced the lagoon fitness a little more. Today, I even opened my eyes a bit underwater, though I remained focused on the bubbles from Nick's kicking, rather than explore the ecosystem below.
But the workout is kickass and I know I will long for the lagoons when we settle into a running routine in Missouri or Colorado.
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