About these ads
Tag Archives: fear
advanced beginner swimmer

Thing to Do #87: Conquer Your Fear

March 8, 2013 by Jessica 1 Comment

COMPLETED!

Photo Credit

I’ve long said that my fear is water. You would think that someone who is SCUBA certified would have successfully conquered that fear. Alas, even after SCUBA diving in the open Pacific (as well as white water rafting one of the more dangerous rivers in the world), I still had to admit I had a healthy fear of water. You see, I couldn’t swim. How does a person go SCUBA diving without swimming? Well, quite easily actually. To dive, you really only move your legs back and forth. And anytime I’ve ever fallen out of the boat while rafting, the life jacket and some paddling around is usually sufficient.

To say I couldn’t swim meant: I could do some bastardization of freestyle in an incredibly inefficient manner enough to get me from one end of the pool to the other. After a lot of splashing and thrashing about, I would grasp the edge of the pool and gulp air from the enormous effort I had just put in. I had always been rather embarrassed by my lack of skill but until this past summer it had never really concerned me. During a trip to the beach, I managed to get caught in a riptide for the first time in my life. Ignoring advice to swim parallel to the shore, I panicked in the moment and began a desperate attempt to swim back in. After a lot of struggle and a few scary moments of thinking I may not make it, I realized that not being able to swim efficiently when choosing to spend as much time around water as I do was probably a bad choice.

I signed up for beginner swim lessons at my local pool and was delighted to find after a short assessment that I was more of an intermediate swimmer (some of the beginners were visibly hesitant to even get in to the pool, so clearly there are people out there with a bigger fear of water than me). The class met 2 times for 4 weeks. We worked on various strokes, including freestyle, backstroke, side stroke, and the breaststroke. I was amazed to discover that I actually was pretty ok at the backstroke; I had never even tried it before! I was completely shyte with the breaststroke and never got to a point where I didn’t need a noodle to assist me. But freestyle still eluded me and it quickly become apparent what my downfall was entirely with water: I didn’t like having my face in the water.

Sure, I dive and go underwater, but that’s with an oxygen supply. Swimming freestyle with the correct breathing technique was what was holding me back. That was why the backstroke was so easy for me; I kept my face out of the water the entire time. And trying to freestyle with my face out of the water was simply inefficient and getting me nowhere.

When warming up or during “free time” at the end of the first 5 classes, I would practice my backstroke because that’s what I felt comfortable with. However, with a number of people out during the 6th class and given the opportunity to spend the entire class working on what we chose, I realized that if I wanted to get better, I had to force myself out of my comfort zone. I practiced breathing a good bit with the kickboard and then slowly tried to work on breathing while swimming. All along, my instructor was giving me feedback and things to keep working on.

And then something clicked! Just like it did with skiing, all of a sudden I simply began doing it! And it felt…right. Honestly, I got such an electric jolt in that moment, I almost stopped to call out to my instructor “Hey! I’m SWIMMING!”

Immediately upon getting that down, I felt truly comfortable in the water for the first time in my life. And, by feeling comfortable, everything else went much more easily. I discovered that when I wasn’t convinced I was about to drown every moment, swimming could be quite pleasant.

Don’t get me wrong. I still have a long way to go. I can barely finish a lap. But as the pool is rather near my house, I hope to continue to go back regularly and practice. I may even take another class; eventually I would like to swim laps like competitive swimmers and do that dive thingy where they duck under and push off the edge of the pool to start a new lap. I know, I know. Small steps. But you know me! I’m always trying to up the ante!

So, what is YOUR biggest fear? Have you conquered it?

About these ads
101 Things before you die, 40 Before I'm 40, Achievement, bucket list, life list, Life Management, Recklessness, Sport and Activity
, , , , ,
Jessica_and_Alex_uw

Follow the Yellow Tanked Diver

June 8, 2011 by Jessica 14 Comments

This weekend Alex and I set off to complete our SCUBA certification with 4 open water dives, having completed all of our academic and pool requirements. We were set to do our dives at a local rock quarry but our instructor for our pool portion (D) wasn’t available, so we had a new person, S. When we arrived early Saturday morning, I was obviously anxious, having a new instructor I wasn’t used to, getting ready to go out in a new place that wasn’t nice and clear (and relatively shallow) like the pool.  D had told S all about us, including how I didn’t like clearing my mask and that I needed help with my buoyancy, so that’s what we worked on in our first dive.

We did a shore entry, slowly and carefully picking our way down a slope of gravel in full gear and heavy SCUBA tanks on our backs. Strapping our fins on in the water and pulling on the hoods and gloves, we swam out to a marked buoy and descended down to a city bus submerged below. On the roof of the bus we practiced clearing our masks and did regulator sweeps just so S could be make sure we were comfortable. We swam through the bus, which was a little weird and then set about just swimming around. I had difficulty (as I seemingly always do) with keeping off the bottom; I was especially trying to not hit the bottom of the lake because visibility was already lacking (in our first dive we could see about 20 feet in some places because we could see one end of the bus to the other) and anytime I brushed against the bottom or my fins kicked against it, I threw up a cloud of muck. In trying to adjust my buoyancy, at one point I put too much air in and at a more shallow depth, shot to the surface. Very frustrated, I tried to descend again and in descending didn’t equalize very well and my ear began throbbing to the point where I sincerely thought it would burst. I went back up again and couldn’t get it to pop. S came to the surface to see what was wrong and I thought I’d have to give up the dive. But the ear popped and I descended again.

The crazy thing about diving that I just can’t get my head around is that to descend, you “dump” air, decreasing the air in your BC by a power deflator. You know how you come up? Doing the same thing. So when you begin to feel yourself rising to the surface, you can try to dump air to go back down but at a certain point you go past the point of no return and now you are just shooting yourself even faster to the surface. Of course, it doesn’t help when you begin to panic (as I do), begin breathing faster and struggling/kicking fins.

I was disappointed with this first dive but S reassured me that I was dealing with the same problems most first time divers experience. I was convinced that the hood had trapped water in my ear, making it more difficult to equalize and as the water temperature was pretty warm (66 degrees, air temp was around 85), S said it should be fine. On the second dive we entered from the dock using the giant stride, descended, and took off to find a submerged plane Alex was interested in seeing. I was having more luck with my buoyancy, realizing that if I keep kicking my fins, I could swim along, just above the bottom. As we continued on, the water began to get colder and I had to keep equalizing. The water, which had been a cloudy, pale green in the first dive was now a clear, dark green. These are all clues that we were going much deeper than before.

Without my hood, my ears and my head were quickly ice cold. It was so cold, it hurt. I was following S, who had a yellow tank, and I tried to put the cold out of my mind and just concentrate on the yellow tank before me. I couldn’t see the bottom below me and I couldn’t see the surface above me; I felt as if we were swimming into an abyss or into space. Without context of surroundings or physical markers, it felt as if we were flying. I was miserable and thought about quitting but I felt that I kind of had ruined the first dive so I powered through. S kept checking to see if we were OK, and I kept telling her I was. After awhile I had just numbed to the cold and the pain and all of my being was focused on the yellow tank before me.

Eventually the water became warmer, the water became the cloudy pale green as before, and as we climbed to a more shallow depth, I again shot to the surface. This was later discovered to be in large part due to the fact that my tank, which had been heavy laden with air was now almost empty and very light.  I descended to rejoin S and Alex but it was time to come back up anyway. When we got to the surface, I looked around and asked “Where are we?”

We had gotten lost and had not meant to go to the deep area we had visited, which was 60 feet down (These open water dives usually don’t go deeper than 45 feet). I had told Alex repeatedly that I had never planned on going any deeper than 45 feet so I was all excited that I had done something so far out my comfort zone. We were now on the other side of the lake and as we were almost out of air, had to swim at the surface to the exit point. After the monster swim we had just done under water, suffice to say that I was exhausted by the time we were finished.

When we reviewed the dive later, S exclaimed over how cold she had been and knew we had to be cold too, marveling at how we kept just saying that we were OK. Alex had water in his ears (he still does) and my ears just ached from continuous popping/pressure.

The next day’s dives went similarly with a not terribly successful 1st dive and then a better, more comfortable 2nd dive. These dives were supposed to be navigation dives and Alex took the compass first, planning out our dive. He did a great job, taking us first to the bus and then to a platform with hoops to swim through to practice controlling my buoyancy (again). I had to grab one of the hoops to stop myself from shooting to the top again.

Later, Alex got a little turned around and while he and S were discussing the next place to go, I realized I again was headed toward the surface but managed to dump air and descend to correct it. Yay! (I know this sounds painfully boring and unimpressive but this was a major accomplishment).

It was my turn to lead us in the second dive and as we had STILL not yet seen the plane (we were supposed to see the plane the previous 3 dives), that was my main objective. I got a little lost headed to our first mark, the bus, but I was close and S pointed me over a bit. I set my next heading toward the plane and I started swimming. Being in front, not just following a yellow tank in front of me but instead just seeing nothingness in front of me but pale green water was kinda scary. But very exciting too!

I just kept swimming but Alex beside me grabbed my arm and pointed down. Below us was the plane. I had found it. We checked it out, went to a few other places and probably saw the most we had seen in any of the previous dives (really “exciting” things like a motorcycle, a “graveyard,” a boat, and a pink dentist chair) and then followed the ropes back to the bus where S presented us with our S-Cards, which was a very cool, ceremonious way to “officially” become certified.

This had happened on the previous dives but it was funny to be swimming and have a brim or a bass happen by. When we would stop for a while, they would come up to you and check you out, looking at the shiny parts of our equipment. As the lake is fed by a natural spring, the water didn’t smell icky or fishy and I was surprised by how clear the water really was.

So we’re certified. We plan to go diving while in Hawaii which is next week, so we got it in just in time! And have I conquered my fear of water? Maybe not totally but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Sorry for the long post but sometimes these are for me more than for you. It helps to just document everything I was thinking and all that happened; it’s amazing what details you forget over time.

So who out there is SCUBA certified? Let’s plan a dive vacation!

154.0/9.4

101 Things before you die, Achievement, Excitement, Nature, Sport and Activity
, , ,
Photo is from the Intro Scuba class

Wanting to Quit

May 23, 2011 by Jessica 13 Comments

We had hoped that this past weekend would be our open water dive and that we’d be certified by now but our classes got canceled a couple of weekends ago. After three weeks off, we finally headed back into the pool on Saturday.

When we first arrived, we were instructed to assemble our equipment. We had put our BCs and regulators on the tanks but then realized the BCs weren’t compatible with those regulators. So we had to start over. Since it had been 3 weeks, it was slow going anyway, details and skills slowly coming back to us.

It took us 38 minutes to get together equipment that should have taken 10 minutes to assemble.  When we finally returned to the classroom, our instructor pointed this out to us and sternly underlined that it should never take that long. Being a Saturday morning, the dive facility was busy with swim classes, and two different dive classes. We were evicted from our classroom just as we had begun, moved to another area and just as we resumed, were moved again.

All of these delays resulted in our instructor not being in the best of moods, which quickly spread to me and my general attitude toward the dive. I really wasn’t in the mood anymore. But we pressed on, reviewing dive logs and additional skills, including how to put on a wet suit. When we made our way to the pool, I successfully entered the pool using the giant stride without hitting the water with my face. We then had to take off our BCs at the surface and then put them back on. I struggled and, having my snorkel in, managed to suck down a considerable amount of water when I slipped under the surface at one point. This made for increased negativity on my part and we hadn’t even descended yet.

When it came time to descend, I couldn’t get down and so I swam over to the side of the pool to add more weight. After I finally got down to the bottom, we reviewed skills already practiced. I’m getting better about clearing my mask…finally. We took off our BCs at the bottom too but this wasn’t as much of a struggle and I did it with relative ease.

I was having a problem maintaining neutral buoyancy so my instructor took off the additional weights I had added. We were supposed to swim back and forth, practicing maintaining our buoyancy but I kept hitting the bottom, crawling more than swimming. Because I wasn’t getting it, we had to keep repeating it over and over, which increased my already high level of frustration.

After several laps of unsuccessful swim/crawling, we ascended to practice tired diver swims at the surface. I’ve already discussed here that I can’t swim so because I’m the weakest between Alex and myself, I was made to do more of the swims, dragging both the instructor and Alex when Alex only had to drag me. Irritability already peaking, when we were done in the pool, the instructor proceeded to itemize all the things I had done incorrectly, underlining that he wasn’t going to hold my hand any longer, that it was time I started to be able to just do the skills when instructed, rather than “psych” myself up for it. To make matters worse for my ego, he of course told Alex that he was doing everything correctly, that there was no room for improvement.

I was tired. I was hot. I was ready to just quit. This wasn’t fun. Why was I putting myself through this?

We gathered our equipment and left for the day, my bad mood staying with me for the next hour or so. I was really bothered by the way everything had gone because I felt a lot of the attitude I was getting from the instructor was unwarranted; he was just in a bad mood because of classroom changes and problems that were out of our control. And from the first day he had promoted private lessons because they allowed for more individual attention and a slower pace. I thought I had the luxury to get comfortable with the skills before moving to the next thing but now I was feeling rushed into doing things I wasn’t comfortable doing.

On Sunday morning we returned for our last pool session and I was apprehensive that it would be a repeat of the prior day’s catastrophe but when we arrived, I could tell our instructor was in a MUCH better mood than he had been the day before.

We assembled our equipment much more quickly since the information was still fresh in our minds. We reviewed for our final exam and then took the exam. Part of the certification process that we had put off was our 300 yard swim. I needed to practice correctly swimming with fins anyway (I kept swimming like I was pedaling a bicycle underwater) so I finally got the hang of swimming correctly, my hands down by my sides, rolling from right to left as I kicked.

With wetsuits, hoods, gloves, and all of our gear, we entered the pool for the first time without our instructor: just Alex and myself. All we had to do was swim laps back and forth, trying to maintain neutral buoyancy. I did pretty well, managing to actually swim, rather than crawl. For the first time Alex had difficulty descending and, after swimming for awhile, ascended to the surface one time by accident. These are things that had plagued me regularly throughout the course, so it was actually reassuring to see him finally struggle with something. Later on, he mentioned he also had difficulty equalizing, remarking about how much his ear hurt. I had to laugh since I had been talking about my ears hurting when I was still having difficulty equalizing; he hadn’t understood how much pain there really was.

All that remains now are 4 open water dives, 2 dives over 2 days, the first weekend of June. If all goes well and we don’t have any cancelations/rescheduling, it means we’ll be certified in time for Hawaii.

Is there anything you’ve ever struggled with to the point where you wanted to quit? Did you quit or did you keep at it?

154.3/9.1

101 Things before you die, Excitement, life list, Recklessness, Sport and Activity
, ,

Thing to Do #36: Visit Every Country-Mexico Redux

February 7, 2010 by Jessica 1 Comment

80_1314509221_1000_0071_071

With the trip to New Zealand now 23 days away, all I can think about is traveling, so here’s a recap of our trip to Mexico in August 2008.

We enjoyed our first visit to Mexico (albeit short), so we decided to go back, this time staying a bit longer.  Although Cancun is usually the destination for many tourists along the Mayan Riviera, I voted for the quieter Playa del Carmen, an hour to the south.  We elected to also stay at an all-inclusive resort and all in all were very happy with our choice. 

The Hotel Riu Palace Riviera Maya was a rather impressive facility and immediately lived up to our expectations.  With a liquor dispenser in the room, regular restocking of the mini-bar, and 24 hour room service, we were in Heaven; we also probably didn’t really take advantage of the amenities.  We drank non-stop the first two days, but then it got pretty old and we didn’t drink much for the rest of the trip.  (Also, I kept drinking strawberry daquiris and would just get full before I got buzzed=way too watered down).  The resort had several restaurants (Japanese, Mexican, French Fusion, Brazilian, American Steakhouse), and ate once at each for dinner.  For breakfast and lunch, we stuffed ourselves at the buffet and for afternoon and midnight snacks, room service.  88_1314513287_1000_0079_079

You would think that I would have gained weight but I usually stay pretty active on my vacations…

As I’ve mentioned before, Alex prefers his vacations to be opportunities to relax; I see vacations as a time for excitement and exploring.  As this particular vacation was 8 days long, we could strike a bit of a compromise with a good bit of laying around tempered with experiencing the Mexican countryside.  We arrived on a Thursday and laid around until our first excursion to swim with whale sharks on Sunday.  I’ve already detailed that experience here.

We slept in on Monday and awoke Tuesday to travel to Coba, which is the oldest and largest Mayan site.  Most people visit Chichen Itza or Tulum (which I visited while on the Cruise in 2007), as both sites are well excavated and the buildings in rather good shape.  I haven’t visited Chichen Itza, but Coba was much larger in area than Tulum, with many buildings not even excavated and mostly hidden by the encroaching jungle.  It also has the tallest pyramid of the Yucatan Pennisula, Nohoch Mul.  You cannot climb the large pyramids at the other two Mayan sites, and the story was while we were there in August 2008 was that Coba would soon be following suit, so we were lucky to have visited when we did.

After our tour guide had shown us around many of the excavated ruins and shared information about the Mayan civilization, we were encouraged to walk, bike, or be driven in a little rickshaw-type contraption the 2 miles to Nohoch Mul.  Alex and I elected to rent bikes, and that was an adventure itself as it had probably been 10 years since I had ridden a bike (but its true, once you learn…). 

64_1314509897_1000_0055_055coba6071_1314509203_1000_0062_062We rode past several other partially excavated sites on our way, choosing to stop at some on the way there, and stopped at the rest on the way back.  Alex likes to act like he couldn’t care less about this stuff, but he was rather enthralled, taking photo after photo.  We arrived at the base of the pyramid and it truly was a site to behold.  Photos don’t do justice to the sheer steepness of the pyramid.  We began climbing up the pyramid, slowly due to scared and/or out of shape people in front of us.  Arriving at the top, we had a great view of the jungle surrounding us, with only a few ruins poking out here and there.  On our way down, Alex was able to step down as if he were going down modern stairs, but the shallow, uneven steps made me too nervous to be that confident and I went down the pyramid crouched (but not on my butt as some people were doing).

Arriving back at our van, we took off down the highway, on our way to a Mayan village.  The tour group that we booked with pay these people to stay in their village and continue living in the tradition of their ancestors.  Upon arrival, we stripped off our clothing to nothing but bathing suits and tennis shoes and began traipsing through the jungle surrounding the village.  Along the way, the tour showed us the flora and fauna of the local area.  At one point, he halted us and became extremely serious.  He said, “Stay as far to the left through here and hurry through quickly,” giving no explanation as to why.  After we had proceded along to a safe distance, this is when he shared that he had spotted a jumping pit viper. 

But not to worry, if anyone had been bitten, there was medicine in the village that would preserve the victim for an hour, which was long enough to make it to nearest hospital for the medicine that would save their life.

I’m sorry, but why couldn’t you just have the LIFE saving medicine in the VILLAGE?!

Anyway, as I’m not too afraid of snakes, we carried on, first arriving at a collapsed cenote (underwater river), which had become home to crocodiles.  We were to zip-line across, which was cool, but after our Honduras trip , I think Alex and I just have high expectations.  Further down the path we arrived at another cenote, this one still entact.  We were to rappel down into the cold, blue water below and paddle about on inner tubes.  However, prior to going down, we were to be blessed by a little Mayan priest dude.  The theory was that these waters are sacred to their culture.  It was cool and all but being the cynical Americans that we are kinda thought it was just a big touristy act. 

coba21

Look at my face!

Look at my face!

coba5

I have never done any mountain climbing or other sport that requires ropes, so I was nervous about rappeling down into the water.  It wasn’t until I saw the small boys (age 8 and 12) in our group have no trouble with it that I was prepared for my turn and I rappelled slowly down into the water.  After climbing up rocks and trekking in a humid jungle, the cold water was Heaven.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to stay long at all and soon it was time to leave.  We had two choices: a rope ladder or the Mayan Elevator, which were two Mayans hoisting my big butt out with ropes.  Alex, being the big tough dude that he is, elected the rope ladder, but I was smart and chose the “elevator.”  He remarked during the remaining days of our vacation how dumb that idea was, still sore days later.

By this point, we had been awake since 6 am with nothing to eat all day and it was already 2pm in the afternoon.  We had worked up appetites and were STARVING!  However, there was still canoeing to be done.  Alex and I were ready to eat and literally paddled out into the middle of the lake and paddled right back, with the attitude of, “Ok, we did everything.  Now can we eat?”

I don’t remember exactly what was even served, except that it was traditional Mayan cuisine and I skipped over most, being a rather picky eater (as well as nervous about contracting “Montezuma’s Revenge”).  Alex mentioned only after we had left the jungle that he had seen a tarantula; I was happy to not have glimpsed it as I think I may have started running (not safe in a jungle full of jumping pit vipers).  We also saw a monkey in a tree during our outing, therefore checking off Monkey and Crocodile on the #38 thing to do (I also count seeing Whale Sharks on this list).

The next day, Wednesday, was our last full day at the resort and we mostly just laid around, although we did take a moment to take a photo with the monkey they would take around the resort once a day.  Alex had become obsessed with the monkey and had been begging to take a photo with it all week. 

We also finally went parasailing, which was actually a hold over from my original list from high school.  While it had been sunny all week, when we got on the boat, a storm, complete with lightning, came along.  The storm quickly passed and we went up.  It was fun to be able to see the resort and the beach from that height, but I think Alex and I have built up a tolerance to most things, seeking a bigger adreniline rush with each new encounter. 

We had a great time and I would definitely go back.  I’d like to go down into more cenotes and check out Chichen Itza finally.  There’s also supposed to be this eco-water park near Tulum that I think would be a lot of fun to do snorkeling in.  I’ve never been to the west coast of Mexico though; anyone have any suggestions about making it over Cabo or even Mexico City (I think at least going to Tenochtitlan/learn about the Aztecs).

Excitement, Nature, Recklessness, Sport and Activity, Travel
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Things to Do in 2010

January 1, 2010 by Jessica 7 Comments

In 2009, I was pretty successful; I either completed or partially did 9 things on my list of things to do before I die.  In 2010, my goals are:

#1  Write a Best-Seller:  I’ve been thinking more and more about this and I think I’m going to start writing a book.  I don’t plan on FINISHING and have no hopes for it to be a “best-seller,” but it would be quite an accomplishment to write a book.

#16 Get in the Guiness World Book of Records: Currently the most blood donated is 132 pints or 78 gallons.  You can donate blood every two months.  If I give blood every two months, it will take me 22 years to get to this amount and then I will only be 52 and able to still give for 10-30 more years.  So this will be an ongoing goal for at least 23 years or so.

#30 Stay in the Best Suite in a Five-Star Hotel:  For our first year anniversary, I’d like to stay in the Grand Suite at the Fearrington Inn in Pittsboro.

#36 Visit Every Country:  In March I’m headed to New Zealand and in April I’ll be visiting Nassau, Bahamas for a short three day cruise.

#37 Make a Fire Without Matches:  I failed at this last year and it was more out of laziness on my part.

#52 Read the Greatest Books Ever Written:  My goal for the past two years has been to read 8 and I’ve surpassed it each year.  Need to step it up with reading 12 (Unfortunately, I’ve read most of the short ones on the list and now only have the 700+ pages books left)

#86 Run a Marathon: I originally had not planned to ever do this but as I thought more of it, I realized it would truly be a tremendous accomplishment.  I plan to start training in February for the Outer Banks Marathon in November.

#93.5 Get Your Name in the Ring of Honor at Flying Saucer:  I think this may interfere with my marathon training but it IS carb loading.  I’ll try for at least another 50 beers.

#99 Confess –  Again, didn’t accomplish this one last year due to laziness.  The few Catholic churches in the area only hear confessions on Saturdays at 4pm and there was always some excuse as to why I couldn’t make it for 52 Saturdays.

Achievement, Entertainment, Excitement, Life Management, Miscellaneous, Nature, Recklessness, Relationships, Sport and Activity, Travel
, , , , , , , ,

Thing to Do #64: Drive a Car at Top Speed

November 23, 2009 by Jessica 4 Comments

Saturday night a group of us went go-cart racing at an indoor track nearby.   We opted to do the “Grand Prix” race which meant we did several practice laps and then did qualifying laps before starting the first stretch of the race.  After the first dozen laps, we could take a 10 minute break, and then we would start the second stretch in reverse order from how we finished the first.  These are pretty serious go-carts that can go almost 40 mph and not only do they give you a helmet to wear, but also a neck brace in an effort to avoid whiplash and other neck injuries.  They don’t tolerate any bumping and will kick someone out for doing it reapeatedly.

There were 5 of us (3 boys and 2 girls), and 2 other guys that joined us that we didn’t know.  The other two guys were either natural born racers or else had spent some time on a track (or at least street racing), so they easily wiped the floor the rest of us.  Chris came in first of our group, then Alex, Steve, Monica and bringing up the rear was yours truly, Jessica.

I was one of the first ones out of the gate and was racing around the track, sliding around the curves, and enjoying myself until I quickly saw how easy it was to “spin out.”  I crept around “wrecks,” giving other cars plenty of space to get going again.  I was minding my own business until who should spin me out but my own husband, the one person in life that I have vowed to forsake all others for, be there in sickness and in health, blah, blah, blah.  Apparently he is more interested in the whole till-death-do-us-part bit.  He hit me hard from behind, completely a surprise, and my neck snapped back, immediately in pain. 

I was mad about being spun out and I was surprised by the pain.  I’m the first to admit that I often do things with a false sense of security.  Yeah, I sign waivers all the time about the fact that I could die or be injured in whatever activity I’m signing up for, but they wouldn’t let you do unless it was safe, right?  Truly, it IS safe, if everyone is obeying the rules; I actually think it would be kinda difficult to seriously hurt yourself.  However, after that hit, and soon realizing I was “lap traffic,” I was quick to slow down and give others plenty of space.  Regardless, I continued to get bumped and increasingly annoyed.

I managed to not finish last in the first stretch, due to the fact that Monica thought I was one of the racers that was lapping her and she moved over to let me pass (The same thing happened to me in the second stretch when I left Steve go by, thinking he was lapping me).  So Monica started the second stretch of the race, followed by me.  There was a lot of bumping as the boys were eager to get around the “slow” girls and for a second time, Alex spun me out.  I was seeing RED!  I couldn’t believe that of all of the people out there, he had now done this TWICE!  I mostly spent the remainder of the race trying to stay out of the other racers way. 

Once we were finished, I let Alex have it, embarassingly in front of everyone.  I woke up Sunday with a sore neck and bruises on my chest/in my shouldars from the restraints.  Alex was quick to mention that HE was sore in his lower back, that he had been spun out and bumped too.

I was frustrated with myself for not being able to go faster as I’m extremely competitive and a very sore loser.  This frustration had all the more to do with not being willing to bump and do what was apparently necessary to do well in the race. 

So, I guess I haven’t even driven a go-cart at top speed, although I’m sure if I was on an open track, I would have done much better.  Although it could be argued that I’ve gotten my Ford Escape up to about its limit,  I’ve always thought I would do the Richard Petty Driving Experience down in Charlotte to complete this item.  Unfortunately, I need to learn how to drive a stick shift first, but how awesome would it be to drive a race car on a NASCAR track?!

I know Gina has talked about wanting to do a similar race car experience.  Any other racers out there?  Anybody want to make fun of me for being last in a go-cart race?

Excitement, Recklessness, Sport and Activity
, , , , , , , , ,

Thing to Do #36: Visit Every Country-Belize

November 9, 2009 by Jessica 4 Comments

The third port of call on our cruise in October 2007 was Belize City, Belize.  Our excursion for this stop was scuba diving.  Scuba diving is #46 on the list and I thought this would be the perfect place to check it off.  Off the coast of Belize (and the entire Yucatan Pennisula) is the Mesoamerica Barrier Reef, which is the second largest reef in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef). 

The only snag to this plan was that I’m terribly afraid of water.  For whatever reason, I fully believed that if I just “sucked it up” and jumped in, I’d have no problem at all. 

We took a taxi boat directly from the Cruise ship to a group of little huts built up on stilts and docks running back and forth from the buildings.  In real life, you train for several weeks or months before you are allowed to go SCUBA diving in open water, but in this day excursion, we were to watch a 15 minute video instead.  If you remember, I had gotten a bad cold on the second day of our trip and when you SCUBA dive, you can’t have anything block your sinuses.  I had alerted the guides of my condition and they were certainly concerned but we decided to try it out anyway.

We were to go to a shallow area in the reef (about 8 feet deep) and go under to demonstrate certain hand signals and that we could share regulators, regain a lost regulator, and clear our goggles of water.  I was the first one in and as the guide lowered us in the water, as soon as my head went under water, I started to freak.  I frantically splashed to get back to the surface and I knew immediately I wouldn’t be diving that day.  The guide was patient with me and tried to work with me, but I felt bad for taking up his time, especially because I knew there was no way I’d be going.  I climbed back up on the boat, dissapointed and defeated, embarassed for chickening out.  Alex had followed right after me and had performed his signals underwater with no problem.  When he came back up, he was surprised that I had finished so quickly, so I had to tell him I had chickened out. 

After everyone had gone into the shallow area for their training, we made our way to a deeper part of the reef.  It was by this time that Alex and I discovered that of our group, all but four of us already had their SCUBA  license.  Several had not been diving in awhile and several others had just gotten their license, so they didn’t feel comfortable diving without a guide.  Of the four of us that were not licensed, I had chickened out before getting my face in the water, one guy had not been able to remove his regulator under water and one girl was able to do all of her necessary parts during training, but was nervous about going into deeper water.  So Alex was the only person in our group that went diving without prior experience.

They left the three of us and one guide while they went under for about 45 minutes to explore the reef.  As it worked out, Alex had his own guide and enjoyed swimming about, but reported few interesting things other than a few colorful fish.  His tank had been leaking so he had to return sooner than the others, but he enjoyed himself and immediately began talking about getting his SCUBA license when we returned home (he hasn’t).

This excursion took up much of the day, so I was doubly disspointed to have failed at diving, as well as missing the chance to see more of Belize.  From what I saw, it was a GORGEOUS country and I’ve heard nothing but good things, so I hope to return one day. 

I have decided that to conquer my fear of water, I must get my SCUBA license.  Even if its only to complete the course and never use it!  Around here, you train in a pool and your open dive is in a nearby rock quarry.  I’d much rather do my first open dive in the clear waters of the Carribbean, but if I can do it in a cold, dark rock quarry, then I can do anything!

Alright, who out there is way cooler than me and has a SCUBA license?

Sport and Activity, Travel
, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thing to Do #101: Continue Your Gene Pool

October 30, 2009 by Jessica 10 Comments

I need to say this before anything else:  I’m NOT pregnant.

Ok. 

My brother and I both are working on this list, although I take it a little more seriously than he does (re: OBSESSED).  He has several things checked off of his list that I don’t have and as of last week, he also has this Thing to Do completed before me with the birth of his little girl, Zoe Alexis.  He’s as nonchalant about it as any body could ever be, which is just my little brother’s style. 

birth day3

I don’t usually think new babies are cute, but (being completely biased) she doesn’t look as squished as other babies I’ve seen.

I know 10 (TEN) babies being born between June of this year and January 2010.  Eight of them are girls (in the future, women rule the world).  So needless to say, I’ve been surrounded by baby-mania.  Despite all the baby craziness, I don’t have much baby fever myself.  I don’t usually feel the need to hold babies (they usually just make me nervous and I’m worried that they are going to start crying and I think they sense that I’m worried that they are going to cry and then they…cry) and I definitely don’t coo or make much fuss.  I went to see Zoe two hours after she had been born and then saw her again this past Sunday, but I haven’t held her yet-just kind of stared at her.

Babies seem to be an awful lot of work and I keep going back and forth on the desire to know what its like to be a mother, to go through the experience and to have that kind of relationship and having my independence and being able to do what I want to do when I want to do it.  It seems that babies put a crimp on your social schedule.  Difficult to travel the world and go bungee jumping if you know you have a little one counting on you to come back home.

Supposedly the plan is that Alex and I will have a boy and then we’ll adopt a girl, because I’ve always wanted to adopt.  But like I tell the grandparents-to-be, don’t expect anything for 2 or 3 more years (because at the ancient age of 33, I become an “at-risk” mother).

Lots of people have done this but its still quite an accomplishment.  Anyone have any good advice on how to become a parent and still stay true to yourself/not lose your identity as a person?

Excitement, Life Management, Relationships
, , , , , ,

Thing to Do #90: Go White Water Rafting

September 24, 2009 by Jessica 1 Comment

The weekend after Labor Day, a group of eight of us went for opening weekend of Gauley Season.  Last year was my first time rafting the Gauley, and while I was certainly very serious about it last year, I enjoyed myself.  Since I knew what to expect this year, I was excited and ready for some fun.

The cabin Lydia had rented for us was incredibly nice, complete with all the electronic, modern conveniences and a large hot tub.  Saturday morning came early at 6:30AM and we found ourselves suited up in wetsuits and ready to go at Songer by 8:00AM.

I will say at this time that of the entire boating group, the four girls of our own group were the ONLY girls of the trip.  Seemingly the rest of the boating group was made up of two other large groups of men – one with younger frat-boy types and the other was older guys that apparently were celebrating a bachelor party.  Both groups of men were Billy Badasses that didn’t need wetsuits or splash jackets.  Now while it WAS still summer, the water off the bottom of a lake is COLD, as well as the fact that we are in the MOUNTAINS.  In addition, wetsuits provide a bit more protection against rocks and the like when you fall out; I saw numerous shivering little boys with bloody knees that day that looked a lot less cocky than they did at 8:00am.

Another thing to note: the Gauley River is dangerous if not taken seriously.  Hell, its dangerous even when taken seriously.  At that bright and early hour, I smelled the potent, sweet smell of beer permeating through the bus on our way to put in.  I hoped that it was seeping through the pores of several hard drinkers from the night before, but I feared it was from early morning tailgating.  I never found out for sure, but from the actions of some of these men, I believe the latter.

And most importantly: typically the Gauley runs at about 2,500-2,800 cfs; that’s Cubic Feet per Second.  Think about that for a bit.  2800 CUBIC feet per SECOND coming at you.  For whatever reason, the Gauley was at 3,000 cfs that Saturday and it would prove to be ROUGH.

Before we had even arrived at Insignificant, the first Class V, a fluke thing happened in one of the smaller rapids.  A boat got stuck on a rock in the middle of the river, necessitating all the other guides to pull our boats over to the side to walk back along the bank to help free the boat.  None of the guides had ever seen anything like this before.  This took 30 minutes and when they finally succeeded, it had taken quite a bit out of our guide, Matt.  Matt is the same guide we had last year and the one Lydia gets every year.  He’s been rafting the Gauley for 15 years and, like last year, he was the group leader.  This means that often we were the last through rapids, and would sweep through to pick up any rafters that had fallen out or paddles that had been lost. 

After that delay, we had made our way to Insignificant and waited for another boating company to make their way through the rapid.  I had noticed that one boat flipped, losing all its rafters, including the guide.  I didn’t give it much thought as this happens quite often.  Our group made our way through and I noticed that the dumped rafters had been picked up by other boats.  However, Matt noticed something I didn’t and immediately went into action.

“Songer!  Compressions!”  Matt had seen what I had totally missed – the fact that CPR was being administered to one rafter on the river bank.  Our group immediately pulled over and our guides were quickly on the scene.  We stayed for 5 minutes or so, until it was decided that there was nothing our guides could do.  The details of the death are in this article.

Needless to say, the day’s events thus far had put a severe damper on anyone’s ability to have fun.  The river proved to be rough all day and Steve, Lydia, Alex and I played life guards, repeatedly pulling rafters out of the water.  At one point, we had pulled the SAME GUY into our boat three times.  I mean, get it together dude.  None of us had fallen out once and we were pulling in other (MEN) out of the water left and right.  At another point, we had pulled in three guys and they just laid there (one literally laying ON Alex); Matt had to yell at them to get up and grab a paddle as we were still in the rapids!

Going through the last Class V, one boat hit Dildo Rock in Sweets Falls and rafters went flying.  Our boat charged through, picking up two of the fallen rafters.  After Sweets Falls is Box Canyon, which is the more difficult way to go; you can just go around it.  The two rafters we picked up (both men in their 40s) quickly suggested that we go around.  When Matt discovered they didn’t want to go through Box Canyon, we pulled over to the shore and he instructed them to walk down the bank and another boat would pick them up further down.  I was so glad as I was worried that because THEY couldn’t get their shit together, we wouldn’t be able to do what we had planned to do. 

After Sweets Falls, we were done with the Class Vs, much to Chad’s relief.  Although Chad, Emily, Monica, and Chris had a great guide, Keith, who in fact has been rafting the Gauley longer than Matt, they had had more misfortunes, including one rather rough ride getting caught in the eddy that is Hungry Mother.  Chris, Monica, and Chad were all eventually shaken loose, while Emily held on, the boat bucking like a bronco until another raft rammed it, breaking Emily and Keith free from the eddy.

After lunch, the rest of the day went more smoothly.  I jumped in for the Swimmers Rapid (which was rougher than I expected and probably won’t do again) and jumped in from the Jumping Rock.  At the top, I was terribly frightened; it was much higher than I had thought it was (its probably about 20 feet), but I knew 1) if I thought about it too much, I’d be even more scared, and 2) more people were behind us and I couldn’t chicken out in front of them.  I jumped in, holding my nose so tightly that I think I bruised it.  I missed it but Alex went in after me, doing a back flip.  He always has to one-up me.

We did finally get dumped out in Fuzzy Box of Kittens, which is a “safe” rapid to dump in.  Matt flipped the whole boat and he fell out too, so I don’t really count that; you can’t stay in a boat when its upside down!

I think Chad probably won’t do the Gauley again, although he said he was glad that he did it.  Chris and Monica may do it again…eventually.  The river was MUCH rougher than last year, and being in the “High Adventure Boats,” the trip is that much more dangerous.  If this had been my first year, it may have been too much for me.  BUT, the girls proved to still be much more courageous than many of the men of this trip and we all decided that the entire trip would have been made better if we didn’t have to look after other careless rafters that weren’t taking the trip seriously enough.

Maybe next year I can request no stupid boys on our trip.  Think that will work?

Achievement, Excitement, Recklessness, Sport and Activity, Travel
, , , ,

Update to THE List

September 24, 2009 by Jessica 1 Comment

Since I first bought the 101 Things to Do Before You Die, I knew there were items on the list that I would never want to do.  Instead, I have other items that I would like substitute for these.  Thus far, I have completed 28 and have partially completed 10. 

So (drum roll please) I unveil…THE updated List:

1     Write a Best-Seller                                                            

2     Swim With… (Dolphins, Whales, Sharks) - COMPLETED                                                                      

3     Win an Award, Trophy, or Prize - COMPLETED                                                        

4     Catch A Fish With Your Bare Hands                                 

5     Make a Discovery                                                             

6     Throw A House Party When Your Parents Are Out - COMPLETED    

7     Eat Chocolate Covered Ants                                                  

8     Realize Your Childhood Dream                                

9     Learn that instrument - COMPLETED

10   Leave your mark in graffiti - COMPLETED

11   Storm Chase A Tornado Visit Every State - PARTIALLY                   

12   Get A Piece of Art into a Exhibition – COMPLETED                                  

13   Meet someone with your own name - COMPLETED

14   Ride the World’s Biggest Rollercoasters - PARTIALLY

15   Stage Dive or Crowd Surf                                                 

16   Get into the Guinness Book of World Records                 

17   Own a Pointless Collection - COMPLETED

18   Study the Kama Sutra and Put Theory Into Practice  - PARTIALLY

19   Master Poker and Win Big in a Casino                              

20   Get backstage and hang out with a Rock God - COMPLETED

21   Be a Human Guinea Pig  - COMPLETED     

22   Go Up in a Hot Air Balloon                                               

23   Get Arrested Ride in a Sleeper Car on a Train                  

24   See a Space Shuttle Launch                                              

25   Capture the Moment in an Award-winning Photograph      

26   Bungee Jump                                                                    

27   See an Erupting Volcano                                                   

28   Sky Dive                                                                           

29   Meet Your Idol                                                                 

30   Stay in the Best Suite in a Five Star Hotel                          

31   Experience Weightlessness                                                

32   See the Aurora Borealis                                                    

33   Get to Score a Hole in One                                               

34   Design your own cocktail - COMPLETED                                                              

35   Play a Part in Your Favorite TV Show                             

36   Visit Every Country - PARTIALLY                           

37   Make Fire Without Matches     

38   See These Animals in the Wild - PARTIALLY

39   Bet on a horse/dog/etc race - COMPLETED

40   Get a Free Upgrade on a Plane                                         

41   Be Friends with your ex - COMPLETED                                                  

42   Go Target Shooting - COMPLETED                                    

43   Throw a Dart into a Map and Travel to Where it Lands     

44   Attend a Film Premiere - COMPLETED

45   Do a Runner From a Fancy Restaurant                              

46   Scuba Dive           

47   Milk a Cow                                                                      

48   Be Present When Your Country Wins the World Cup  Be Present When UNC Wins the National Championship, Redskins Win the Super Bowl, or Hurricanes Win the Stanley Cup                                              

49   See Both Solar and Lunar Eclipses - PARTIALLY                                   

50   Write Your Name Over a Star on the Walk of Fame         

51   Learn Another Language                                                   

52   Read the Greatest Books Ever Written - PARTIALLY                             

53   Complete a Coast to Coast Road Trip Across America     

54   Make at least one huge purchase you can’t afford - COMPLETED

55   Score the Winning Try/Goal/Basket - COMPLETED                                   

56   Gatecrash A Fancy Party                                                  

57   See the All-Time Greatest Films - COMPLETED

58   Live in the Place You Love                                                

59   Leave a Job You Hate - COMPLETED                                                

60   Take Part in a Police Line-up                                            

61   Get Away with the Perfect Practical Joke or Hoax             

62   Join the Mile High Club                                                     

63   Make the Front Page of a National Newspaper                 

64   Drive a Car at Top Speed                                                 

65   Shout ‘Drinks Are on Me!’ in a Pub or Bar                        

66   Be Part of a Flash Mob - COMPLETED                                                     

67   Visit (This is a list of iconic places around the world, so far I’ve only visited the Roman Coliseum). – PARTIALLY         

68   Save Someones Life                                                          

69   In Various Languages, Learn to say…(please, thank you, your welcome, I’d like a beer, swear, etc) - COMPLETED

70   Invent a Word That Makes it into the Dictionary

71   Have Adventurous Sex (in different places) – PARTIALLY

72   Have Enough Money to Do All the Things on This List

73   Stand on the International Date Line

74   Learn to Fly a Plane

75   Get a tattoo and/or piercing - COMPLETED

76   Invent Something

77   Learn Astronomy and Read the Night Sky

78   Drink a Vintage Wine

79   Answer a Personal Ad - COMPLETED

80   Spend Christmas on the Beach

81   Get Barred From a Pub or Bar

82   Build Your Own House

83   Skinny Dip a Midnight – COMPLETED

84   Sell all Your Junk on eBay and Make a Profit Learn How to Ski

85   Visit the World’s Tallest Buildings - PARTIALLY

86   Run a Marathon

87   Conquer Your Fear

88   Get Married Unusually - COMPLETED

89   Learn to Cook

90   Join the 16-Mile High Club  Go White Water Rafting - COMPLETED

91   Publish a Cult Website
92   Own an Original Work of Art - COMPLETED

93   Complete the Monopoly Board Pub Crawl

93.5  Get Your Name in the Ring of Honor at Flying Saucer - PARTIALLY

94   Get Something Named After You

95   Get Revenge

96   Be an Extra in a Film

97   Live Out of a Van Attend Mardi Gras - COMPLETED

98   Go On a Demonstration

99   Confess

100 Reach 100 Years of Age

101 Continue Your Gene Pool

Achievement, Entertainment, Excitement, Life Management, Miscellaneous, Nature, Recklessness, Relationships, Sport and Activity, Travel
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 162 other followers

%d bloggers like this: