I had been thinking to myself, "You know, Self? It's been awhile since anything really entertaining has happened. This blog could get boring. Maybe we need to go set a bread basket on fire or try to run over a dumb dog or something." I was asked recently if I have ever done something just so I could blog about it, so it was in that spirit that I proceeded to injure myself just to liven up your evening and offer these tide pooling pro tips.
1. Kelp is slippery.
Do not try to walk on it. You are not a snail.
2. In an adrenaline-spiked emergency, your brain is not rational.
When you begin to slip on the aforementioned kelp with camera in hand, everything will happen in super slow-mo but that doesn't mean your brain will run the math on ER visit versus lens replacement and come out with correct figures (especially if you were a theatre major). No, the lobe that vividly recalls a certain Death Valley 150-foot lens dropping incident will perform a fast override resulting in the learning point...
3. Barnacles will cut you.
When I shared this with my friend Kelli she said, "You grew up in Florida. You didn't know this?" Um, no. I've never head-butted one (or forty). When I managed to right myself (and verify that Katniss was okay) my first thought was, "Ouch." I looked to my family, all of twelve feet away but firmly engrossed in petting marine invertebrates and I said loudly, "OUCH." Someone looked up and asked what happened. Really?!? No one saw that? Bummer. I'm certain it was hilarious. But nooooooo...no witnesses. I had only a mild scrape but it started itching and since I took marine biology in college (theatre major avoiding organic chemistry) I know all about the lovely oceanic bacteria we landlubbers cannot fight off well and so I hoofed it back to camp for a Betadine bath.
So to answer your question Chris, yes, I sometimes do things just for the blog.
And you are all welcome.
-Jenni