Underwater awesomeness

I went to Palm Springs last week to hang out with my BF-freakin'-F Frank, but first we stopped at the Los Angeles aquarium in Long Beach. And that was fun, you know, fish really are amazingly inspiring, so colorful and unique, and sea otters are really, really cute — even all the billions of school kids around us were showing varying strains of cuteness. But then, suddenly, we noticed this one exhibit — and it didn't have any signs explaining what it was — we just saw them, these crazy-looking what, sea worms?



Have you ever seen anything like these guys? We certainly hadn't.



They were just hanging out in the pebbles like that, but then when fish swam by they'd all suddenly shrink down, and when the coast was clear they'd rise back up again, like little musical instruments.

I really can't say enough about how magical and Dr. Suess-y they were. They reminded me of Richard Scary's excellent apple-eating, one-sneaker-wearing Lowly Worm.

Here's another image of Lowly, hanging out with the equally memorable Huckle Cat. (Look at the fun this worm and cat have together with just a simple basket of apples. Impressive!)

But it turns out they're NOT worms. They're EELS! Garden eels, to be exact. WOW. Here's a clearer picture of some that apparently live in some random aquarium somewhere.

Man. I pretty much thought I'd seen it all underwater-wise, which doesn't really make any sense since I've never even snorkeled. But you know, I'm an obnoxious New Yorker. Well, these eels humbled me, people. I really haven't seen it all, underwater-wise. I need to get with some snorklers, and quick.