Smiling Down from Above

Next thing that is crossed off on my list is parasailing. Parasailing is fun, relaxing and not scary at all. I’ve actually done this twice, once in Aruba and once in Florida during a port stop on a cruise.

For those of you who haven’t been parasailing before, here is a summary of what you do.

Hop on a speed boat with a few crazy surfer dudes. Speed off to the middle of the ocean (or maybe just a half mile off shore). Sit on the back of the boat and get strapped to a giant parachute (both times I went, my chute had a giant smiley face on it! I guess parasailing is a happy sport). Then the boat speeds up, they let out the rope, and you get yanked into the air! The crazy surfer dudes who run parasailing excursions also like to dip you into the water by slowing the boat down and letting you sink til you splash into the ocean.

The first time I went parasailing was in Aruba. I was 15 with my family, and family friends who have 3 daughters, twins my age and another one who is 2 years younger. The younger sister and I decided to go parasailing. They strapped us together, one in front of the other, with me in front. Up into the air we go, with minimal squealing, and a giant smiley-faced parachute above us. The coolest thing about parasailing in this area is that the beaches and water are so pristine. The beaches are white, the water is teal and the sun is always shining from a bright blue sky.

So there we are, floating way up in the air, when suddenly we feel ourselves sinking. Uh oh! Dip time. It was fun and refreshing though, and they soon brought us back up in the air. We are looking around, taking in the sites, laughing, and just enjoying ourselves. Then we look down into the water. A few hundred feet below us, we see the outline of a very LARGE sting ray! A real, live, scary beast from the sea! We start yelling and screaming “DON’T DIP US!” Of course they can’t hear us down on the boat; all they see is us waving at them. So they wave back and start to slow down for another dip. OH SHIT! We splash into the water, pull our arms and legs in as close to our bodies as possible, and start frantically looking around for the giant sting ray we saw from the sky. Ahh where is it?! No where to be found and we soon go back up in the air. Maybe it was just a figment of our imagination or maybe we scared it away, but either way it added a fun little thrill to an, otherwise, relaxing parasailing excursion.



The second time I went parasailing was during a port stop of a cruise I was on. We stopped in Fort Lauderdale and my brother, best friend and I decided to go. It was sting ray-free and a lot of fun. Sometimes, the people you are with, make what you are doing that much more fun. My brother and best friend were a blast to hang out with for the day. And the parasail guides were hilarious! Two cute, 20-somethings, tanned from the Florida sun, were joking and flirting and speeding the boat around. It was a lot of fun, and of course, you can’t help but smile when the parachute is smiling at you!



Cross that one off the list!

Swimming... Au Naturale

So why is skinny dipping on my list? Being naked is fun! It’s as simple as that.

This is kind of an awkward story to write because it seems so kinky but it wasn't quite like that. Skinny dipping sounds so naughty and sexual… but it doesn’t have to be. It can simply be fun and natural and relaxing. I like naughty and sexy as much as the next person but I’m a good girl at heart. I’m not too much of an exhibitionist.

We get press releases at work from the “Naturalist Society” aka the local nudist colony. Just reading about naked volleyball and naked group water aerobics makes me giggle and blush.

I did go skinny dipping though!

My best friend’s family owns a house in the Florida Keys. It’s on a private plot of land, complete with in-ground pool, boat dock and a few real, live gators.

I was 18 and had just graduated high school. My two best friends, some of my friend’s family, and I visited the Keys. Our first night there, we went to jump in the pool… and ran away screaming when we saw the gator swimming in there! (I’ll swim with nurse sharks but alligators are another story.)

In the morning, we snuck up to the pool and were relieved to see it was empty. We spent the day relaxing… just swimming, tanning, laughing… and of course a little drinking! I mean, we were celebrating graduation and our last summer before the three best friends split up for college.

That night, after more than a few wine coolers, we jumped in the pool… au natural! It was fun and freeing. Plus, it was dark out, with no one around, except maybe a few gators, to see us. It is crossed off of my list, but maybe I’ll do it again sometime… ;-)

*Cue the Jaws Theme Song..*

Whenever I tell people that I went swimming with sharks, they instantly start humming…



I first watched Jaws when I was 5 years old. I spent most of the movie simultaneously trying to cover my eyes and ears because the music was almost as scary as the shark attack scenes.

When the movie originally came out, my mom was working as a lifeguard at a man-made lake in upstate New York. She told me that someone would scream “SHARK!” and everyone would run, screaming, from the water… of the MAN-MADE, fresh water lake.

I don’t think shark-mania is quite as strong 30+ years post-Jaws. But if someone yelled “SHARK!” on a busy beach, most people would knock down the nearest child in their rush to escape the frigid waters where the man-eating beasts lurk. Including me. (Although I’d try to knock down a big man on my rush to escape. A man can be a meal for that shark but a kid would only be a snack. That damn shark would still want to eat me if he had only eaten a little kid!)

One of the many reasons I decided to swim with sharks is simply because it sounds so bad ass! When you think of a shark, what comes to mind? Big, blood covered teeth! To swim with these huge creatures of the deep, to conquer the fear of giant, blood covered teeth, to tame those wild beasts, just sounded too exciting to pass up. I was 19, and on a tropical vacation with my family and two best friends in the Dominican Republic. Fear, and giant teeth, be damned!

But images of giant teeth and man-eating beasts were running through my head, with the Jaws theme as background music, while I road a “booze boat” out into the waters of the Atlantic. We were off to swim with sharks and sting rays. I was nervous. I thought that they must toss us all overboard and then toss in some chum (ya know, that fishy blood and guts mess you always see in Shark Week when they are trying to see Great White Sharks, and the like). Then sharks would be swirling around us, snapping their jaws.

I mentioned this swimming-in-blood idea to my mom and she reminded me… we are swimming with nurse sharks! Oohhh now I remember why this was a good idea in the first place! Nurse sharks… the calm, bottom-dwelling, docile sibling of the Great White. Nurse sharks look like they wouldn’t move off the ocean floor… even for blood or a taste of the little Jewish Princess (that’s me!) swimming above them.

After an hour-long boat ride filled with singing and dancing (no drinking on the first leg of the “booze boat”… they thought we would drown if drunk), we arrived at a large net coming out of the water.

Sharks and sting rays were contained in this cordoned area of the ocean. I hopped off the boat and right in! There were about a dozen nurse sharks, some as big as 14 feet long, gathered on the ocean floor 10 feet below.

I had a snorkel to use so I could keep my face in the water.





I started swimming, watching these huge animals that, just minutes before, I had been terrified of encountering. This was easy! And fun. Until, our guides decided to wake the little (big) beasties up. They swam to the bottom and smacked the nurse sharks until they swam off the ocean floor, right at me! I tried to scream but just wound up choking on seawater. One passed by me, just inches away.





It was an exciting and scary experience, although not quite Jaws-theme-song scary.

Scratch that one off the list!

My Life List

Before I really get moving on this newest adventure that is my blog, let me first apologize.

I haven’t written like this in a very long time. I work in local television news, which includes a lot of doom and gloom, and not a lot of happy writing. I also haven’t written about myself in about a year so now I need to pull out my narcissistic qualities that I know I have and apply them to my writing. I’ll do my best to make this fun, interesting and expressive!

My list has three parts to it (for now). Things I want to do, places I want to go, and things I want to see… yea not very creative but you get the idea. Also, it is a very corny list... but I'm a sappy, traditional optimist. The things that are crossed out, are things I have completed. I will be writing blogs on each of those experiences so stay tuned.

And now… without further ado… here is my Life List! TA-DA! :-D


Things I want to do
Fall in love
Start a family
Have a career
Find a job I LOVE
Be in NYC for New Years Eve
Ride a mechanical bull
Swim with dolphins
Swim with sea turtles
Ride an elephant
Swim with sharks
Go skinny-dipping
Go parasailing
Sky diving
Bungee jumping
Go hang gliding
White water raft
Go scuba diving
Go up in a hot air balloon
Ride a camel
Take salsa, ballroom dance lessons
Swim in the Dead Sea
Make a difference on one person’s life
Donate to a charity
Go whale watching
Fly a kite
Learn to surf
Participate in a protest
Participate in the giant tomato fight
Run with the bulls
Experience white nights
Go on a safari
See the Aurora Borealis
Read more classic books, poems, novels, etc
Watch the classic movies
Ride in a paddle boat
Have a food fight!
Get a professional massage
Climb a mountain
Kiss in the rain
Get my palm/tarot cards/future read
Drink Guinness in Dublin
Make a movie
Make a documentary film
Make another movie
Make another documentary film
Swim in the fountain at UMD
Write for a professional Web site


Places I want to go
Visit Israel
Visit Egypt
Visit Italy: Rome, Venice, Leaning Tower of Piza, Milan, Florence
Visit France: Paris
Visit Spain:
Visit Japan, Thailand,
Visit Australia: Great Barrier Reef, Sydney Opera House
Visit Greece
Visit more of the US: Hawaii, California (Hollywood/LA, So Cal, San Fran, San Diego, Napa), Mount Rushmore, Las Vegas, Alaska,
Visit Ireland
Visit Hungary
Visit Turkey
Visit Russia
Visit India


Things I want to see
See the Statue of Liberty
See the great works of art
See concentration camps
See the pyramids and sphinx
See the Grand Canyon
See Yellowstone
See the Great Wall of China
See the Taj Mahal
See the Eiffel Tower
Visit Ground Zero
Visit the Wailing Wall


You might wonder why some things are on my list and other things are not. It’s all relative though… what excites me, might not interest you. But, if you read my blog and think of something I might like and should add to my list, I would love new suggestions. Just please don’t suggest “sing karaoke,” or “run a marathon.” For me, singing is meant for the shower and the car… and I only run when chased.

Just Do Something... Aim for the Sky

Every one has a goal in life, something they must do before they leave this planet forever. I know that sounds like a generalization, but if it wasn’t true, why would we all keep trucking along through the day-to-day monotony?

Some people have small goals, like try Thai food. Other people have big goals, like get married and have a family (yes I think that is a big goal, even though it is a societal norm). But overall, everyone has hopes, dreams, and goals.

Did you ever see the movie “The Bucket List?” I didn’t. But I know the general plot is that two old men start doing all the things they want to do before they “kick the bucket” a.k.a die.

I liked this idea… but with a positive spin on it.

I decided to start doing all the things I want to do while I’m alive. From that idea, grew my “Life List.”

But before I tell you about my list, let me tell you a little bit about myself. (I’ll keep it as short as a wordy person like me can manage.)

I’m adventurous but cautious. I’m spontaneous but I write lists all the time. Crossing things off my list gives me a thrill similar to jumping out of a plane (And trust me I would know… but more on that later). I love to exaggerate but I’ve been taught to tell the truth… that’s what you get when your father’s motto is “Everything is made better with exaggeration,” but you’ve had 4 years of “journalistic integrity” shoved down your throat at school. I love writing with ellipses…, (parenthesis), and emoticons :-). I’m a lover and a fighter, but whatever I do, I do with passion. And I love to DO things.

So I wrote down all the things I want to do in my life… and I am continually adding to it because, hell, I was only 20 when I made my list. How was I supposed to know EVERYTHING I want to do in life? I think it is important to have goals and to have things to look forward to… it keeps the humdrum out of life. By doing new and exciting things, it adds a little spice to my life. And I get through each day by planning and dreaming of those new things.

Some of my goals are short term things that I can complete in one day. Some things will take me years to accomplish. Other items on my list may take me my whole life to do. But my goal is to cross off at least 2 things on my list each year.

In this blog, I plan to back-track through the things I have already done and tell you about my experiences. Then, I’ll write about the next thing I’m planning to do and write again once I’ve done it.

I hope this blog will allow me flex my little-used, semi-creative writing skills (I work in local news and it is not the best place for creative, personal writing). This will also be a personal memoir so I can remember all the cool things I’ve done in my life… and I hope it inspires you to get out there and just DO something... Aim for the sky.


PS – My next entry will showcase The Life List so stay tuned.