DIY Mermaid

At the end of last year, we asked listeners to declare their creative New Years resolutions for 2014. We picked four peopleto follow. And althoughJolene Oldham from Ringwood, New Jersey wasn’t among them, we were intrigued by thechallenge she set for herself: to”build a realistic mermaid tail out of silicone rubber and swim all the way around the island of Manhattan, all while reciting the works of Jane Austen.”

We recently receivedthis update by e-mail:

Your favorite neighborhood mermaid here! I did meet my part of my New Years resolution goal of finishing my mermaid tail, and went for a 3 mile swim on Labor Day!

I didn’t do a big swim, it was just around the lake I live on, but I did swim up onto the beach at the far end of the lake and surprised the last bunch of people at the tail end (ha!) of the day. That swim was the most awesome two hours ever! I swam the length of the lake, about a mile and a half, and decided to just swim all the way up onto the main beach. It was the end of the day, last day of the season, and not too many people were left. I swam up as far as I could, turned over and sat in the sand.

Soon, I was swarmed by about ten little girls! Some were older, ten or eleven, and they said “You aren’t really a mermaid” and I said “No, but some of these little friends don’t know that, so don’t say anything, ok?” I gave them a big wink, and they went along with it.

After reading about the fecal count of the Hudson River, Jolene abandoned her plan to swim around Manhattan. However, shereports that she’s currently preparing for her next challenge, which will take place in the early days of 2015:the International Tailmaking Competition at Merfest. “The only question I can’t answer — and I get asked this question a lot — is WHY?I can’t just say ‘why not?'” she writes. “I think I have to say, ‘because I have to.'”

Video: Jolene’s Mermaid Tail in Action