Tag Archives: ocean

Happy Birthday Dad! (or Just Like Mom, I Promise Not To Reveal Your Age)

Posted on January 16, 2014 | 1 comment

Today is my dad’s birthday! So, Dad, if you are reading this on the 16th, Happy Birthday!

My dad has been an awesome support this past year for me, my brother, and my mom. He’s the one spending every day making sure that my mom is ok (and she’s still kicking butt on chemo and only has 2 treatments left). My dad is also the one who has to deal with my phone calls when I’m worried about my mom. So many of the things that my mom tells me about I don’t understand (I’m the only one in the family who hasn’t worked in the medical field). So instead of consulting Google, I consult my dad a lot. And he’s pretty willing to put up with me through all of this.

Every time my dad comes to visit me, he helps me do projects around the house (isn’t that what dads are for?). The last time my dad was here, he brought me something that he made for my house.

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The bark planter is something that my dad is known for making. I have one outside my house, but this one he made especially for inside. He also made the wine bottle and bark candle holders. While my dad was here, he helped me pick out some silk flowers to put inside the planter. It’s still on my dining room table and everyone compliments me on it when they see it.

My dad has also pushed me this past year. He, along with my Aunt Cindy, got me to go into an ocean for the first time in over a decade. I have such a horrible fear of oceans (or more specifically, a fear of being attacked by creature that live in the ocean). But with my dad’s encouragement, not only did I make it into the ocean, I lasted over an hour out there. The only reason I went back to the beach when I did was because my dad got tired (and it’s a good thing we got out then because even wearing SPF 50 did not protect my back from getting a horrible sunburn).

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He’s also pushed me with my 5Ks. Even when I’m stressed out about doing them, he reminds me that it’s not important how fast or slow I am, as long as I complete the race.

And I have to say that my dad is one of the best challengers I have in Words With Friends (my username is thejenlevin if anyone wants to challenge me). He pretty much beats me in every game. And when I win, he’ll say I’m cheating. If I take too long to play my turn, sometimes he’ll send me a message in the game saying “suck it up and play”. And when I place my tiles on a space that he wanted, he’ll joke that he had reserved that space a few turns ago and ask me politely to move my tiles.

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So those are some awesome things about my dad that I wanted you all to know. Of course, there’s a ton more awesome things about him, but I’ll have to save those for future birthday blog posts about my dad.

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope that you have a great day today (maybe including a bike ride). And in case you read this before I call you to wish you a happy birthday, I’ll give you one hint about your birthday present: it has to do with the Disneyland trip that you, Mom, and I are doing in the spring.

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Getting In The Ocean (or My Final Day In Maui)

Posted on September 17, 2013 | Comments Off on Getting In The Ocean (or My Final Day In Maui)

My fear of oceans started in 2000.

I was in the Galapagos for a family trip and we went snorkeling. In the Galapagos, the animals there do not know that they should be fearful of humans. So they will come up to you all a lot. Well, when I went snorkeling, I was in the water and a sea-lion came up to me. I’m sure most people would think that is cool, but when it was in my face, it blew bubbles and me and completely freaked me out. I didn’t go back into the ocean for that trip or for any other trip for the next 13 years.

I tried to get over my fear, but it just didn’t happen. I wanted to try surfing lessons (confront my fear head-on), but every time I scheduled a lesson, the day before there would be a shark sighting very close to where I was supposed to be.

I took it as a sign.

Well, in Maui, I declared that I would make it into the ocean. And on the last day of the trip, I finally had a chance.

We drove over to the hotel my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Steve were staying at. My Aunt Cindy had told me that there was a reef right off the beach at their hotel and it was very easy snorkeling and perfect for a beginner.

It was a very nice beach day, although a little windy and the water was a little choppy.

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Fortunately, the rental house came with snorkel gear, so I didn’t have to worry about renting any. My mom decided to stay at the beach with our stuff (and be the official photographer), so it was me, my dad, and my Aunt Cindy heading out into the water.

My mom got one before shot of us all.

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And then we went into the ocean. I had to get some instructions from my dad about how to get all the snorkel gear on the easiest way, so I sat down in the shallow part to get my fins, mask, and snorkel on to my liking.

I put my face into the water and immediately had a panic attack. I started to hyperventilate a bit and was tearing up. But I was able to get my breath under control and tried again.

For the first part of the snorkeling adventure, I would get panicky if my ears went underwater (because then I could hear my breathing and it freaked me out). But I got much calmer as we went.

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And it was totally worth it! There were a ton of beautiful colorful fish right there! I didn’t like when the fish got close to me, so I tried to stay where it was a bit deeper. I have no idea what the names of any of the fish were, but pretty much all of them were super bright colors. We also saw a school of something like 100 fish right below us (which made my aunt wonder what they were swimming away from).

I thought (and I think everyone else thought) that I would be the first one ready to go back to the beach, but after a while, my dad announced that he was getting a bit tired. So the three of us went back to the shore. Turns out, we were out there for about an hour! Not too bad for my first time in an ocean in 13 years!

After snorkeling we rinsed off at the outdoor showers and met up with my Uncle Steve and Aunt Nancy (who went scuba diving that morning) for lunch. And after lunch, it was time to head back to our place to start packing up!

Of course, we enjoyed out last Maui sunset.

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And finally decided that we should light the tiki torches that were in the backyard.

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I had a really wonderful trip. I got to see so much of the island when we were there. And I felt like I finally got a real vacation! As sad as it was to say goodbye to Maui and the amazing place we stayed in, I was ready to come home.

I hope that you all have enjoyed reading my Maui adventures! I promise to get back to my usual types of blog posts!

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Rain In July (or Sometimes Things Just Don’t Go How You Planned Them To)

Posted on July 12, 2013 | Comments Off on Rain In July (or Sometimes Things Just Don’t Go How You Planned Them To)

After the amazing beach day on Saturday, I knew I had to get to the beach more this summer. And yesterday, I happened to have the day off (I had somewhere I had to be during most of my shift), so I figured why not go to the beach?

The morning was a bit gray, but that’s pretty typical for summers here. But when I went outside to get something from my car, I realized that it had been raining all night and it was still drizzling! I don’t ever remember it raining in LA in July since I moved here!

Still, I figured it couldn’t be as bad at the beach. So I picked up a friend, and we headed up the coast to the same beach as last time. The whole drive it was pretty gray and drizzly, but we convinced ourselves that it was looking a bit clearer up ahead.

We finally arrived at the beach, and it looked like this.

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While it’s still nice to be at the ocean, it was windy and cold. We tried to wait it out a bit in the car, but it never seemed to look like it was getting better.

After waiting it out about 20 minutes, we decided to cancel the beach day. There’s no reason to be miserable and cold. And there will be plenty of other chances to go to the beach (probably not on a weekday, but that’s ok).

It did kind of suck to drive all the way out there and just turn around, but I wanted to take the chance that maybe the weather was a bit better there.

Oh well. I ended up going home and doing some reading that I’ve been excited about (I recently downloaded several of the book series recommended on this list to my e-reader).

While I didn’t get to enjoy the beach and sunshine, I did have a nice quiet day off. Which is good because this weekend I have a lot going on! I’ll be writing about it next week on here, so be on the lookout for those posts!

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Playing Beach Chicken (or How To Fully Enjoy Only Having To Work A Half Day On Saturdays)

Posted on July 9, 2013 | Comments Off on Playing Beach Chicken (or How To Fully Enjoy Only Having To Work A Half Day On Saturdays)

I’m making an effort to fully enjoy the time that I have on Saturdays after I work my half shift at work (my shift then is from 10-2). So this past Saturday, my friend Kate and I made a plan to hang out for the afternoon.

First stop was Monte Alban for lunch. I got fajitas (which were delicious).

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But I did notice that on the menu, they had a pretty odd option for a meat.

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After lunch, we drove up PCH to go find a fun beach to hang out at. We ended up at Thornhill Broome Beach because the beach was super close to the road (unlike in Santa Monica where it’s 1/4 mile or so from where to park to the water).

It was such a gorgeous day out.

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We got our feet in the water a bit.

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And then we played beach chicken. Beach chicken is essentially playing chicken with the waves. You go out into the water and only run away when the wave is going to be too big (or for me, when the wave was going to get my clothes wet).

Honestly, it was a lot of fun.

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At least until a bigger wave came and was higher than my knees.

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I really don’t take advantage of living near the water as often as I should. I don’t think I went to the beach at all last summer. And the last time I had my feet in the water was probably 2 or 3 years ago (I’m not a huge fan of the ocean).

But running in and out of the waves really was an awesome way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

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Eventually, we had to head back to our part of town. I needed to run errands and Kate had a super early day at work the next day and wanted to go to bed early. On the drive back, we saw a lot of people surfing, and even a kite surfer (who seemed to be going very fast).

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It really was a great way to spend a free afternoon. I’m going to make an effort to make it to the beach a few more times this summer. Maybe I’ll start to like the ocean more (which would be helpful before I go to Hawaii).

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