A Burger and a T-shirt

If you count a week as starting on any given day (not necessarily a Saturday or Sunday) and continuing for seven contiguous days, I can very easily say that this has been one of the worst weeks I’ve ever had in my life.  The absolute worst is very easily the week when my mom unexpectedly died.   After that was when I slipped on our carpeted stairs while holding my, then, 9-month-old daughter.  I was perfectly fine but her leg was broken.  And then there is this week.

It has been a week of people breaking trust with me in extreme ways – something which I find I don’t take very lightly.  It turns out I am a person who values both integrity and common courtesy quite highly and I expect people with whom I associate to exhibit at least a little bit of these characteristics.  So when they blatantly don’t, it feels like an extreme betrayal, a ‘slap in the face,’ a complete let-down.  In other words, it makes me feel extremely hurt and monumentally sad.

Today I found myself dwelling on the people who have hurt me during this past week and I started to get really depressed.  So I did what I always do when I’m feeling down; I went for a bike ride.  Ben ALWAYS makes me feel better.  Given the beautiful day and the physical exertion pumping adrenalin into my system, I stopped thinking about the people who are negative forces in my life and started to think about the people who are positive forces, instead.  I realized that there are WAY more people in my life who love and support me than those who are thoughtless and self-serving.

For instance, I have a friend who knew that this past Wednesday would be an extremely difficult day for me and invited me, and some other folks who really care about me, to her house for burgers because she knew I would need support and friendship.  Or my other friend who was planning to give me a very special T-shirt on his deck after a future bike ride but decided, instead, that I needed to feel loved now so he gave it to me on Thursday.  All of these friends actively thought about me.  I was important enough to them that they went out of their way to do something to show me they cared.  One made me a burger, one gave me a T-shirt, a couple gave up there night to spend giving me support.  My guess is all of these people would say that it ‘wasn’t much’ to do for a friend, however it meant EVERYTHING to me!!!

And there are others, too.  Thankfully . . . many others!  A friend who gave me a key to her house, her daughter who told me to call at ANY time if I need anything, a friend who made me dinner and invited one of my friends who she had never met before, another friend who has offered to color my hair because she believes it will make me feel better about myself while I’m down and out, and the list continues - a list too long to go into detail here.

On my ride I realized that I have some of the best friends on the planet - people who will love and support me no matter what.  So, I can waste my time thinking about the insignificant few who don’t care about me to the point of being thoughtless and hurtful or I can think about the many people who love me, including those who gave me a burger and a T-shirt.  An easy choice!!!!!

    

Easily Embarrassed?

If so, don't hang out with me!!!

This past week offered two opportunities for me to see just how different I am from native New Englanders.  Let me say that I've been living in NE for most of my life now and I typically view myself as a New Englander more than anything else.  However, I will never be as reserved as a native-born, puritanical New Englander.  I have just way too much joy for life and no concern at all as to what other people think of me.  Why do I say this?  I experienced two events this week that confirmed this observation.

The first event this week was when one of my favorite a cappella groups, ‘Ball in the House,’ visited my daughter’s private school in Concord.  (They performed in the small school auditorium – an amazing venue for an a cappella group.)  The group gave two consecutive concerts - one to the lower grades (3rd and under) and one to the upper grades (4th - 8th.)  The little kid's concert started at 8:30am - quite early for a 'band.'  The little kids didn't know how to respond to the AMAZING music and the terrific show the band was putting on.  I, however, decided (as usual) that encouraging the entertainers gets everybody ‘into it.’  Thus, I was quite vocal in my positive response to the show.  So much so, that a couple of the extremely up-tight Concord moms got up and moved so they wouldn't be associated with me in any way what-so-ever.  However, during the show, it was evident that the band was engaging me in the concert because it was quite clear that I appreciated their music.  We were having a fabulous time – and the kids started really involving themselves in the music and my response to it!

The second event was the Boston Marathon.  Every year my daughter's Uncle runs the marathon.  Our tradition is to get to the course in Natick an hour or so before my daughter's Uncle runs by.  We cheer on the runners until we have the opportunity to greet Uncle Mike and then we head to John Harvard's in Natick to have lunch and drink beer.  This particular marathon morning Uncle Mike informed us that runners really like cow bells.  So my nephew and I went to the course prepared with the appropriate noise makers.  He just rang his cow bell intently.  I, on the other hand, not only rang my cow bell (new to me this year,) but as in years past yelled and whooped at the marathon participants.  It is AMAZING to see the difference at the 10 mile mark when you scream LOUDLY "Go (insert name here) Go!!!!!" to those with their name displayed on their person. These people, who are looking tired and barely making it, all of a sudden light up and run more energetically.  Many of them gesture and reply as they run by.  It is a little thing for me to do, but for somebody working so hard to do something so special, it makes quite a difference. 

When we were packing to go and I was no longer ringing my bell and yelling, it was almost eerie how quiet it seemed.  It was almost silent by comparison.  I don't know if our 'neighbors' at the race were happier to have me cheering or happier to have the quiet that accompanied my leaving.  Quite frankly, I really don’t care what they thought.  To me, being reserved and watching others live life fully means nothing.  I'd rather be somebody participating, or in this case rooting people on who are participating, than somebody standing on the side-lines worrying about what looks cool or trying to "fit in" to other people’s definition of what is acceptable.  

Where is the fun in that?!!!!!!!

       

Career Choices

As my marital status transitions from married to single, I find myself thinking about “what I want to do when I grow up” to get back into the workforce.  Although I am still working on what I would like to do, there are certain professions that I am 100% certain just won’t work for me.   Anything in the medical field immediately jumps to mind.  For somebody who can't deal with having her pulse taken and who runs screaming whenever the sphygmomanometer is pulled out, a medical career just doesn't seem like the best choice.

Fortuitously, yesterday I discovered yet another profession that I really don't think will work for me.  On my way to pick up my daughter from school I ended up getting behind a student driver.  Now usually, besides being a little bit slow (a.k.a. doing the speed limit), student drivers don't really bother me.  This was a completely different story.  I have never seen such erratic driving in my life.  This driver was slowing down, speeding up, swerving into the oncoming traffic lane, then over-correcting and swerving all the way over to the shoulder of their lane.  It was quite frightening.  I backed WAY OFF!!  Although, while following this driver, I watched as closely as I could from my vantage point to see how the instructor was handling this.  From what I could tell, despite the craziness I was observing, the instructor seemed quite calm, cool, and collected throughout the whole ordeal. I was fairly impressed.

However, when the student driver swerved past the shoulder of his lane and came within a fraction of an inch of taking out a mailbox (YIKES!!), I knew for a fact that my survival instincts are just way too strong to ever be able to sit as calmly as the instructor did through this experience for me to ever consider teaching student drivers. 

Strike driver's education off my list of professions to consider!

(Good thing it wasn't my favorite mailbox - that would have REALLY sucked!!!)
  

Happiness is a Choice

I had an interesting view of humanity on my way home from my vacation on Saturday.  My flight home had a connection in Atlanta.  There were some fairly intense thunderstorms in the area.  About half an hour out from the airport we encountered extreme turbulence.  It was probably the worst I had ever experienced.  The gentlemen sitting on either side of me were quite kind.  They were extremely tolerant of the fact that I was talking loudly, non-stop, and extremely fast - I do this when I am nervous.  It seemed the worse the turbulence got, the more I was talking.  At one point I realized that I was even annoying myself, so I closed my eyes and went to my 'happy place.'   When we landed safely, I was EXTREMELY grateful to the pilot!!!

When I arrived at the gate where I was to make my connection, my peace and contentedness from landing safely was rudely intruded upon by one of the most nasty, negative, miserable people I have ever encountered in my life.  She was being pushed in a wheel chair by a meek looking man maybe 10 or 15 years her senior.  All she did was loudly demand that he do things for her and then scream at him, using extremely foul language, that he wasn't doing them correctly.  At first I thought there might be a mental issue because her behavior was so inappropriate, but I really don't think that was the case.  She was just a miserable human being.  Sitting there listening to her actually had the effect of making me feel physically ill.  Luckily, it was announced that our gate had changed.  I scooped up my things in record time and found a seat at the new gate where I hoped I would be away from most of the people - especially the obnoxious wheelchair lady.

Instead, a smallish Latin man of about 55-60 came and sat next to me.  He had a twinkle in his eyes and he was quick to smile.  He told me he had spent two weeks in Belize doing missionary work.  He found it amazing that even though the Belize people were so poor and had so very little, he had never encountered happier people in his life.  Shortly after this conversation it was announced that our plane was going to be delayed.  The wheel chair lady was out-of-control with anger and many other people, clearly dressed as if they were returning home from a vacation, were angry and out-of-sorts as well.  I found myself thinking of the contrast.  These people in the airport had everything they possibly needed, including really nice vacations, and they were miserable.  The poor people in Belize had nothing and chose to find pleasure and happiness in just being with each other and appreciating the things they had.

I continued watching the people around me as the plane was delayed repeatedly. (We ended up boarding the plane at the time we were supposed to have landed and had to sit in line for takeoff for an hour.)  It was amazing just how angry and nasty the other passengers were becoming.  In the meantime, my Latin friend and I sat telling jokes and funny stories about our lives.  Every time the plane was delayed, somehow we were laughing even harder.  We actually had a great time despite the fact that he was flying standby and was fairly certain he would be sleeping in the airport and I knew I needed to be at Logan to pick my daughter up from her trip to Hawaii at 7am and it didn't look like we'd be landing from our flight until 3:30am.  There was nothing we could do to control when the plane would take off.  The only thing we could control was how we dealt with it.  Most of the other people were extremely unhappy.  Me and my Latin friend (I never did get his name) had a wonderful, memorable, really fun time.

At one point in our conversation my friend said it was sad that the Belize people had such an unfortunate life.  As I looked around at all of the privileged people at the airport being absolutely nasty and miserable, I turned to my friend and countered, "Are you sure it is THEM that have the 'unfortunate life'?" 

My Favorite Tour Guide

My Favorite Tour Guide!  This is actually him. 
(He is about 1.5 feet from tip to tail.)

So yesterday I took my last snorkel of the trip to say goodbye to the fish.  It is always the saddest part of a scuba/snorkel vacation for me.  I really enjoy the underwater creatures and I always want to stay out as long as possible to get my fill - hoping it will hold me over to the next warm water vacation.  My snorkel yesterday was an unusually wonderful 'goodbye' snorkel for two reasons.  The first reason was that I saw some great creatures exhibiting some really interesting behaviors.  The second was that I had a very attentive, almost to the point of being annoying, snorkel guide.

First let me tell you about the sea life.  During the first half of the snorkel I saw a juvenile French Angel fish that had a cleaning station going on.  It would swim up to the bigger fish and take little bites of whatever it was eating, and the bigger fish (parrot fish and yellow tails, mostly) seemed to be fighting over who would be in position to have this service rendered.  I had never seen this behavior before with an angel fish.  I watched for several minutes to verify that it really was a cleaning station.  It definitely seemed to be.  When I turned to come back to the dock, I encountered a HUGE (3-ish foot long) porcupine fish hanging out in 3 to 4 feet of water.  He let me get extremely close to him before he swam slowly away toward the dock.  It was quite nice to follow him to my destination.  Lastly, I saw a really cool spotted moray eel hunting for his dinner.  He was swimming along the retaining wall of the resort almost jumping out of the water attempting to dislodge some crabs that were scuttling just above the water line.  I watched the eel for about 15 minutes as he went up and down the wall trying to catch a crab.  He never did catch one, but it was really cool to watch.  I was within a foot or so from him most of the time and he was so focused on his task, he was completely unaware that I was even watching him - or so it seemed.

The second thing that made the snorkel so enjoyable was my personal tour guide.  Everywhere I went, there he was - a very large adult French Angel Fish who had decided that he was so beautiful that I should not be wasting my time looking at anything else besides him.  He kept swimming back and forth just inches in front of my mask.  I literally had to push him out of the way to see anything else.  It got to the point where my mask kept flooding because I was laughing so hard due to this ridiculous behavior.  Several times I actually whacked the fish unintentionally with my hand as it changed direction to get back in front of my mask.  Since then, I have gone out of my way to watch him around other snorkelers and I have not seen him do this with anybody else.  It seems he just REALLY liked me - and given my wonderfully fun personality, who could blame him?  ;-)

Current-ly Intense

Yesterday was the last day I was able to dive.  For those who are not SCUBA divers, the rule is that you do not dive within 24 hours of a flight due to complications that can arise at higher altitudes with the excess nitrogen in your bloodstream from breathing compressed air.  It was a very sad moment in the vacation when I was returning my gear, but all in all it has been a very successful scuba trip.  After a very long hiatus, I am back to feeling comfortable and competent under the water.  And now I can dive with Nitrox, too!

Yesterday I was signed up with John and Dee for a two-tank boat dive.  As usual, diving with John and Dee was quite relaxed and enjoyable.  They truly are the best dive buddies EVER!  During the two dives we saw turtles, lots of file fish, a cloud of black durgons (the sexiest fish in the ocean, in my opinion), more eels than I've seen so far on this trip, some tiny shrimp, and I finally got to see a lion fish - both exciting to see and sad to see all at the same time.  The boat was very full, but the people were great.  I am finding that on Bonaire, where people are here primarily for diving, everybody has very good diving manners.  They spread out and find their own space and very rarely, if ever, get into yours.

After lunch John, Dee, and I had planned to do two shore dives from the dock at the resort to finish out the diving portion of our vacation.  However, after we entered the water it was apparent that the current was quite strong.  At first we found that the dive would still be doable, but after descending to depths ranging from 60 - 80' deep, it was clear that the current was too strong and getting stronger.  John made the decision to abort the dive when he was kicking as hard as he could and not going anywhere.  (I was holding my own given the strength of my leg muscles from riding my bike and the fact that I wasn't as deep as John, but I wasn't seeing much because I was working so hard and I was using a LOT of air with all the physical exertion.)  We floated back to the starting point in record-breaking time without even kicking a fin.  Between kicking so hard to get out and moving so fast on the way in we didn't see all that much, but John did spot a sea turtle who was fun to watch.

Upon exiting the water I encountered a woman who is visiting Bonaire as part of a group from a dive shop.  She is a dive-master here on vacation.  When she asked me how the dive was on her way into the water, I responded that the current was too strong to dive.  Knowing that I was returning to diving after a long break, she gave me a very placating smile and said, "We'll just have to see about that."  Her group didn't even make it out from the dock when they got pulled away by the current.  Swimming hard to get back (my guess is she doesn't ride a bike as often) she was humble enough to admit to me that I really did know what I was talking about.  The current was intense and nasty!

With no 8:30am boat to make in the morning, Dee, John, and I spent a lot longer at the bar than we had in the past.  I slept in, I’ve been getting up at 6am – today I awoke at 7am, and I've spent my morning reading, blogging and just relaxing.  I am planning to do a snorkel from the dock in a short while (assuming the current has calmed down) and spend my last day just taking it easy and enjoying the warmth and sunshine.  There is a huge party at the resort this evening with a BBQ dinner and all the rum punch you can drink from 5:00 - 6:00pm.  Somehow I'm guessing this is going to be another late night.  Tomorrow morning I will be packing and preparing for my trip home.  My guess is that the next post will be written from Massachusetts.  Sadness!!!  I REALLY like it here ;-)

More Pictures!

Guess Who?

My friends, Dee and John.  All around great folks and the best dive buddies EVER!!

John is an EXTREMELY laid back diver! ;-)

The boat dive sign-up board.  John, Dee, and I are signed on for the 8:30 2-tank dive and the 2:15 dive.

As usual, click on an image to see an enlarged version.  Enjoy!

Prettiest Dive Ever!!!

So, today was supposed to be a three tank dive day for me.  However, the first dive did not go as smoothly as the others I have done this week.  Yes, it was my first Nitrox dive - but that had nothing to do with it.  It turns out the current was extremely strong and in the process of swimming against it, I sucked up much more air than the other divers.  I don't know how or why, but I did.  I then felt that I didn't want to hold anybody back on the second dive of the boat trip so I decided to snorkel instead.  The snorkel was great.  I saw a lot of eels, a spotted drum in about 5 feet of water just hanging out outside his hidey-hole (very unusual) and a lot of baby fish.   I did get to see a small sea turtle on the dive which was quite nice.

After lunch I was debating whether I should dive or snorkel when I met up with my friends, John and Dee.  They were kind enough to invite me to be a buddy with them again.  They assured me that they had no problem getting me back to the boat if I used my air quickly.  They were o.k. with just hanging out near the boat until they ran out of air.  (And whatever calming effect they have on me I, once again, finished with much more air than others on the boat.)  I am SOOOO glad the convinced me to do this.  The dive, 'The Forest' off of Klein Bonaire, may be the single most beautiful place I have ever seen in life.  The coral was amazing!  The fish were gorgeous!  I can't even begin to describe it in a way that would give you any true impression of just how beautiful it was.  You're just going to have to get yourself here and see for yourself.  It would be worth it!!!

As for Nitrox and whether you are less tired after using it as opposed to air, hmmmmm - talk to me when the drink of the night isn't basically a raspberry milk shake.  Right now I'm absolutely exhausted, but my guess is that it has a lot to do with the large quantities of alcohol I ingested, and not with diving either Nitrox or air!!

SNAFU

Today I screwed up. Somehow, I recorded my Nitrox course as taking place at 9:00am but, unfortunately, the class started at 2:00pm.  By the time I found out, all of the morning boat dives were already full.  I, of course, had to take myself off of the 2:15 dive.  So instead of diving today, I did a lot of snorkeling.  I've decided that I like both activities equally well.  With diving you get a VERY close up view of a lot of really cool things, but you miss the big picture and you are limited on time based on air consumption.  I also find with diving that I have a fairly large number of brain cells thinking about safety that when snorkeling would be looking for sea life.  Also with snorkeling, you get a much wider view and see a lot more activity and you can snorkel as long as you'd like.  Today I took a two hour snorkel in the morning.  It was cloudy so the colors weren't as vibrant, but still it was nice.  Then, just before my 2:00pm class started, the sun came out and I couldn't resist heading back out for a short while to see the fish at their most resplendent.

As for the Nitrox course, I wasn't extremely pleased with the teacher.  The class started with her being upset with us for not having Nitrox dive computers.  When we all replied that the person who signed us up for the course said that all of the equipment we needed for the class would be provided, the instructor was still quite unhappy with both us and the situation.  She went on about it for several minutes, at which point, I interrupted her and said, "If you have an issue with this, you really need to educate the people signing students up for the course.  It is not our fault or problem that this has occurred."  She settled down a little bit and replied, "Well, I'm just telling you for future reference."  Ummmm, WHAT future reference?  The course is a one-shot deal.  We will never be in this position again.  Why do we need to be scolded for future reference?  After that comment, she lost all credibility in my view, and I was very happy to find that the bulk of the course was being 'taught' by a video.

After her emotional explosion the course came off without a hitch.  I am now a certified Nitrox diver – though I will NEVER show anybody my Nitrox C-card with the photo the incompetent instructor took.  I’m not vain, but this is beyond bad.  Don’t even ask to see it.  I promise I will NOT show it to you.  Anyway, to make up for my lack of diving today, I have a two tank dive tomorrow morning at 8:30am and a one tank dive at 2:15pm.  I will be diving with Nitrox!  I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Best Dive Ever

Today was a wonderful vacation day.  I spent the morning in a lounge chair, near the water, doing my homework for my Nitrox class tomorrow.  After lunch I met up with my friends John and Dee and went for my first Caribbean shore dive ever at a dive site called Andrea I.  The entry was fairly tough because there is a very narrow channel to navigate between coral heads and underwater boulders and the surf was almost to the point of making the dive too difficult to attempt. 

Although my friends are much more experienced scuba divers, and have done a LOT of diving in surf when they lived in Hawaii, I actually had an easier entry into the water.  When I had last been to Bonaire I had snorkeled this site several times with my daughter under similar conditions.  I knew the trick to just watch for the break in the surf, get down on your belly and start snorkeling in just inches of water, and kick like hell to get out of the danger zone before the next wave came.  Today I did the same except for, instead of a snorkel, I used a scuba regulator.  It wasn't very difficult at all.  My friends tried to walk in and had a much harder time.  After the dive John commented that they should have just done what I had done.

Anyway, the dive was wonderful.  John and Dee made perfect dive buddies.  They didn't swim too slow or too fast.  They were extremely observant and had the right gear to get a buddy's attention underwater to point out interesting things.  John pointed out a crab, a tiny shrimp, a spotted drum, and a couple of other really cool fish.  Unfortunately, I was too far away to hear when he spotted the Lion fish (an invasive species from the Pacific who are extremely destructive in the Caribbean, but very pretty to look at – oh and they’re poisonous, too.)  So, instead, the only view I got of the Lion Fish was when a solo diver passed by with a long skewer type spear with approximately 8-10 Lion Fish impaled upon it.  Normally, this would make me really unhappy, but in this situation it was a very good thing.  Lion Fish are prolific breeders with no natural predators in the Caribbean and they are destroying the natural balance and killing the natural species.  Anyway, the dive was the best I've ever done in life.  It wasn’t anything spectacular, but I was extremely relaxed on the dive, the fish life was good, and I was ecstatic when I returned to shore with more air left in my tank than the two more experienced divers.  Much happiness!!!

After the dive I had a drink (or several - I can't remember now . . . go figure) with John and Dee at the pool bar.  And when I say at the pool bar, I mean we were sitting in the pool, at the bar, having a drink.  None of us had ever done this before.  John and Dee were loving it.  I, of course, was freezing - which they found extremely amusing since they are originally from Texas and I am from Boston.  They were amused yet again when it came time to leave and they swam off to get out of the pool and I, instead, pleaded with Andrew, the bar tender, to let me climb over the bar into the work area so I didn't have to get my upper body wet again.  Andrew laughed and said, "This I've got to see!"  And he did!!   (Have I ever mentioned that I have very few inhibitions? ;-)

Photos as Promised! Part 3 - The Guest

Tropical Mockingbird in my kitchen!

So as I was on my balcony uploading the other images to the blog, this tropical mockingbird came and sat on the railing.  He was watching me intently - obviously looking for handouts.  If I had been grocery shopping I would have happily given him something, but I haven't had the need to shop yet so I didn't have anything appropriate to give him.  Although, in retrospect, I bet he would have loved the chocolate chip cookies I had for the plane ride.  However, that's not the best dietary choice for the bird - or for me, for that matter!

Anyway, he sat there watching me for quite some time until he got either completely fed up with my inability to understand what he was looking for or just extremely impatient and took matters into his own hands (or wings as would be more appropriate in this case.)  At which point, he flew into the kitchen to see if I really didn't have anything to give him or if I had the goods and was just holding out on him.  Alas, he was quite disappointed and flew out the door to find a more well-stocked kitchen.

(Sorry for the blurry photo.  He was hopping around quite a bit.)

Photos as Promised! Part 2 - The Room

Balcony

Living Room

Kitchen

Bedroom

NOTE:  Click on any of the images above to see them enlarged.

Photos as Promised! Part 1 - The View

The view to the left.

The view straight ahead.

The view to the right.  (Yes, that is a volleyball court!)

NOTE:  Click on any of the images above to see them enlarged.

Abort! Abort!

This morning I woke at 6:00am to get to breakfast by 6:30am so I could make my 8:30am boat dive.  Before breakfast I went down to the sign-up chalkboard and saw that the morning boat was completely full.  I thought to myself, if I found it too crowded yesterday when the boat was only half full, I'd find it much more unpleasant with a full boat of people.  With a quick swipe of my hand, I was no longer scheduled to be on the dive! 

I then realized how nice it was to be traveling alone.  I could do what I want, when I want, and not have to answer or justify myself to anybody.  I didn't want to go on the dive, so I didn't.  Et voila!!! 

I can get VERY used to traveling alone.  I'm going to have to make a habit of it!

Hmmmmm!?!

I didn't have the heart to tell this guy that it worked a LOT better if he actually got IN the water!

I've still Got It!!

Today was my first full day of my dive vacation.  It started off with seeing a beautiful wild parrot on the way to the perfect breakfast!  Not only were there the typical heavy breakfast foods; omelets, pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon, etc., but this being a Dutch island, they also had deli meat for making sandwiches.  My day started out with yogurt, fruit, and a ham, lettuce and tomato sandwich.  And of course there was coffee.  Amusingly, the person clearing dishes knocked my coffee over while busing (luckily the coffee spilled away from me) he then loudly exclaimed so the whole restaurant could hear, "Look what you did!!! I can't believe it!"  It was extremely amusing to me and we had some fun banter between us for several minutes after that - a fun way to start the day.

After that I attended the orientation meeting as instructed (in theory you can't dive in Bonaire without the orientation.)  At the start of the meeting I was singled out in front of the whole crowd because I wasn't where I was supposed to be.  It turns out I was supposed to be at my refresher diving course instead, though I was told differently.   (It's too bad I hate being the center of attention ;-)  After being called out, I said something amusing which made everyone laugh and proceeded to where I was supposed to be.  It was a great course which covered all of the things you should know but have forgotten along the way.  After the basics we did a short dive which was gorgeous.  I was extremely happy to find that I was still EXTREMELY comfortable in the water, my neutral buoyancy was better than ever before, and everything I used to know about diving came back naturally.

I then went out on my first boat dive.  It was o.k. but not great.  The problem with boat dives is that everybody gets off the boat and dives at the same time and there are just way too many people for my taste.  I much prefer shore dives with 2 to 4 people maximum.  I later found a fun couple who are planning on taking me with them on a shore dive tomorrow in the afternoon.  I am looking forward to that.  I will write back with a full report.

As suspected, I am once again not as coherent as usual due to drinking too many Frozen Cactus Coolers.  I do have pictures of the resort and my room to upload but I'm not quite up to the task right now.  I am going to go to bed early so I can read a bit more of my Nitrox homework and get a lot of sleep so I can be ready for my 8:30am dive.  I'll upload pictures tomorrow after the dive.

Bon Bini!!

I am writing this evening (as a cat yowls outside my window) from the beautiful island of Bonaire in the Netherland Antilles.  I woke up at 3:00am to get to Logan airport, so I'm quit tired right now.  However, the vacation started out wonderfully with a conversation with a man from Melrose who wasn't able to get a seat with his wife and 5-year-old child.  We had completely opposite views on almost everything in life, except for the view that engaging people with different views is fun and interesting.  We talked happily, non-stop the entire flight!  A good omen for my first solo vacation ever! Although, those that know me well know that I'll talk to just about anybody willing to take the time to talk to me.

 

After the second flight from Atlanta to Bonaire I checked into my resort.  (http://www.buddydive.com/index.php/home)  I usually don't do resorts but I want to SCUBA dive so I needed a place where I could find other people to dive with.  As resorts go, this one works for me.  It's very low key and completely focused on diving.  AND they didn't make me wear a wrist-band!!!  I don't do that.  (Some day I'll write a blog article about how my daughter and I use the term 'wristbands' as a noun for the sort of people who wear them, but not tonight.  I'm WAY too tired.)  Anyway, my room is AWESOME!  More of a small apartment than a room.  I'm very happy.

 

Once I checked in I got all of my SCUBA instruction for the week worked out.  I have a refresher class/dive tomorrow morning (I haven't gone diving in more years than I care to count) and on Tuesday I am taking a Nitrox lesson.  This might be the first vacation I've ever taken where I have homework!!  I have to read a book on how to dive with Nitrox and do a several page exam before my class on Tuesday.  Fun!!! 

 

After that I went for a short snorkel.  I was going to stay out longer until I realised that in my sleep-deprived state I forgot to put on sun screen.  I did see some really cool fish though, including an orange spotted file fish.  I then went to the bar for happy hour and had my 'welcome to Bonaire' complimentary rum-punch.  I talked with an extremely adventurous couple from Maryland.  They used to live in Hawaii and have dived on the island of Palau - where I've always wanted to visit.  With a nice buzz on, I went into town to get take-out from my favorite BBQ place and found some really amazing Belgian beer to have with it.  LIFE IS GOOD!!!

 

Anyway, I'm way too tired to write coherently.  I hope to do a more interesting job of writing about my trip tomorrow when I've had more sleep.  Although then I will probably have had more rum punch and I won't write well for a completely different reason.  However, that probably won't be the case since the drink of the night tomorrow night is Cactus Coolers!!!  Yippy!! 

 

Stay tuned for pictures!!!  I'll upload some tomorrow.

 

(P.S.  I'm very amused.  I just went to log in to blogspot to upload this post.  Everything is in Dutch.  How much fun is that?  Happiness!!!)

The Perils of Naming a Bike!

If you are reading this and you know me well, you know that these days the only thing anywhere near as dear to me as my daughter is my bike.  I got hooked on cycling a year ago and since then my bike has become my exercise, my therapy, my anti-depressant, my meditation space . . . basically my bike has become my "happy place."  I LOVE my bike.  Given that my bike is so important in my life, I couldn't help but give my bike a name.  (Maybe that notion comes from having a kayak – it is common practice to name a boat.  It just seemed natural to me to name my bike, too.)  So what is my bike's name?  My bike's name is Ben!

Where did the name Ben come from, you ask?  Well, I ride a recumbent bicycle.  (I LOVE my recumbent.  It is extremely comfy and extremely fast.  It is a complete joy to ride.)  Anyway, people in the recumbent world refer to riding a recumbent bicycle as "getting bent."  Ben's full name is Bender.  As in, "I get bent on Bender."  As is typically the case in the U.S., Bender was quickly shortened to the nickname, Ben.  The name Ben works for me.  However, I still love exclaiming as I walk out the door to go for a ride, "I'm going out on a Bender!"

Interestingly enough, for some reason, EVERYBODY I know refers to my bike as Ben.  It probably has everything to do with the fact that I always refer to Ben as Ben and, my personality being what it is, people follow suit just to humor me.  Ben is never referred to as 'my bike' or 'your bike.'  Ben is just always Ben.  Even my avid cyclist friends, who think naming a bike is the most absurd thing they could ever imagine, call my bike Ben.  They say things like, "Hey Danni, throw Ben in the car and come on over and we'll go for a ride."  My non-cyclist friends call my bike Ben, too.  They will ask, "Did you get out on Ben today?"  And that is exactly where the peril of naming my bike, Ben, comes in.  (Do you see where this is going yet?)

So, last week I was at a very nice restaurant with some very dear friends and some other friends of theirs that I don't know very well.  Before ordering my friend asked what I was thinking of having for dinner.  I said I was thinking of keeping it light and just having a salad.  At which point she loudly exclaimed, "Oh right, you haven't been riding Ben!!"  This exclamation was followed by complete, jaw-dropped silence at the table.  Me, being completely oblivious because I am so used to hearing Ben referred to as Ben, didn't even catch on to what was going on.  However, THANKFULLY my friend figured it out immediately and clarified quite quickly, "No, it's not what you're thinking.  Ben is Danni's bike!  No . . .  really!!!"

I guess it could have been worse.  She could have exclaimed, "Oh right, you haven't 'gotten bent' in a long time!!"  YIKES!!!!  (And if you don’t get the reference on that one, I am SOOOO not explaining . . .  ;-)

Looking for Yellow

My favorite color is yellow.  It’s an odd color to have as a favorite color.  Most people like colors that look good on them – yellow only looks good on people with dark complexions, certainly not me.  Or they like colors that look good on things that are important to them – cars, houses, etc.  Quite frankly, that would be a bit too much yellow for my taste.  So I find myself wondering what it is about yellow that makes it appeal to me so much.  The color always catches my eye.  I find if given a crayon box and asked to pick a color at random, I will always choose lemon yellow.  If I’m picking out flowers, yellow is always my preference.  Game pieces, mini-golf golf balls, croquet balls, bocce balls, fondue fork, etc. – you guessed it!  I ALWAYS want to have yellow, but why?

Yesterday while sitting at my kitchen table looking out the window at the snow-covered yard, with the gray sky, swollen stream, and snow-covered woods in the background, I figured it out.  This has always been my least favorite time of the year.  People are done with winter, but winter just isn’t quite done with them!  It’s a time of longing for warmth, bright colors, and sunshine.  Because of that longing, I believe it is a time when people tend to be in their lowest moods of the year.  Everyone is tired of dirty snow that just won’t melt, needing to wear several layers just to leave the house, not seeing friends and neighbors as often because everyone is still hibernating.  For me, at this time of year, my heart yearns for signs that winter is over and the change of seasons is truly on it’s way – and yesterday, looking out my window, I saw that sign.

As I looked out the window toward the river a splash of yellow caught my eye.   There was a male goldfinch sitting on the feeder and he had started to change from his drab, winter olive to his bright, cheerful, summertime yellow.  What a difference that small spot of yellow made in the view outside my window - and my mood.  All of a sudden the gray sky, white snow, brown trees and all the other colors of winter were diminished by that small amount of cheerful color.  It was then that I realized that yellow is the color that most represents the end of winter to me.  Soon the yellow daffodils will be up, too.  When they come up, it’s a pretty sure sign that winter is over. (Yes the crocuses come up first, but with them there is always a chance we can still get more snow, and besides - they are typically white and purple anyway.)  So, now I know why I love yellow.  It is the harbinger color of spring!

I think next year I am going to buy a huge box of lemon yellow crayons and make custom wrappers that say something like, “Be Happy!  Spring is almost here!! The goldfinches are turning yellow.”  Whenever I see somebody in a particularly bad mood during March, I’m going to walk up to them and hand them a cheerful yellow crayon.  I wonder if it will make them pause, smile, and cheer up a little or if they’ll just end up angrily throwing the cheerful yellow crayon at me as I walk away.  Hmmmm, I guess I’ll have to invest in a cheerful yellow helmet to go with my cheerful yellow crayons . . . just in case!

A Blog By Any Other Name . . .

Call it chance, call it fate, call it coincidence, or possibly irony.  Whatever you call it, it is so typically the sort of thing that happens in my life!  What am I talking about?  Let me tell you . . .

It was several weeks ago that I decided I was going to start my own blog.  I quickly found out that the hardest part about starting a blog is coming up with something to call it.  For me, the URL had to be short, catchy, whimsical, and hopefully clever.  I came up with several really good ideas.  Unfortunately, as is the case with such things, other people had the same clever ideas before me and had already taken the URLs.  I was becoming more and more frustrated with every idea that had already been taken.

When I finally came up with the idea of "What's on My Mind" it wasn't a big stretch to go from womm to wommit.  However, guess what?  Yes, you've guessed it!  Wommit was taken.  (Can you believe it?!!)  Anyway, it was just way too easy to go from 'my Insights and Thoughts' to 'my Insights and Thoughts for Today' – wommitt.  Et, voila!  Finally, something that was available, but was it appropriate? 

You see, those who know me well are aware of the fact that, even though I do have a tendency to be silly and at times irreverent, I am not into disgusting humor - especially where it applies to bodily functions.  Just ask my 9-year-old nephew.  His mother recounts the story of his exclamation at the dinner table after having just spent a week with me on vacation, "Yippy!!  No Auntie Danni.  We can have fun at the dinner table and talk about ANYTHING we want!"  I am sure you can imagine what sort of 'humor' was heard at the table that night.  (I'm SO glad I have a daughter ;-)

Anyway, I just wasn't sure about wommitt.  However after trying a few more ideas, which again, were all taken - I decided that I could either spend all of my time trying to find the perfect URL or I could just do my best to 'spin' wommitt to work for me and get on with what I really wanted to be doing . . . writing.  Obviously, that is what I did.  With much excitement I posted my first article on my brand new blog.  I was still slightly concerned with how people would take the name wommitt, but I just decided to relax and have fun with it. 

So, here is where the chance/fate/coincidence comes into play.  Within three hours of publishing my first blog article on wommitt, I became violently stomach sick.  It was UGLY!!!!!  I was awake the entire night, on my knees, praying to the porcelain goddess.  In the throes of sleep-deprived misery I found myself laughing at the irony of having launched a blog called wommitt and then . . . well you get the idea. 

I find myself wondering how to interpret these events.  Does it mean that selecting the name wommit was a good idea or a bad idea?  Was fate being supportive or out-and-out laughing at me?  I'm really not certain.  However, being the annoying, ever-positive person I try to be, I've decided to interpret what happened as the universe, in its sick and twisted way, telling me to get over my concern and just wommit!  So that is exactly what I plan on doing, but HOPEFULLY just on the blog - spewing only my insights and thoughts . . . nothing else!!  ;-)

Why wommitt?

In September I asked my friend, Scott, if I could take over his bike blog for a short while during his vacation in Spain.  I didn't do it because I felt inclined to write.  I did it because it was a beautiful time of the year in which to ride my bike and with Scott away there weren't as many people around with whom to ride.  I hoped that if I posted invitations for my rides on the blog, Scott's readers would join me and I would have many people to ride with - then and in the future.  As it turns out, that’s not what happened.  The only person who ever joined me on my rides was my friend, Susie - and she would have ridden with me whether I posted the rides on the blog or not.  This was more than fine by me.  With Susie, I chose to look at it as quality of fellow riders as opposed to quantity!!

Although I never did find new people with whom to ride, by maintaining the bike blog I discovered that I REALLY enjoyed writing.  On days where I was not in the best of moods I found that escaping into the writing process actually put me in a much better mood.  I also found that when people commented on my blog articles, it really made my day.  So when Scott returned and told me that I needed to continue guest-blogging on his site, I was very happy to do so.  Recently though, I haven't been doing a lot of writing.  With the extreme amount of snow we've gotten this year, I just haven't been able to ride my bike. (Extreme Sadness!)  Without riding it's kinda difficult to write bike articles!  And although Scott writes many wonderful, non-bike related articles on his blog, and would probably welcome mine of the same ilk, I am not comfortable posting non-biking articles on his blog.  It is my opinion that Scott's followers want to read his views and insights, not mine.  So I decided, with some gentle urging from some very dear friends, to start my own blog.

Now, if you've read any of my postings on the bike blog you will probably have noticed that I always write to my audience and I do my best to keep the writing light and, at least slightly, humorous.  On wommitt that is not my intent.  I will be writing completely for myself.  Yes, at times I will still have the light-hearted, fun postings that people have enjoyed on the bike blog, but I will also have other types as well.  If I'm angry you'll hear about it.  If I have a strong opinion (which I usually do) it will be right out there.  If I'm not feeling creative and I just want to rant - well, it's my blog and I can rant if I want to!!  Read or not as you choose.  As I said, this blog is all about me indulging me.  And, if at times one of those self-indulgent postings is extremely sappy-happy or too touchy-feely and  makes you feel somewhat nauseous, well I guess that directly answers the question of “why wommit?”