I've always loved water. I have a weird obsession with drinking more of than the average human, taking 30 min showers, love doing the dishes and staring at the washing machine as the water spins around. I love watering my yard and splashing around in the muddy water with my bare feet. I'm obsessed with aquariums and sea life and mermaids. But more than anything I love the ocean and swimming. I learned to swim at 4 years old. My parents, coming from Southern California near the ocean, taught me and my brother to swim before we could even speak properly. I was on a swim team all through junior high and most of high school and even though I wasn't fast I loved it. I'll swim in anything-a pool, lake, the Russian River even when the e-coli content is the highest in history. But mostly I love swimming in the ocean.
When I lived in Orange County me and Ally (my friend since we were 1 year old) would go to Huntington Beach almost every single day. Ally was never as comfortable in the water as I was but even she would run with me from the bike path, across the beach while flinging our shoes and shorts off and then straight into the water without stopping.
There's just something so natural about being in liquid. Maybe because we spend the first 9 months of our existence in water, but isn't swimming the best feeling in the world? It's the best physical therapy and exercise. And it's so relaxing.
You can't hear, smell, talk, or see very well. You can do amazing things with your body that you can't do on dry land. You're weightless. And you're alone, in that huge ocean, just floating, becoming part of something so powerful and amazing.
The beaches in So Cal are my favorite for swimming but there is something crazy and wild about the ocean in Nor Cal. I rarely get more than my feet in the frigid water up here. But one day so many years ago I was with my first boyfriend and best friend. I don't even think we were dating yet. We weren't planning on getting into the water but we were both fish in another life, it was like a magnet was pulling us in and we couldn't say no. We dove in, slamming our bodies into the waves, pulling our jeans up every time we surfaced for air, the salt making our eyes turn red. But we couldn't stop laughing and smiling. At nothing really, it was so simple and innocent. People walking past were laughing at how insane we were to get into 45 degree water full clothed. I'm sure we looked insane but we didn't care. Later we shivered on the rocks in the weak sunlight trying to get warm because we didn't have any towels. He gave me his sweatshirt to wear and bought me fish and chips. It was a good day.
All that's to say that somehow I was bestowed with a dog that hates the water. He can't swim like many of his race and ethnicity and it kinda sucks. The weird part is he LOVES the actual beach, the sand, so we drive out sometimes and he runs as fast as he can down the desolate coastline. It really is a lot more lonely than Huntington and the OC beaches. Somedays it's so empty, we are almost the only ones out there. There aren't any cities or businesses nearby, it's just you and that ocean, that thing that could swallow you whole in a second. It's so enticingly deadly. It's a little morbid but if I had to pick a way to die drowning would be it. It would quiet, not messy, peaceful, and my body would feed sharks and things. Overall not a bad way to go.
So today Buster ran, I contemplated, and we both felt a little better.
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