Relaxation and Puking

This past weekend, a buddy of mine called me up to go deep sea fishing. A group of guys that his wife knew wanted to charter a boat and get as many guys to go in order to spread out the cost of taking on such an adventure. I woke up at 3:00 in the morning and put on my shorts, T-shirt and sandals. Kissed Zelda good-bye and walked out the door. My buddy Benton picked me up. We went to Academy sports store the day before and bought a big cooler and some hats, cheap polarized sunglasses, and sunscreen. He kept everything in his car. We met up with the other guys at 4:30 am. We were in the water by 6:00 am. It was a 3 hour trip for about 60 miles offshore into the Gulf of Mexico. I couldn't believe how blue the water was. Galveston's beaches have a brownish color to its water because of the Mississippi Delta. But, 60 miles out, the water was blue.

When we finally reached our destination, we dropped our lines straight down and instantly started pulling up red snappers and a shark. When the porpoises started swimming around us, we decided to try another location. When we made it to the second location, the water started to get real choppy. I looked at Benton and noticed he was turning a little green. There were 3 of us who didn't take Dramamine for motion sickness. Benton, Sean, and me.

Benton and I have been on boats before but never offshore. I didn't think I would get sick because I've never felt motion sickness ever in my life. I wanted to see if I had natural sea legs or not. Anyways, as Benton sat down, I asked him if he wanted a roll to help him settle his stomach. He held his hand up as if to shut me up. Then, he jumped up, leaned over the boat, and spewed. Guess he doesn't have sea legs afterall. I felt bad for him and wanted to make him feel better so I told him that he got sick because he didn't get enough sleep. My other friend, Mason said that his dad has always said that the secret to deep sea fishing is to get a good night's rest. I told Benton to lie down and get a little bit of sleep. So, he and a 2 others on the boat sprawled out and slept. While they were sleeping, I saw Sean run to the back of the boat, leaned over, tossed his breakfast. He was REALLY loud when he spewed. After he was done emptying his gastrointestinal tract via the oral route, I told him to lie down and get some sleep.

After a couple of hours, Benton woke up and said that the sleep made him feel much better. He said, "God, I feel so much better. Hand me some fried chicken." After he ate the fried chicken, he said, "Let me have some of those cherry pies." After that, "What about some of those cookies?" Bad move Benton....bad move. He started to fish for a little while and not 15 minutes later, he sat down and turned green again. He jumped up, leaned over, and expelled his lunch. Poor guy.

As for me, I apparently have natural sea legs. I didn't feel sick at all the entire time. I was the only one who didn't take ANY Dramamine and didn't get sea sick. Those who did take Dramamine didn't get sick either. I had such a good time that it helped take my mind off of what happened to Zelda and Carrie the other night. I wish they could've come with me also but Carrie is pregnant and Zelda gets motion sickness just being in a car.

As an update, I gathered my thoughts and called the police today. Last week, there were 3 young black men who committed an armed robbery in a bank. They were caught with money, guns, body armor, and BANDANAS. I gave our case number to the Houston Police Department. IF (extra emphasis on "if")these were the same guys, hopefully they can crosslink the evidence and tack on additional charges. Hopefully, they are the same guys and we can help put them behind bars for a really long time.