Sunburnt

So, it was the last day of my long weekend. Most of it I spent pacing around my apartment or watching movies. I was suppose to go to Birmingham this weekend, but as I said before - it was a plane tix or my TECO bill...TECO won. Today was it - get the hell out of my house or waste the whole weekend.

I packed my beach bag and headed out the door. Left my house around 945am, stopped by Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and hit the road...30mins later I park at the beach.

Went to one of my old favorites - Fort Desoto's North Beach. It is not to far from my house, it is a beautiful state park with lots of white sandy beaches and wildlife. I think I like it the most, because no matter how busy it is, you can always find a quiet spot. Today, it was empty. The spot I found was very quiet. There is one guy sunbathing and a bird. I sit down and flipped through my magazine, then pulled out one of the 5 books I bought yesterday and just enjoyed the day not thinking.

Just enjoying the sites, sounds and smells of the beach and letting my mind get lost in nothing - in the beach - watching the birds fly by. It was peaceful and nice - that is until I turned my phone on and had 2 text msgs from work - the whole reason for my little escape. I ignored the msgs (well, I made sure they were not something pressing) and turned my phone off and threw it back into my bag.

I got into the water - which was perfect. Not too hot - not too cold - just right. When I am by myself I never venture out too far in the water - always a little nervous that there is some critter lurking just behind me. It gives me the creeps a little...it is silly I know.

About 2 and half hours after I get there, I decide that I have had too much sun and need to head home, there is house work..etc...waiting on me. I pack up my stuff and head to my car.

As I am walking I notice this guy walking by himself in front of me. He is cute. I think to myself, wish I would had seen him on the beach. I continue on my way and notice that he is parked right near me and as he packs my car, he keeps looking back at me.

I get into my car and see the guy walking over to me - I just look at him, thinking maybe he is walking over to the trash can. He stops at my car and says hello (I have my window down because it is about 200 degrees in my car.) and I say hello back. He then says that he saw me walking and wanted to meet me and decided to come over and say hi. He asks my name and asks where I am headed. I tell him that I am headed up to the bar up the street to grab a beer before I head home and ask him to join me.

We sit down and have a drink. And we start talking about who we are what we do...etc...etc. I ask him what he did at the beach today and he told me that he was finding seahorses! I asked how he found the seahorses. He told me that if you look at the sea grass floating in - there is almost ALWAYS a tiny critter with it - be it baby fish, crabs or seahorses. I get really excited and tell him that I want to see the seahorses too. And he asks if I want to go back to the beach and look for seahorses. Being the aquamarine nerd I am - I jump up and say lets go!

We head back to the beach and get into the water to start looking for the seahorses. We find several baby puffer fish, baby pipe fish, live sand dollars, other unidentified baby fish and finally a tiny seahorse.

He scopes the tiny seahorse up and I hold out my hands, he adds water and the seahorse into my cupped hands. It is amazing. It is so small and so cute and it is just swimming there in my hands looking up at the giant monster that is holding it, hoping that I won't eat it. Finally I release it and it swims to the nearest piece of floating grass and is happy again. That little seahorse made my day. It was so amazing - just its size and the way it moved its body. It was so neat -I have never seen a seahorse in real life (besides aquariums) and have never held one in my hands. It was so cool.

I start to get tired and got sunscreen in my eyes, which calls for a towel emergency! My new friend jumps out of the water and runs to get my towel and we get the sunscreen out of my eyes. I am exhausted and it is now 5pm. I have no idea where the time went and I had so much fun. It was a wonderland. The guy I met today, I don't know if I will ever see again - but it was just nice. It was a very relaxing non-stress day.

I feel great right now, relaxed and happy.

I love seahorses.