2. pinsan ng starfish

yesterday morning, my officemate aia was regaling us with stories from her weekend adventure planting mangroves in calatagan, batangas. the highlight was, of course, her kismet connection (muslim na ko ngayon?) with another officemate's brother who tagged along, and her suddenly inspired urge to be more than his COW (chick of the week) but rather his hmmm, soulmate(?) na siguro, or at least someone na mas level-up naman dun. (for a while there i was trying to come up with a catchy similarly "animalistic" acronym pero the best i could come up with was SOW aka "soulmate of the week" kaso ang pangit pakinggan! at medyo degrading hindi lang para sa title holder kundi para na rin sa creative skills ko - kaya pang-parenthetical comment na lang sya.)

there was this one story in which said brother (am still deciding if i ought to name him) was teasing/scaring/"yucking" aia (mr. webster, please don't toss and turn in your grave right now, it's a perfectly reasonable verb naman, i think!) with a starfish-like creature na nakita nila sa beach. this "pinsan ng starfish" was supposedly shaped like a star pero hairier and believably ickier to see. (why is it that we see things na abundantly common naman pero rarely seen, as yucky/scary?)

anyway, when i heard that, i just had to smile. years ago, allison "yucked" me with the same thing.

oops, sorry, wrong picture! si unbelievably cute batrick the caped starfish crusader pala ito, courtesy of shally. ulet ulet:

this picture was taken circa 2008, in bataan. it was the first time i saw this kind of starfish and typical allison just had to dangle it in front of me while posing for a pic. i remember this time fondly, kasi this was the time that the sea was opened up to me as a legitimate and endlessly interesting world to discover. for lack of a better description, allison lives in the sea. isa syang syokoy na nagka-katawang tao lang tuwing kakain sa labas o tuwing magda-date kami. buti na lang effective ang deodorant nya at natatakpan ang fishy smell, haha!

anyway, when he showed me that starfish and lots of other critters besides, naisip ko: hindi ko na palang kelangang tumambay lang sa may batuhan para kumuha ng mga sunset pics, o kaya sumisid lang long enough nang nakapikit ang mata para basain ang buhok ko para lang masabing nanggaling ako sa beach. pwede rin pala akong sumisid at mag-hold ng breath at magbukas ng mga mata (gamit ang goggles! parental advisory lang!) at mag-pseudo langoy. gone are the moments when all i can do is playfully splash water at my hapless friends and shout wheeee! at the top of my lungs na parang extreme adventure na.

now i can experience the water firsthand and conversely, let it experience me. : )