New experiences can be difficult. I don’t know about you, but when I make plans ahead of time to do something outside of my comfort zone, I start to picture every single scenario that will come out of it. And then I start visualizing how I am going to handle the outcomes. And then I start to actually prepare for those possible outcomes. Mentally, it is exhausting. Even after of all that, at the last minute, I will back out of plans because I have stressed myself to the point where I don’t think it will even be enjoyable. Then I just sit at home and draw, relaxed by the fact that I didn’t go.
So when a few co-workers invited me to go fishing a while back, I did exactly that. BUT since they were people I worked it, I couldn’t back out the last minute. What happened on that trip can only be described as one of the worst feelings of my entire life, where my entire world felt like it narrowed down to a pinpoint and my insides started to explode, aka seasickness, aka something I did not prepare for. Ever since that experience, I usually look at new and exciting adventures as, “well at least it won’t be as bad as that time I went deep-sea fishing!”
A few weeks ago, the same co-workers asked me to go fishing again. I was very hesitant because of my first experience, but there were two things that got me to go; 1) I love having fresh fish in my freezer (ummm…it’s satisfying) and 2) I knew my boyfriend really wanted to go. So Saturday morning, we woke up at 4:30 in the morning and we got on that boat.
We went under the golden gate at sunrise and went back under it around sunset. Despite the long day and chaotic crew, we survived with a total of 15 fish and 6 crabs. We didn’t reach our limits (there are limits to how much fish and crab you can catch in a day), but we were very happy with what we got. Someone in our group even caught the biggest fish of the day (an 18 lbs Ling Cod) and won himself the $400 pot! Can you tell which one it is in the picture below? (hint: it shouldn’t be that hard to tell)
After a very long day of fishing, all I wanted to do was sleep. But since we had a bag of fish and some crabs trying to claw their way out of the cooler, we still had a lot of work to do once we got home. We skinned and deboned the fish and froze them away while we contemplated what do with the crab. It turns out, I do not own a pot big enough to fit a single crab! Thankfully, Josh has a large pot that he uses for brewing that fit three perfectly.
Overall, despite the chaos, I am very fortunate that I can take small adventures like these. At the end of the day, I felt accomplished and now have some delicious food at home ready to be eaten. Also, did I mention that I didn’t get sick at all. Yep, I double downed on Dramamine the night before and the morning of and coupled it with a high protein breakfast. Didn’t feel even slightly sick!
We then finished our weekend with a Friendsgiving and made some fresh out of the ocean, never frozen (did I mention we were pretty proud of ourselves?) crab cakes. I think it is safe to say, they were a hit!
