Passion

People say that you should follow your passion and good things will come. That you should do what you love for work and your life will be better.

I have found by watching others that if you do what you love for work you may end up hating it. There has to be other passions that don’t have to do with work. We all need things that refresh us.

For me surfing and belly dancing are just those. They build me up and they help me face the rest of what I have to do. Even though I work with a dear friend and I have a great time at my job, it’s still good to get outside and smell the salt air. To swim and have time to myself. If others did that they might feel better as well.

It is not good to stay in all the time and you can’t expect your friends to entertain you when all you want to do is sit and get drunk. It’s not a good thing to expect your mate or good friends to only be there to keep you from being bored. I work hard to have the kind of life that is fun to read about and just as fun to live and write about.

If I didn’t work hard at that I would be boring. Since I am not having kids my passion is my writing and what I want to leave behind in this world. For my readers, I have to get out there and live my life. Not because I have someone in my life, but just being me. On my own I should be interesting. If not what good am I?

Here’s to my passion of writing, one that I will follow till my hands can’t type anymore!

Fall So Cal Style

In other areas in the country there is a bigger difference in seasons than here in So Cal. With that said here it is October and I am still in short skirts and sandals.

Last Sunday at the beach and it was our version of fall. It was really cold and even the sand was cold. I really needed my booties but I forget them. Needless to say I wasn’t able to stay out very long, since my feet and hands started to go numb.

It was very clear and the winds had made it especially pretty. Looking toward Long Beach and then towards the Balboa Peninsula was breath taking.

The rest of the week had been marked by highs and lows. With the high winds, this makes for hard decisions on what to wear. As we try to be comfortable, we find the need to keep sweaters and t-shirts both handy. I just put flannel sheets on my bed and by Wednesday I wished I had not.

For me another mark of fall is the constant need to use a decongestant. If I don’t I can’t breathe. I also can’t exercise too much since that will result in a sinus infection and I will be sick for about two weeks and I just don’t have time to be sick for that long.

As for the surf it should be picking up and the winter can be so great around here. I am looking forward to that and more days of cooler weather. Sure we don’t have falling leaves, well maybe on one side of the yard. We do have the hot dry Santa Ana’s and we still get to go to the beach all year long.

As the days get shorter and we have to wear hoodies rather than just t-shirts, well that is fall and winter for us. Beats shoveling snow any day.

Restless

The last few weeks I have been off my game. I went to a writer’s conference and was too tired and needed all my attention to be on my writing. It was great and I was able to meet other writers, some of them fellow surfers and on fellow belly dancer.

Last week I wasn’t feeling good and didn’t get out on Sunday. Of course the weekend I didn’t go out and it was going off in Huntington! These are not excuses but the reasons I was not out. After all that and a fender bender that has my beetle in the body shop, I can say I am really getting restless.

I need to feel the water around my hands and my feet in the cold water. I need to get back out there. Yes I am going tomorrow, so I don’t have to whine too much. I don’t even care if the waves are bad or small and it doesn’t seem like the next few days will be great but I am still going out on Friday and Sunday.

My friends that surf always want me to go with them and they keep asking me when I go out so they can join me. I really am reluctant to give up the time I have alone to be with them. I know it’s selfish, but I have to have time when I am not doing things for others and not entertaining people.

In my normal day I don’t have to talk all the time and I get time to write, like right now. I do have to run around and do things for my boss and good friend. I cook and clean the house and take care of my dogs. Even to get some time at home by myself takes effort. I have to send the dogs outside and make sure other things are done before I can just pull out a book and read alone.

The time I have alone is so valuable to me I really fight for it tooth and nail. It’s such a good thing I don’t have kids. It would be lonely for them to have a mom that needs to be alone before dealing with them.

For all my complaining right now, I know it’s just that I’m restless and I need to get out there. I will feel so much better after I go into the water. :-)

Keeping going out there

In the time I have gone back to surfing sometimes I feel like I am making such slow progress. It’s true that is the perfectionist in me. I have never been that great at sports. Not that I am going to give up, I just have to look for the little things that help give me the strength to keep going back out there.

The surfers are talk to me more and more. I am sure they didn’t expect to see me past Labor Day weekend. The ocean doesn’t judge me and if my belly dancing has taught me anything is not to care what others think of you.

I still get so excited to get my board down and strap it to the rack on my car. I love the smell of the ocean as I drive down the hill into New Port. I was about to pick out a street corner in a fellow writer’s work, it was PCH and Main in Huntington. I could tell by the ocean placement and the coffee shop he mentioned, that you can see across the street. He is also a surfer.

In the water I let the other surfers know I will stay out of the way and I keep my word. Taking out my board gets easier and easier. I still know the dips in the sand on my way out to the lineup. My paddling is stronger.

Now that I am listing these things I feel much better about it than I did when I started this blog! I guess have I no reason to complain and every reason to get back out there….I can’t wait now!