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.

(via polyvore)