I’m actually a mermaid wait…make that mermate

I’ve been meaning to write this post for ages.  I’ve never properly explained where I came up with the name of my blog:  nautiemermate.

I’ve always had a ‘thing’ for mermaids.

When I was a little girl playing at the beach I always wanted to play mermaids.  This was the best game ever because there were no rules!  All you had to do was swim around for hours with your legs together – make up fun mermaid names (mine was always bubbles) – and collect seaweed off the rocks.

In high school my friends and I would get out of school and head straight to the beach.  One of our favorite hangouts was a group of big flat rocks at Richardson’s.  We’d lay out for hours (or until it clouded over – it was Hilo after all) baking in the sun.  I made a pit stop in the bathroom one day on our way back to the car and found the most beautiful grafiti in the bathroom!  There was a big colorful butterfly with lots of swirls and dots and a quote that said:  Remember Ku, Pray for the ancestors, listen to the mermaids, swim in the stars.  I thought this was the most wonderful thing I had ever read – and I still do.  (Also, just to bring you up to speed Ku is a Hawaiian God – so it’s basically saying remember God…)  For my senior quote in my final yearbook I wrote:  Listen to the mermaids, swim in the stars.  I fall back on this quote over and over and over again – simply because it reminds me to be fanciful, to enjoy the ocean where I spend so much time, to remember that my family loves me and that I was raised to have faith.

About the time that I found this quote I had an epiphany.  It happened when I was walking home with my best friend after school.  I blurted out, ‘Oh my god!  I know why I don’t have a boyfriend!!!!’  She looked at me with a ‘oh this should be good’ face and so I rushed on to explain….’no, think about it!  I’m a mermaid so I need to find a merman!!!!!’.  This is something that we laugh about to this day….and whenever I meet a guy the first thing she always asks me is:  ’Well?!  Is he a merman?!’.

The whole mermaid thing also works out pretty well for me – because my initials are M E R!  Which also happens to mean ocean in french!  Fairly appropriate!  (For the record, I still think I need a merman….I mean, really….)

I started this blog while aboard my last ship….my shipmates were soooo sick of hearing me talk about starting a blog and what should I name it.  I had it narrowed down to something that included being nautical and being a mermaid.  I ended up deciding that I should be nautie – a girlie version of nautical – which also implies that I misbehave (which I do but only a little bit).  For awhile I thought I had settled on nautie + mermaid but THEN one of my shipmates said ‘no, no, no – not merMAID – merMATE’.  It was glorious!!!!  Get it?!  Because I’m a Mate!!!!

So there you have it….I’m a nautical (sometimes nautie) mate with the initials m.e.r who loves mermaids and is looking for a merman.  Megan the Nautie Mermate.

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(via polyvore)