SCUBA is supposed to be fun

Good evening gentle readers. Since my last post I've:
1. Completed 5 of 7 law school applications.
This makes me feel:
a. A satisfying sense of accomplishment
b. sick to my stomach now that I've sent them into an anxiety-producing abyss
c. like eating pie
2. Had nightly dreams about my impeding departure:
a. I spent the night planning a route through South America, visiting the places I missed last time. Special consideration given to some place in Argentina where you can see whales.
b. I dreamed I scrapped most of my trip and just headed to Mysore for 6 months to study yoga. I had to stay in a dorm dedicated to yoga students. It was like camp for adults. Yoga class was in a huge room in a mall. You could look in the windows and see people practicing. I kept showing up late for class.
3. Worked on a delightful felted purse.
4. Nearly had a break-down in REI with my mom over which pair of pants to bring on my trip.
5. Been doing lots o' yoga
6. Bought my bridesmaid's dress for A and K's wedding. Here it is, except it will be all blue, no pink:

7. Completed my confined water SCUBA certification

I don't even like to swim. I don't get a lot of joy out of being in the water, unless it's hot and I have a cold one in my hand. Needless to say, neither of these two elements were present at the Inver Grove Heights community pool today.
We started the day with a 200 meter swim and a 10 minute water tread. Then came the fun. We put on all our SCUBA gear and went to the bottom of the pool. Our first exercise was to "lose" our regulator, recover it and begin breathing again. Well, I couldn't find mine right away, I panicked and went to the surface and felt like I was going to cry. It's scary when you can't breathe. One of the instructors came up and started telling me I was fine as soon as I hit the surface. I sucked it up and tried again. I think yoga has taught me to calm myself down through breath control.
That was the first time I kinda wanted to quit. The second, we had to remove our masks and sit and breathe for one minute. I didn't think it would be a problem, but I freaked out a little bit when the bubbles going up from my breathing kept forcing my eyelids open. The chlorine stung. I slowed down my breathing, relaxed, and I made it through the exercise.
Those were the only two times I felt panicky. We spent 45 minutes at the bottom of a 12 foot pool. That was actually a lot easier than the skills we were learning in the morning where we kept getting in and out of the water. We practiced running out of air and swimming with our buddy's 2nd regulator in our mouths. The instructors actually turned off our tanks so we would feel what it was like not to have any air to breathe.
The afternoon made me feel a lot better about the whole business. The morning was cold and scary. The afternoon made me feel like it would be worth getting comfortable with the whole business if there was cool stuff to see and your buddy was nearby in case something went wrong.
I think I will go on to get my open water certification in Vietnam. You have to do 4 dives in 2 days. I'll get tested on most of the skills I learned today, but in the ocean. I can see how one would feel more comfortable with more experience and more familiarity with the equipment.
It's pretty cool to be able to breathe under the water. It's actually easier to breathe out of the regulator than out of a snorkel. And, I didn't have any problem equalizing the pressure in my ears, even though I thought I might.
This week: Mother/daughter stitch and bitch on Tuesday and getting ready for Thanksgiving.