Fishing for Stars

Getting SCUBA certified a few years ago, I realized that underwater is another world. I've always loved the water and always been a little freaked out by it. Rip tides, sharks, jellyfish, alligators, baracudas -- they're all enticing and curious and from another world and another time. When I did my SCUBA dive I saw blowfish and sand swirls and it was awesome... until I fell overboard as we were departing to go back to shore. (Amber Grace Scott, you know me, not prone to accidental falls for no apparent reason.) I've walked the shore for seashells and had the privilege of being around as someone else pulled a sand dollar from the water, but my personal experience to aquatic living has been a little sheltered. Since adopting the policy of try everything once a couple years ago, I've swallowed my fear and opted for experience, no matter how gross or scary it might seem.

This weekend at the Santa Monica Pier, I got to get up close and personal with some sea life. I saw whale vertebrae, which are as big around as I am, put my hand in a blubber glove, which was actually quite cozy, and shook hands with starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and a sea slug. They were all a little smooshy, except for the pointy urchins, which slowly grab your finger when you touch their toothpick hair (the volunteers cleverly call this urchin bite a "hug" so the kiddies won't be scared).
The sea slug was so soft and smooth I, of course, wanted a sweater made out of it. The starfish were a rainbow of colors and shapes and sizes. Starfish are so cool, because (and this is the only information I retained from Ms. Shropshire's biology class) when they lose an arm or have a piece of them ripped off, that piece just grows into a whole nother starfish (it's called asexual, ahem). I've never seen a starfish in real life, so getting to touch them was just icing on the cake.
It was a treat to exercise the old touch sense. I've been getting my olfactory exercise with trips to Victoria's Secret to smell all the perfumes as a means of entertaining Laila, my sights have been overdosing in this place with so much to see, Limewire and NPR's All Songs Considered podcast tuned my ears, and the Thai, Indian, Mexican, Thai, Ethiopian, Japanese, Thai, Greek, Persian, Persian, Persian that I've been eating have over-exercised my tasting ability. But touch has been something I only got to do on quick trips home and thanks to my family and friends' tolerance of my touchy feely needs.