Kayaking Skills

I think one of the benefits of dating is that even though you've broken up with someone, he's hopefully left you with some new skill or interest or opportunity. That's how I got into running, and with my last boyfriend, I have found an interest in kayaking. Although he didn't teach me how to do it, his roommate Camine has become a good friend of mine and is teaching Britta and I how to roll. It's hard, but a fun challenge. After three lessons, I can roll on my own about half the time. The other half, I end up using the bottom of the pool as leverage to get me up or Camine has to jump on top of my boat and pull me.
The basic steps are: first, tip over with your hands firmly on your oar.


Second, put your hands in position one which is parallel to your boat with your hands touching the side of the boat and extending high above the water.









Third is to then move your hands into position 2. This is where I get thrown off. See how my right arm is up and over the boat like that and my left arm is reaching up above the water? Well, it's not as easy as it looks because as soon as you begin moving into that position, your paddle starts sinking into the water. If you don't move on to step four immediately, you end up pushing your paddle off the bottom of the pool to try to get up, and that's sooooo not cool.

This is position four. It's more of a snap of the hips that brings you out of the water while your oar gives you just enough leverage to get you up. The head should be the last thing to come up or it will throw you off balance and right back into the water.

So, there's your lesson in kayaking. Piece o' cake, eh?

Summer Soltice

I have the best girlfriends. Very few guys would come out to an event of this nature without mocking it the whole time. It was a Summer Soltice potluck picnic at a beautiful home in Bountiful. The evening included a meditation exercise, and then we wrote our dreams and goals on scrolls and put them into the fire so as to send our intentions out to the universe. Granted, I've done these rituals before and can't say that anything life changing has come of it, but one can always try, try again.

Tanya, Camine, Georgia, Britta and I had such a fun evening together. These are the cream of the crop gals I tell ya.
Tanya showing off her raffle ticket winnings...a free 2 night's stay at a fancy hotel in a fancy location. Woohoo! Take me!

Chris was the only guy I knew there. I'm sure he only came to watch Emily, his beautiful hippy girlfriend, sing and play the guitar. There's no way I could have convinced him to come to something like this! Good job, Emily!