Mental Health Day

Today I decided to take a mental health day.

My son is gone for a week to visit his father. He's become the traveling teenager lately.

So I find myself home with few chores needing accomplished. The house is pretty much in order and the laundry had to be completed before my son left. That gave me a Saturday all to myself just to relax.

I've taken full advantage of it.

Spent some time emailing and talking on the phone with friends - yes, some of those friends I've recently come back into contact with from my high school days. The day allowed for two workouts (hey, a girl's gotta try and stay somewhat in shape at my age), a smack of time playing a game on the computer, a little dose of reruns of Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel, and some wonderful hours of reading.

In my younger years, I could devour a book in a matter of hours and the massive books I could spend reading most of the day. Those times were always so nice and have been rather fleeting or nonexistent most of my adult life.

So today no job searching, no chores, no errands to run - just pure unadulterated relaxation.

We all could use a bit of that now and then. I'm learning how important it is to one's well-being and plan to take advantage of it a little this week before my son's return and the rush of back-to-school preparation.

Then it will be back to chaos for another school year. Then hopefully a direction for me too.

But I've enjoyed my summer off. :-)

It's BAAAAACK!

Tonight is going to be an awesome night.

Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch series is back!

Okay, okay - I know I'm a bit of an oddball, but that's beside the point. This series is men at their best and nature at her worst. Every year they go out to conquer the elements and bring in the crab.

Plus it's in Alaska - I love it.

Have to admit, my biggest concern this season is whether or not Captain Phil of the Cornelia Marie is going to make it back onto the boat. After last season's bout with the enormous blood clot that dislodged when a massive wave struck the boat, coursed through his heart and landed in his lung, Captain Phil's continued status has been a mystery. Will he or will he not return to the Cornelia Marie?

Then there's the ever interesting Hillstrand brothers on the Time Bandit - Johnathan, Andy, and Neal with the there one moment, gone the next son of Johnathan, Scotty. Will Scotty decide to rejoin his dad and uncles again this year or stay home with his wife and infant son? Will the Hillstrand family fishing make it for another generation to take over?

Last year we had some competition heat up on the Northwestern. Greenhorn Jake and deckhand Matt got into fisticuffs. Jake is young and gung-ho on learning everything he can aboard the Northwestern, but he has a big mouth to go with his excitable ego. Matt is old reliable and feeling the squeeze from the new boy onboard, afraid he's going to be shown up and washed out.

Then there's always the guessing game of which boats and skippers will be back besides the old faithful. Will the Wizard make a reappearance? What about the Maverick? Early Dawn? Alaska Lady anyone?

Tonight we'll finally find out.

My Guilty Pleasure

Tuesday nights are my guilty pleasure.

I love to watch Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" series!

Yes, I know, rather odd for a woman to watch ships with freezing cold sailors battling the worst of elements and the greatest of odds to catch some smelly old fish and crab in the Bering Sea. I think it is the teamwork concept. Plus I love to see the greenhorns, the newest members on the ships, test their sea legs. It's kinda like a fish-out-of-water moment.

Okay, that was a bad joke.

But seriously, about that teamwork concept - every single one of those guys have to work together, watch out for each other, and bring in the opis and kings during the crab seasons so they all benefit and get a paycheck and make it back to harbor safely. Their very lives are dependant on each person on the boat. One brief moment and death could await them. I guess that's where the name comes from.

It's especially precarious during opi season in the depths of the winter months. Besides the fishing, they also have to spend time at various intervals smashing the ice off the boat to keep the weight from sinking them. Then there's the endless days on end that they just work, work, work without a moment's rest or sleep until all the strings of pots are back on board or reset for another catch.

It's kinda weird, but the guys become important to you. There they are risking life and limb doing something they love (for some strange reason), in the worst of conditions to bring some seafood delicacies to our tables. They're living life to the fullest every single day. Wow!

The last episode of the season is quickly approaching. That's when they show some of the boats coming into shore with their families waiting to welcome them home after being away at sea all those months. Very touching seeing those old salts in a more human light.

Of course, I always wonder how bad they smell after being at sea without a bath for months on end. Hey, I'm a girl - we wonder about those things!