When I turned on my computer this morning, I had an email from the head of human resources for our department. One of our coworkers died this morning in her home. She’d been a secretary here for many years, and since early 2006 had been fighting with a cancer relapse. Last December she quit work after the tumors spread to her brain.

When I started work here five years ago, she was about 150 pounds overweight, and had been that size most of her life. She had just gotten back to normal life after the first bout of cancer (treated with radiation), and decided to make a change in her lifestyle: she joined Weight Watchers and started dropping pounds.

My first year here, she took off about 100 pounds. It was amazing and awe-inspiring to watch - she didn’t starve herself, or workout like a crazy person; she just switched to healthy foods and padded her diet with lots of vegetables. Within a year, she was what you might call “chubby,” but no longer fat.

The most amazing thing was that she kept it off. I told her often how impressed I was - I know how hard it is to kick the food habit. Seeing someone accomplish such a lifestyle change after decades of being overweight, and sustain it, gave me a lot of hope.

She was always encouraging when I was trying to lose weight, but even better, she was understanding when I fell off the wagon (which, to be honest, is most of the time). She knew better than most people just how hard it is to pass up that donut, to ease up on the pasta, to lay off the snacks. She never gave me a hard time if she saw me with a bag of Cheetos, but she always complimented me when I was losing weight, or hitting the gym. It meant a lot coming from someone who’d also struggled with her weight.

I’m sorry I didn’t get my shit together and lose weight before she died. I think she would have been so happy and proud of me, and I would have liked to be able to tell her how much her own example helped me out. It’s a silly and shallow thing, I know, but I feel almost like I betrayed her by NOT pulling it off while she was still alive.

I wish I’d known her longer, and I wish her last year of life hadn’t been so full of pain - she tried everything to fight the cancer, and spent a lot of time sick from treatment. These last few months she was alternately heavily medicated, or in excruciating pain. I’m glad she’s free of that now, but so sad I won’t be bumping into her around the office anymore. Since she quit work, it’s almost felt like she was just on a long vacation, but of course we’d all see her again. Now we won’t, and it pretty much just sucks.

Since I had so much fun doing ADP last year, I decided to do it again - this time around, as a “safety diver.” It’s kind of like being a divemaster, though without any official certification. There are usually a few instructors present at every class and beach dive, and the safety divers help out: setting floats, giving students one-on-one attention when they need it, doing demos, etc.

The first weekend, I had a nasty ear infection, and wasn’t able to actually dive during the SCUBA portion of the pool. I popped in some earplugs and hung out on the surface, videotaping some of the skills, and helping students with the skin diving parts of class (pike dives, swims, and such).

This past weekend we got down to business, and took the class to Redondo Beach for a checkout dive. The swell model looked totally flat, so we were a little surprised to discover 2-3′ sets when we arrived; the wind had picked up in the morning and driven up the swells. It was a good thing, though: ADP is all about teaching you to deal with surf, after all!

On this same dive last year, I didn’t even make it past the breakers. Granted, they were a little worse than this time around, but I was also just much more scared. This time, I felt totally confident about charging into the surf zone, anchor-laden float in tow.

Everyone made it in without incident, and we spent an hour or more doing skin diving skills at the floats. There are only eleven students this year, and almost as many staff on any given day, so we basically have a one-to-one ratio. I really like having the opportunity to work with a single student at a time, and pass on whatever tips and tricks helped me out last year.

My second time through the surf, I have to confess I got totally owned. Dana and I headed in together, and both came up against a WALL OF SURF: 3 -footer after 3-footer pushed us back, right when we thought we’d found a lull. I was a little embarrassed at getting so totally walloped, but also proud of myself that it really didn’t phase me - I just got up and tried again. What a difference a year makes!

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do the SCUBA checkout dive after all - by the time all the skin skills and surf entries were over, we were running a little late for a 1pm appointment at Sealab.

Sunday was a pool day: SCUBA bailouts and skin DNRs. If you were reading my blog this time last year, you might remember how much I loved those. I’m woefully out of practice myself, but I know that I can do it if I try - and I remember how un-doable it seems the first time you’re told to do it! So again, I really enjoyed working one-on-one with people, encouraging them to take the plunge, and helping out as needed on the bottom. (Though I admit to feeling a bit hypocritical doling out advice - but not volunteering to demonstrate myself! Time to start practicing again.)

This weekend we’ll be heading to White Point, which was one of my favorite dives last year: rocky entries and washing on/off rocks, and surfing the channels. I might have to dig up Jeff’s old underwater camera (the little one) and bring it along so that I can illustrate my next ADP blog entry!

The thing about not blogging for a while: you start to feel like you need to catch up on all your stories chronologically. And the longer you wait, the more overwhelming that becomes. Sure, I have time to write about what I did yesterday, but first I really need to write about what I did last month, and last week, and I don’t have time for that… etc.

So, for now I’m giving up on the idea of “catching up” and skipping straight to yesterday. The day of my Star Trek dive.

Several weeks ago, Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry (son of Gene Roddenberry, and if you don’t know who that is you don’t deserve to read my blog) sent an email out to all the local dive clubs. He’s decided to start a Star Trek Dive Club, and their inaugural boat dive was set for the 4th of July.

Well, obviously, sign me up!

Jeff was game as well, and I pestered some friends at work and Ray into coming along. (It’s not hard to find geeks at Caltech.)

So yesterday morning, we piled onto the Peace at 6am for a day of diving at Anacapa with a bunch of Trek nerds. Except, it turned out, we were a little short on nerds! There was some trouble with the Roddenberry Store online booking system, and Rod thought the boat was sold out even though it wasn’t - there were only about 20 of us. A good chunk of those were my friends, and several of the rest were Rod’s family or friends, people who knew him through diving rather than through Trek. I’d been half-hoping we’d see someone attempt to dive in costume. Maybe we can attract more nerds to the next trip.

Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry - straddling the line between cool and geek:

There was an 18-year old guy on the boat who knew Rod through a SCUBA club he funded at his old high school. When I asked him if he was also a Trek fan, he answered that he was TOO YOUNG. Apparently even TNG/DS9/Voyager belong to an older generation. Way to make me feel my almost-30 age.

One thing that made it feel a bit more Trek-ish was the presence of Tim Russ (”Tuvok” on Voyager), who’s apparently a long-time SoCal diver. I tried to keep my inner fan-girl in check, and not be too geeky around him - though I did ‘fess up to having seen him at conventions years ago. He was sociable when approached, but not outgoing. I suspect a decade of dealing with Trek fans teaches you to appreciate your “off” time.

I couldn’t resist one geeky request: my diving-with-Tuvok photo:

Tim turns out to be quite into astronomy, so he happily conversed with my scientist-geek friends. I wonder if his interest in field astronomy predates his involvement with Star Trek, or if it was the result. I certainly know a lot of scientists who became interested in physics and astronomy because of their love for science fiction.

At the end of the day, we each got little goodie bags with Starfleet-logo dive flag stickers, which just about made my day. That, and the hot tub. I love the Peace.

Oh, and the diving was fine, too.

UPDATED: More photos here.