Surfing is akin to Meditation

I'm happy. I go surf.
I'm confused. I go surf.
I'm bored. I go surf.
I'm pissed. I go surf.

In almost all cases, no matter what my mood and mindset was before going to surf, I come out of the water feeling refreshed, energized, and yet mellow all at the same time. In my head I sometimes hear a cheesy line my D.A.R.E teacher used to say: "I'm high on life!" It makes me smile to think of how lame that line is, yet how true it can be after a good surf session.

A good surf session. Good is the key word in that sentence, because after a poor surf session I feel the opposite of zen - frustrated. It's probably the same feeling guys get when they get blue balls from a tease that won't give them any play. You go in expecting a great time, only to get refused the whole time. What a gyp!

I liked how one guy said in his blog that when you are a surf addict you often feel a "Loss of sexual motivation: you are tired and you do not want to spend your energy in other 'sports'." Haha! However, he then says "What is your problem men?" Come on guys, how can you forget about all us surfer girls out in the water too?? I guess his surf addiction is so strong that he doesn't even notice all the cute surfer chicks in their bikini's, paddling right in front of him. :)

"Hi, Farty!"

Alright, time to add my own story to the thousands of "How I made a fool of myself on a conference call" stories.

Time: 10 am.
Place: My house.
What: I dialed in to a conference call for my work. There were about 10 people on the phone. I was the only woman on the call. As usual, we all took turns announcing our presence on the call. As usual, I said "This is Janie, I'm here." As usual, I then put my phone on mute so I would only listen for the rest of the call. Or So I thought! Instead, I forgot to my phone on mute. My roommate's cat then walked into my room, and I made obnoxiously loud kissing sounds at it and then said in a falsetto voice, "Hi, Farty!!". Suddenly the speaker on the call went silent in the middle of his sentence and I thought, "Uh oh...why did they get quiet right after I said that? I hope it wasn't because I'm not muted!"

I checked my phone. I was NOT muted. Everyone heard me make slopping kissing sounds to someone I called "Farty". Remember, I'm the only woman on the call, it was obvious I was Farty's kisser.

After an awkward silence, the speaker said "Uhh....yeah....." and continued.

Thank god it wasn't a video conference, otherwise everyone would have seen me turn bright red.

Surfing and Sunscreen

I just got out of the water, and it was amazingly warm! This was the first day of the year that I was able to go surfing with just a swimsuit, not even a wet-top! Nothing clears my mind and centers me like surfing. It's so "zen" out there, the happiness I feel after a good surf session equals the feeling I get after meditating for a long time. And surfing is a lot more fun than meditating. ;)

Soooo, one of my pet peeves is "waterproof" sunscreen that is NOT waterproof, only water resistant. I tried out a lot of the major sunscreen brands that were labeled as waterproof, only to be frustrated when the sunscreen dripped into my eyes, making it hard to see and less enjoyable to be surfing. Here's my top 3 favorite active-watersport sunscreens:

1. Bullfrog: There's many different types of Bullfrog sunscreen, all the one's I've tried are good. Use this on your face. As always, the higher SPF the better. This is VERY different from most sunscreens - instead of being a cream, this sunscreen is based in alcohol. When you put it on your face (hold your breath!) it dries within seconds. This is great when you're going in the water right away.
*Update: I just learned that there is a special Bullfrog sunscreen for surfers! It's called "Bull Frog Sunblock Surfer Formula" and it supposedly stays on longer than the normal Bullfrog. Can't wait to try it out!

2. Coppertone UltraGUARD, which provides both UB and UBA protection. (anti-burn and anti-aging)

3. Coppertone sunscreen for babies. The sunscreen doesn't stay on as well as Bullfrog, but I can't feel it when it gets in my eyes because it's "sting free".

Enjoy!

Chin up

Keep your chin up. Think positive. Hope for the best.

Easy to say, not so easy to do. I was playing Mario SuperBrothers on my boyfriend's Wii this past week, and it made me realize that it's a lot like life. You've got all sorts of obstacles to overcome, enemies/problems to defeat, and when you finally make it (beat the level) you move on to yet another level. You can't even stand still. If you do, eventually you're time runs out and you die. Some obstacles are easy, some are really tough. Even when you beat the whole game and you think "Ah-ha! I've done it! I win, I'm finished!" the game restarts - your new challenge is to play the whole game again, except that all the Goomba's (the easiest enemies) have been transformed into Beetles (harder to defeat).

That's how I feel about life. It feels like everytime I get through one problem or one hard time, there's another one lined up. Think positive, right? I admit it helps to do so, but it saps my energy to keep telling myself, "It's ok, you're fine, you'll make it through this like all the rest....." I can't help but hear the little voices in my head follow up with "..because you have to. You have no choice. And there'll be something else right after this one." Would most people in the US say they were happy? At least content with life? I can't help but think that that does not reflect the true nature of our lives, instead the natural instinct to survive is intrinsic - most of us are born with a zest for life because we need it to survive.

Then again, 7 out of 17 people just got laid-off in my group at Sun Microsystems, and it definitely made me depressed for the last week. This was one of the bigger obstacles, what's coming tomorrow?

San Francisco 2008

2 weeks ago, I went to San Francisco with my best friends to celebrate on of their birthday's. It was a BLAST! My friend's birthday was on June 27 (Friday), so I took a vacation day and we went that weekend. We stayed in Hotel Palomar on Market street which turned out to be awesome, because it just happened to be the weekend that the Gay Pride parade was going on! What a trip. :)

One thing I've always loved about San Francisco is the extremist types of people who are there. Take "Mr.Cult" in the picture above as an example. When I got off the BART for the first time during the trip, I was energetically greeted by the ski-mask clad guy in the picture above. I loved it! These people entertain me to no end. I've been taking marketing classes at UCSD for a few years now, and THESE people in San Francisco know marketing! They have a message they are trying to spread, and instead of handing out dull flyers on the street (*coughBerkeleycough*) they know they'll get more attention if they dress up, come up with wild antics, etc. Job well done!