Thursday, November 17, 2011

Fear...in the form of a fin

One of my biggest fears when I was little girl were sharks. Great.Big.White.Ones. And it's all thanks to one movie. Jaws. I used to love to take baths and one thing I would sometimes do is swim underwater like a mermaid. Since I was in a bathtub it was more like thrash around, spilling water over the sides and making the floor a hazardous zone for anyone who tried to come in a stop me. After I saw that movie, I would go underwater but the very idea that a shark could somehow end up in the tub with me terrified me right up to the surface. I was a mermaid no longer.
One time while we were visiting some of our family in Wisconsin, we decided to spend the day at the lake. Apparently I was more traumatized than I thought because as we were walking along the narrow wooden pier towards the water, I found myself slowing down more and more. The next thing I remember is clinging to a dock post and refusing to go any closer to the water. I'm serious...no I'm Sirius hahah ....... sorry. Anyway, all my family wanted to do was look out at the view and possibly dangle a few lower extremitites in the water but I would not budge. I clung to that pole for dear life and would not let go until we were heading back to land. True story.

Please don't get me wrong, now that I'm older, wiser and more vulnerable, Jaws is one of my top all time favorite movies. I literally watch in once a week. Why? Because first of all, I love to be scared and I love scary movies. Second of all, I found the subject of my terror fascinating.

The very idea of this is insane. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it.


Best week of the year? Shark week, followed very closely by General Conference. Very closely. I love learning about these fascinating animals. Great Whites especially. I think they're beautiful, I think that they need to be protected and respected.
A couple years ago, I was swimming in a lake with some friends and for some reason I decided to pretend a shark was chasing me and I high tailed it to the shore. Why do I do these things to myself? Practice in case it ever happens? Better safe than sorry? You can never be too prepared?

Here are some the my favorite shark links: Beware, they're terrifyingly awesome.

link 1

link 2
I like this one, it's like you can hear the shark saying, waaaaaasssss sssssuuupppp?

link 3

link 4

I heard somewhere through the grapevine that there has been a couple instances where dolphins have assisted people who are being attacked. Anybody else heard that? They distract the shark to help the person get away.

Something I want to do before I die, and maybe I'll force myself to do it since I just recorded it on to my blog, is cage dive with Whites. Ugh how terrifying and thrilling. I would love to do it though, confront my fear and probably pee my pants...or err wetsuit.
However, accomplishing the above goal is a bit of a problem for me since I won't get into the ocean. My family and I were in San Diego two summers ago and of course we went to the beach. My mom (traitor) and two of my brothers dragged me into the water and trust me I was screaming. I surprised nobody thought I was being murdered and offered assistance. I lasted in the waist deep water about 11 mins. Both my mom and I felt something brush our legs and we high tailed it out of there.When Mr. P and I went to Mexico for our honeymoon I was happy to enjoy the water from the beach but I did learn to scuba dive in the hotel pool!

I know you guys probably think that's extreme but it's actually quite manageable. I'm thinking about joining a support group... Meh who are we kidding? One New Year's resolution at a time.

Anybody else scared of sharks? Or anything else for that matter?












Friday, November 11, 2011

love and embarrassing pictures

Who would have thought a girl from Indiana and a boy from Pennsylvania would have ended up together? I'm amazed everyday that I was lucky enough to find him and that he found me.