I wrote this up back in July and then caught Covid (outdoors of all places!) and never got around to editing it or posting it. (Note: I’m still not bothering to edit it, but I skimmed it and it seemed to make sense.)
1) Roller Skating
As part of my on-going quest to not act my age, I decided I needed roller skates. Given how ADHD leads to hoping from one hobby to another too often, Husband sanely recommended I do some research and wait a few weeks to decide if the urge passed. I did. It didn't. We ordered these (https://www.skatepro.com/en-us/61-28503.htm). They're so pretty.
It's been a week with them and I've learned I should wear my pads all the time. Especially if I plan to go longer distances because once I get tired, I'm more prone to falling. Luckily, I have a lot of experience at falling because of years of martial arts and even more years of being a massive klutz.
My maternal role model for adulthood was a bit older than the other kids' moms and she also had a host of anxieties about various activities. She did try skating with us as little kids, but she was a wall-hugger. Her fear of falling was perhaps reasonable for her age at the time. Or maybe I'm just lacking the frontal lobe development I'm supposed to have in my mid-40s?
I like to think of it as balance. I didn't immediately go find a vert ramp. I've been practicing the basics and adding in skills practice for new skills and small tricks.
2) Snorkeling
We tried to go snorkeling over the holiday weekend, but the ocean was not cooperating. The ocean, which is normally pretty flat here, was all churned up like a washing machine full of sargasum . That's the third time we've tried the JAX reef this year. (It’s marked by a small pole labeled JAX.) The first time, a storm rolled in on top of us almost as soon as we got there. We got out long enough to see a nurse shark before we had to pack it in and head back to the car. The second time, the current was so strong, he didn't want to fight it to get out. I did, but the current had stirred up a lot of silt at the bottom, so it wasn't very clear. Saw some evidence of the natural reef around the Erojacks (giant concrete artificial reef pieces that resemble the kids game), though, so that was cool. Years ago, Dania and Hollywood Beaches dredged up some sand to renourish their beaches and it suffocated a lot of the reef. Nice to see some larger corals returning.
If you ever have a chance to snorkel, take it. You can get pretty good masks now from places like Amazon. (I have historically had the hardest time finding a mask that creates a good seal because I have a tiny face and too much hair. Back in my 20s, we could stand around a dive shop for hours while I tried to find the right fit for gear and end up paying a lot. I finally found good fins about 5-10 years ago after at least a decade of trying things on sale, things that were "supposed to be good" (as voiced by a dude twice my size), or were really meant for diving or water aerobics or who knows what.
Ironically, despite years in my youth of eschewing pink, I've ended up with a whole pink setup (snorkel, fins, that weird pad for your mask strap to keep it from getting tangled in hair) because my favored turquoise color doesn't really stand out enough in tropical waters. I even have a hot pink bikini now so it looks like I think I'm at a fashion shoot instead of heading out to look for cool marine animals.
3) Flora
On our snorkeling fail trip, I got deeply obsessed with using the iNaturalist app to identify every plant we came across that I didn't know for sure. I'm not sure what the people in the car behind us thought of the woman hanging out of the passenger window snapping pictures of everything on the side of the road while we waited to enter the state park, but I really don't care. I found some fascinating discoveries, including accidentally finding a cool moth cocoon and verifying I did know several of the things I thought I did.
4) Who Cares
That's been my big takeaway lately: I don't really care what other people think. I spent way too much of my youth and young adulthood worrying about how people would see me. Part of this was instilled from my mother, who was deeply concerned with how she was seen in our small town. Part of it was residual shame from being bullied as a teen and people's reactions to my ADHD symptoms that I didn't know were ADHD at the time.
In my 20s, falling down in front of a group of people on my Rollerblades (yes, it was the 90s), I'd have put them away and never touched them again out of shame. Falling off roller skates in my mid-40s? Laughing my ass off as I hop up and try whatever I was doing again.
People thinking I'm weird? Don't give a damn.
Do I still wonder what other people are thinking? Yeah, it's part habit and probably part "writer brain" of wondering what other people are thinking and doing in general. Do I actually give a damn? Absolutely not.
5) Habit
Like the president of my Sisters in Crime chapter, I've been trying to get back into a more regular writing habit. She put me onto 750 words on Tuesday night at our meeting. So far, I'm 3-for-3 on getting it done. A streak!
If you need an alternative to "morning pages," a less-angry version of the old Write or Die, or just like apps that track your streaks, check it out.
I love the color of those skates.
It's been years since I've snorkeled but I've always loved it when I do. When I was a kid I wanted to be part of Jacques Cousteau's team ... that never worked out for me.
Welcome to the wonderful world of not caring. It's lovely here. I miss snorkeling. The water here isn't clear enough. People go wreck diving, but I know a pro who died doing it, so I'm never going myself.