Sunday, December 16, 2012

Catch of the Day

This mermaid has been MIA for the past couple of weeks. With the holidays right around the corner, it's been a mad rush to get all of my shopping, and gifts done. To add to the chaos, I've been sick this week too. Sadly, we had to postpone the Christmas Party for Mermaids of the Great Salt Lake this week, because of my illness. Colds+Me=Sad Mermaid. But the good news is that lots of wonderful things are happening behind the scenes. I won't release everything here, because I believe in surprises! But I can say that SeaQueen Janelle and I have been working on a fin-tastic project that we will launch very soon. I won't tell you what, but I will tell you I've already had several people ask for one to be created. The other clue that I will give you is that we have also created a selkie-like story to go with this project. That's all I will say about it until we have the final pieces ready to launch. So keep your ears open and your fins crossed!

In other news, I have been teaching my little brother how to swim in a monofin. Correction. I spent 10 minutes showing him a dolphin kick, and then watched him take off like a rocket. I think that swimming (and mermaids) runs in the family blood. My late father was a swim coach and swimmer. He could hold his breath for over 3 minutes and sink to the bottom of the pool. Anyway, clearly my little brother is a merman. That kid picked up swimming like you wouldn't believe. I've taken him 3 times, and he can move just as well as I could after dozens of hours of practice. I'm excited, because he will be able to keep up with me when we get an underwater camera to do pictures and video. Hopefully that will happen very soon.

We've been heading to the pool the past few weeks during the afternoon. Normally, I do my swimming in the evening so I'm not used to the new crowd that was at the pool. Of course, it was mostly seniors, and a handful of moms with young children. I was honestly surprised at how many older women were just as excited (if not more excited) than the children were! I had dozens of ladies ask me about my tail, how it works, how long I've practiced in it, etc. Several of them would approach me and exclaim: "I can't believe I'm swimming with a real mermaid!" They were absolutely darling.

I also ran into a darling little boy, we'll call him Squirt for all intents and purposes. This little guy was about 5 years old, and was diving into the deep end. I was impressed, because I don't see young children that often swimming in 9 feet of water. But there he was. Here's how our conversation went:

Squirt: Dad, is that a real mermaid? I don't know if she's real. I think she's not a real mermaid.

MerQueen Lei Loni: You don't think I'm a real mermaid? I sure am the real thing! Would you like to feel my tail?

*Squirt touches tail and turns to dad*

Squirt: Yup. She's real.


What was cute was how matter-of-fact he was about the entire situation. It almost didn't phase him that I was. He was excited after the fact, and swam around with me, but in that moment, it was more of a scientific discovery, rather than meeting a mythical creature. 

I was also able to meet several darling little girls on another afternoon adventure. These girls were playing with mermaid dolls, and were so darling and sheepish around me. They would wave and show me their dolls. One exclaimed, "She looks just like you!" and another said, "You're so pretty!" before darting off. They hung around me for quite awhile. One of the girls tried to lift my tail and could barely do so. "It's so heavy!" she exclaimed. 

I'm looking forward to getting over this cold soon. My fins haven't touched the water in about 4 days, and I'm itching to swim again! Hopefully I will be well enough by  Tuesday night to go again! I'm off to go nurse this cold some more. I'd send mermaid kisses, but they would likely be contaminated with cold germs!