Diving Into the New Year

I know I mentioned this to a few people recently, but last year's New Years Eve/Day was the worst day of Nick's entire 6-month deployment. I spent much of New Years Eve evening with friends and had a great time at a NYE party a block away at Mallory & Adam's house. I met some new friends there, played fun games, and hung out with people. When the time came, we counted down to the new year. As the count ticked down 3 - 2 - 1, we yelled happy new year! I continued yelling until I suddenly realized I was the ONLY PERSON at the party not kissing someone. It wasn't that the new years kiss is that big of a deal, it was just that I hadn't prepared myself to miss Nick for that. I also hadn't realized I was the ONLY PERSON there not part of a couple. Surely if I'd put two and two together, I would have used the new years countdown time to hit up the ladies room or otherwise done something to escape.

So one of the things I was looking forward to this holiday was spending New Years with Nick. We had a great day trying out a new golf course, one he and Russ played that I hadn't been to yet called Windward Hills. It's only a 20-minute drive from base and since it's in the middle of the island, it has some completely different and completely gorgeous views I hadn't seen on the other courses we've played. I had a great round considering it was so hilly and it was my first time on the course. And it was our third day of golf in a row, so I was on a my A-game (as much golf A-game as I have, that is).

On the way back to base, it dawned on me that we should rent tanks since the tank place on base would be closed for the next day holiday. So we rented tanks with the idea we'd take the boat out on Saturday. As the evening rolled on, it dawned on me that I was just 45 minutes, or one dive, away from reaching 24 hours of total underwater dive time. I mentioned it might be cool to do a night dive so I could reach that milestone in 2010. Not having any plans that evening, we also then realized we could do the dive spanning the change from the old year to the new year, so that's exactly what we did.

The dive wasn't all that exciting… until, that is, a sea turtle came out from the reef and joined us, right at 11:58pm! We spent the next few minutes chasing it and taking pictures of it. Nick even tried to ride it. He grabbed the sides of it, but it was too slippery, not to mention tough to juggle with a camera and a flashlight in hand.

 

So it wasn't until a couple of minutes after midnight when we were able to celebrate the year changeover. While under water for those first 30 minutes of 2011, I thought about how different, literally worlds away, this new years was from last. Here we were, just the two of us, together in the dark sea, 8,000 miles away in either direction from where we were that moment last year. I suppose it would have been great to be anywhere with Nick at that point, but surrounded by more of our favorite sea creatures, as well as some new ones, I considered myself very lucky. Here are a few other creatures from our new years party:

 

 And perhaps the goofiest looking creatures under there were Nick and me in this picture. We thought it would be fun to bring the champagne bottle under. Had a tough time getting it all in a photo. This may well be the most ridiculous looking underwater picture that exists of me. The even funnier part is that Nick and I didn't have a sip to drink that night, either before or after the dive, and yet, by the look on my face, you'd think I hadn't shared any of it! Hope you had a memorable new years too. We are off and running in 2011. More on that soon!