How I Spent My Birthday and Other Tales

Writing about what you did for your birthday in February when it is already April is quite belated. But, as I am waiting at the post office with nothing better to do, here goes.

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to organize more outings for friends. In my old age I had been getting quite dusty and boring.

It had also been a long time since I had gone skiing. The last time I went skiing, actually, was when I had been young and carefree. So, I thought what better excuse than to go skiing for my birthday to make believe that I was still young? It made perfect sense to me.

There are some benefits to being older, and mainly that is having more money. The cabin I rented was the bomb. Sitting along the lake with all of the other multiple-million dollar houses, the chalet we rented was meant for living the good life. Upon arrival, we quickly made ourselves comfortable in front of the fire and poured ourselves a couple of glasses of wine in our lofted living room.

The following morning, we went snowboarding. We hooked up with some friends of mine from Abbott, my friend, Valerie, and her boyfriend, Murph. Together, with Mark, Marcio and Sharon, we tore it up on the slopes. There were some pretty skilled skiiers and snowboarders in our midst, so the pace was really pushed. It was continual skiing from the top of the chair lift to the bottom without stopping to catch our breath. I love it that my friends push me to my limit. I am also proud to be in the company of such strong women snowboarders. We aren't in our limber 20s anymore either. To summarize, it was really fun.

In other news related to my birthday and getting older in general, I wanted to remark how many of my friends our now having babies. Accompanying the increasing brood comes buying the obligatory larger and better house in the perfect school district.

And then there is me.

I would rather play violent first person shooter video games than attend another baby shower. I am more interested in my fantasy world full of haute couture fashion and thinking about my next travel excursion than entertaining the thought of growing a family. I would rather practice shooting at the gun range with my coworkers than share notes about child rearing. Perhaps I will never grow old, at least not in my heart.


-- Post From My iPhone

From a Deep Pit...

Mark and I must love each other very much. Sometime this afternoon, I asked Mark for his passport number, so that I could check-in online for the plane, and lo and behold, we could not find his passport, anywhere.

Our flight departure for Fiji was supposed to be tomorrow morning.

For a few hours, we turned the house upside down. While Mark searched and searched. I considered all sorts of crazy ideas, from bribing the Fijian immigration official to let Mark in, to flying to Honolulu, the first leg of our flight and handling all the passport replacement from there. My heart was in my throat, just trying to come to terms with the many thousands of dollars that might be wasted.

Thank goodness one of us has a sensible head on their shoulders. I found it difficult to discern the most practical solution when I am in a deep pit of despair, as I was just a few hours ago. It was Mark who asked that I consider postponing the trip. As it turns out, and contrary to my initial assumption, postponing the trip costs very little money. Beqa Lagoon Resort (which is listed by the New York Times as one of the 1000 places to visit before you die) is a class act. They stated there was no reimbursement, however they could have me postpone the trip for a mere $75. Also, since I used my free United Air miles to book my flight to Fiji, postponing the flight was completely free, provided I not change the destination, and provided I use my miles before the end of the year.

There was some sunk cost, however: I could not refund the cost of my car rental in Honolulu, and I will be charged for a single night from another resort in Fiji. But I consider that minor compared to the health of our marriage, and our own mental well being.

Rather than tearing Mark's throat out, we hugged and commiserated with each other. In general, I am more disorganized than Mark. It could have easily been me with the lost passport and not Mark. On top of it all, Mark suffered a motorcycle accident last month, so there were other things more important on his mind other than our vacation.

The important thing is that we as a couple got through this relatively unscathed, and may even be a lttile stronger for it. In fact we are already fully relaxed and contented on the sofa watching tv. A far cry from the stress we felt just a few hours ago.


-- Post From My iPhone

Stressing and jittery over Fiji

Just wanted to post that I am stressed out and jittery about our upcoming trip to Fiji. I have a ton of stuff to finish at work this weekend, which will mainly involve cranking out some data, just because I am the only one who can analyze the data (I'm stressing just anticipating boredom that awaits me). We are also picking up Mark's dive gear from the shop only now.



Here is an interesting picture of Fijian money I received for the trip. On the backside is a picture of Queen Elizabeth of England. (I guess Fiji was a former British colony.) But on the front side are smiling Fijian faces, islands, a snorkeler and some butterfly fish flitting above a reef (bottom). It's a mish-mash composition. My favorite part is the translucent vertical gold band on the left which is embossed with what I can only imagine as some ancient Fijian pattern.

Speaking of smiling Fijian faces, Fijians are purported to be the friendliest, most joyous people on earth. And I feel guilty for already having had a confrontation with said friendly people, without ever having stepped foot in the country. The confrontation was so minor as to not even be worth mentioning. Basically the hotel was charging me a full night's fee for cancelling 2 weeks in advance, even though no cancellation policy was listed anywhere. It may payoff to be vigilant in this tropical country which may not be as stringent about rules an regulations as I'm accustomed. Just an FYI.

Honeymoon, finally

In about 1 week, we will finally be going on our much discussed, much dreamt over, honeymoon. For those who aren't familiar, Mark and I got married more than a year ago, but still have not gone on our belated honeymoon. Just a few months after getting married, my company laid me off. The following year was a year in which I cowered all the time, did not enjoy my hobbies, and had no energy beyond work, let alone to travel.

Anyways, I am writing to say that after a year, and in spite of the economic recession, we will finally be going on our trip of a lifetime. We are on our way to the famous Beqa Lagoon in Fiji to enjoy some scuba diving and general relaxation on the beach.

Part of the fun of going on vacation is, of course, all the planning and preparation that goes into taking a vacation. Getting the right stack of books to dig into while swinging from a hammock on the beach was one of the things I found myself preparing this past weekend.

1. "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins is my brainy choice. A scientific case for evolution is made against advocates of "intelligent design". So far very elegantly written, but painstakingly slow and explanatory. I probably wouldn't get be able to finish this book in my daily life. Maybe I will actually get through it while sitting on a plane.

2. "My Stroke of Insight" is a personal account of a neuroscientist who suffers a stroke and subsequently achieves nirvana. This will nicely supplement my self-help and spiritual library.

3. "Three Cups of Tea" because I like travel/mountaineering accounts, and it was recommended by a friend.

4. "Julie and Julia". This is my pure read for pleasure and will probably be the first book I finish. And I haven't seen the movie yet.

Not as interesting but perhaps more useful are the travel apps that I got for my new iPhone.

1. "Tripit" was one of the first apps that I got. This travel app stores your entire itinerary in one place. Simply e-mail your reservation confirmations to Trip it and it will automatically generate your trip in chronological order, provide maps and maybe even suggest checkout times.

2. "Blogpress" is an app that helps you post blogs with pictures without ever needing the use of a computer. This blog was sent using Blogpress. I tried another app called Cellspin, but thought it was far inferior since you couldn't create blog posts with text and pictures and you couldn't save posts for editing and publishing later.

3. "Round to it" is a so-so to-do app that I got to help me pack and prepare. I don't recommend this app. It is not terribly intuitive.

More to come later...

-- Post From My iPhone

Annoying Friends and Napa Wine Tasting

A couple of days ago, I wrote about being in the company of people I liked and how happy that made me feel.

Well, being in the company of "friends" doesn't always feel good. In fact it can be downright negative. Have you ever heard of the term, "with friends like that, who needs enemies?" Sometimes you can't stand to be around a particular friend for years at a time. Sometimes a friend who is a pain in your side one week is your best friend another week.

I guess I'm beating around the bush a little bit. A couple of weekends ago, I hung out with a couple of old friends I hadn't seen in a long time. We went to Napa Valley to do some wine tasting. One of them was working in Seattle and had never gone wine tasting before. And since I had gone previously on many an occasion, I acted as guide. By the end of the 15 hours we spent together I was infuriated and couldn't wait to get out of that situation.

We started on the wrong foot away. I don't remember having ever having to stop so frequently to grab a bite to eat. Within the first 3 hours of our little excursion, we had already eaten 3 meals! The first was coffee and a pastry before we even started driving to Napa. At the gas station half an hour later, my friend's brother stopped off at the taco stand. One hour after that, it was lunch at Rutherford Grill. And we had only done a single cursory wine tasting until then. As the elected "guide", I couldn't complain. People have different ways of enjoying Napa than how Mark and I enjoy Napa. We are used to taking a less gluttonous approach. We bike from winery to winery. We grab various crudites from the local market and snack on cold meats, cheese and bread at each winery. Perhaps I am a bit set in my ways? I was ready to be open minded.

Soon afterward began an endless pedantic discourse, all from one person, for 15 hours! The conversation was almost designed to make me feel stupid. I asked the meaning of a couple of ammunition and armory terms when they were talking about guns. (I didn't grow up around guns as a city girl in liberal Chicago, so forgive my ignorance.) Soon afterwards, this person began informing me what terms meant, even when I was already familiar with the term, and never solicited an explanation. I was shocked at being treated in this chauvinist manner.

Unfortunately, I am not very good at comebacks. I did manage to inform this person in a very withering tone that I was already familiar with the ancient Angkor Wat ruins, when he turned to me, the sole girl in the group, to explain what Angkor Wat was, even though I had not asked for his explanation. And I did go so far as to explain that Angkor Wat is in Cambodia, not in Thailand, as this person had implied.

On top of the pedantry, there were several condescending remarks made towards things that I had expressed a liking for and general snobbery all around. I am saddened at this negative change in my friend since I had known him in college. I don't think that his negativity was directed at me, but stems from a personal blockage of his own. But I do think I need to work on my comeback skills. I also want to search for more tolerance and sagacity on how to deal with such people without hating myself afterward. Mark thinks that some of the problems stemmed from not hanging out with these friends on a more regular basis- that had I been hanging out with them more frequently, that I would be more used to their idiosyncracies. Could that be so?

Relaxing Day off from Work (sent fromy phone)

This is the first time I'm attempting to blog from my cell phone, so this blog entry will probably be a little terse. I'm still trying to get used to the new keyboard.

Just wanted to say that I had the day off from work and it couldn't have come any sooner. Work has been difficult his past week. None of my experiments have worked out and I had a dreaded heart-to-heart with the boss that left me in a slump for a few days.

At the last minute I met up with a couple of friends who so happens also had the day off from work. We had a good time shopping, browsing stores and chatting over coffee. Rather than being super active, ie scuba diving, iskiing, or doing something new that I was interested in doing in order to take advantage of the rare day off from work, it made me so happy to spend quality time with friends and have some interesting and intelligent conversation. In a nutshell, sometimes it is good simply to be in the company of people you like.

Menace to the Otters

After more than a year off, I decided to take the plunge and go diving, and it was great! It makes me wonder what took me so long. Oh yeah, I remember -- bad storm conditions, new and stressful job, home repair and refinancing...

It turns out, these dives were especially useful for shaking out equipment issues. These were my first dives with my brand new Dive Rite BCD instead of my usual Zeagle Ranger. This change would cause all sorts of panic for for me. But more on that later.

I also got reaquainted with the people from Blue Water Dive Club. There were the usual suspects: Randy, the Blue Water Aquatics shop owner, Kevin, the instructor, and some club members whose faces I also recognized. Despite a year away from these guys, there were some things that never change.

Kevin's boat was much improved from the ramshackle boat we dove with him last. However, true to Kevin, he still got in trouble anyhow. First of all, the Point Lobos State Park ranger pulled over to ask how the diving was going. One of the divers naively responded that he and Kevin had "played catch with a sea slug". First of all, Poing Lobos is a marine sanctuary, and you are not supposed to harass the wild life. The ranger let them off, but not before warning them not to bother the marine life again.

The second thing happened while we were trying to get the boats out of the water. That day, there were a lot of hikers, and they were all oohing and aahing over the harbor seals, and otters that were hanging out in the cove. Also, there is a rule against boats going faster than 5 mph while in Whaler's cove. Well, Kevin was doing donuts at ~15 mph in the cove, while anxiously waiting for his chance to get out of the water. The hikers were anxious and frightened that the otters would be harmed. One of them even told me that they "wished I stayed underwater". When the ranger drove by again, and saw Kevin ripping the kelp life up with his boat, he was infuriated. He screamed with fury at Kevin to stop. Everyone was silent and embarrassed.

This is why I enjoy diving with Blue Water Aquatics so much. Everytime I go out with Kevin and the gang, there is always something stimulating, even provocative, to remember the diving by.

Dive Notes

Dive #167: Blue Fin Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, Carmel, CA
Date: Sunday, Mar. 14th, 2010
Max Depth: 50 feet
Time: ~40 minutes
Buddies: Ignati (Blue Water Aquatics Dive Club)
Temperature: 50 deg F
Visibility: 20+ feet
Weight worn: 23 lbs (20lbs on weight belt, 1 lb on feet, 2 lbs in BCD)

Gear notes:
I was totally unacquainted with my new BCD, which has a lot less air capacity than my old BCD. As a result, I was extremely overweighted. What was worse, I had no integrated weight pockets in my new BCD, so I had to wear all the weight on my weight belt. This almost made me panic. While donning my BCD in the water off of Randy's zodiac, I began to struggle. I could barely keep my face above water with so much weight on my weight belt. And having my snorkel dipping into the choppy water didn't help. Lastly, I was completely unfamiliar with the straps on the BCD. Randy had to grab me from the boat and pull me above the water surface and help with my gear donning. Lesson learned: I need to wear less weight, say 18 lbs total (2 lb on feet, 10 on weight belt, 6 in BCD) instead of the 24 lbs I was wearing.

Dive Observations:
-Mature sea lion
-Large live abalone in a crack, which I have never seen in the Monterey area
-Large vermilion rock fish that had no fear. It kept trying to nibble my buddy's octopus, which interfered with my buddy's attempts to take a picture of the vermilion rockfish. The situation made me.

Dive #168: Mouth of Whaler's Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, Carmel, CA
Date: Sunday, Mar. 14th, 2010
Max Depth: 50 feet
Time: ~40 minutes
Buddies: Ignati (Blue Water Aquatics Dive Club)
Temperature: 50 deg F
Visibility: 20+ feet
Weight worn: 21 lbs (20lbs on weight belt, 1 lb on feet)

Dive observations:
-Olive rockfish
-2-3 foot ling cod
-painted greenlings
-kelp greenlings
-juvenile blue rockfish