Adventure Bowl Take a Surfing Lesson, Part 2

When we last left off, I had fear swirling all around me about this adventure.  It's funny how that happens... fears creep up behind us and quickly zap all the joy and excitement we were initially feeling about an experience.

My lesson was for 3pm that day and the fear starting building that morning.  A lot of it stemmed from risking the loss of safety.  When I was 19, I panicked in the ocean and had to be dragged in by my best friend.  This was a feeling I NEVER experienced my whole life.  I was a certified life guard, grew up by the ocean.  Since that time, I have had 2 or 3 other big panic attacks in water over my head.  

But there was more to it than that.  More to the fear.  Every since I fell and broken/dislocated my shoulder, it's very hard for me to give up control.  To think about putting myself in a situation that I cannot control.  It's hard to explain - it's two pronged really - 1)  Fear of hurting myself or putting myself in danger where I cannot control the outcome and 2) The fact that my body is still weak in the shoulder area post surgery makes me hard for me to rely on my strength for things.

Another factor was just ego.  Was I willing to look like a fool?  Knowing I had less strength to work with, how would I feel about not being able to pop up on the board?  Or swim against the tide with the weight of a board under me?

I don't know why I feel shame about my own strength.  Even thinking about it makes me cry.  I hate that this accident has held me back in so many ways and has taken so long to get over.  The past few months, I have pushed myself to take gym classes that push me -- but it's embarrassing to not have the upper arm strength to do a push up (granted, they are push ups with our legs suspended in air - it's a crazy class).

I guess I feel... it's hard for me to be vulnerable in my own weakness.  I hate explaining:  Hey, I might look like a fool doing this, please don't make fun of me.  I just can't physically do some stuff.

I don't want to be less than.  So then I wonder, WHY AM I PUTTING MYSELF IN THIS POSITION???  Why am I even doing this stupid adventure if it's just going to make me feel bad?  

Then the reprieve:  My great aunt called.  The one who lost her husband recently.  Would I come over for lunch and spend time with my ailing grandmother.  Why, yes!  Yes I would!  It was 1pm.  This just might be the perfect thing to get me out of my surf lesson.  And I'd come out smelling like a rose - giving up my big time fun surfing adventure to spend time with the ill and the elderly?  What a good person I was!

Off I went to lunch with my great aunt and grandmother.   

And I was shocked by how what I saw there... would completely change me...

My grandmother is failing in her health.  That much I knew.  But I was surprised when I arrived at the elderly care facility that she stays in, that she could not walk unassisted.  And I don't mean just a hand on her elbow to guide her, I mean, she needs two people nearly taking on all her weight to get her from the couch to her bed.

And even with this help, all she can talk about it how afraid she is.  She doesn't want to walk.  She can't do it.  She looks lonely and isolated.  My mother's take on it is that the more my grandmother has let the fear creep into her that she will fall and hurt herself, the less she has walked, the more muscle mass she has lost, the weaker she has become.

Our minds, they play tricks.

Watching her -  and I realize this might be a very selfish reaction - but all I could think about was how grateful I am, to have my arms and my legs.  To be able to move, to be able to get better - to be able to surf though I might not be able to do it well.

I started to feel, almost a panic feeling, that's just how badly I wanted to get out of there and get on a surf board, as if doing that would wash away all the "ungratitude" I had for the use of my body.   

I was late for my lesson.   To them, it was as easy as just rescheduling.  To me, I had to do it, THAT DAY.  Today, right, now, I had to get up on that board.  I thought if I started to explain why, it would all come out so crazily, I might even cry.  I left and called a friend.  I knew he had the gear and could get me in the water. 

And soon, there we were, out there.  And I was right about a few things.  Yes, my injury got in the way.  My right arm does not have the strength to paddle me out very far - it just does not have it's full rotation yet.  So turning myself around and paddling faster than a wave in order to get me up - THAT WAS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  

But instead of making me feel bad... it made me laugh.  Maybe it was giddiness... yeah, I'm not strong enough to do this NOW but I can get stronger.  I have all of that in my reach.  I just have to work harder for it.   

The other stuff, the other fears and insecurities fell away...  no, it was not the perfect adventure.  It was very IMperfect.  Just like me.  I flailed and looked silly and felt my weakness but I felt strong of heart.  Strong with boldness that I got out there.

And I was really proud of that.

Is there an adventure you would like to do but worry about physical limitations?  Or maybe you have a fear you need to overcome.  I'd love to hear it.  As much as my adventure was "imperfect," it felt really great just to try.

***

Adventure Bowl
Take a Surfing Lesson, Part 2

My dreams are to help people in a profound way, get over fears that hold me back in life, to be happy, to never be depressed again, to love more openly and with less fear, to see more of the world, to be a really good auntie and to wake up each day with an understanding that I should be living life to the fullest.

(PS Thank you for the lovely comments on the post below.  I will continue to post updates.  It's quite a story :)

***

Adventure Bowl Learn How To Surf (But... It's Freezing!!!)

But it's Winter!  I have thin blood!  And I put this Adventure in the Bowl when I lived in perpetually sunny, "freakishly almost 80 degrees every day" L.A.  Now I live in New York City!  In fact, I can't even find a photo of winter surfing to go with this post!  

(Do you see the rampant use of explanation points?!  It's BECAUSE I AM IN DISBELIEF/GIDDY/EXCITED/A LITTLE FREAKED OUT/I THINK THIS WILL BE A LIFETIME MEMORY...SO THAT MIGHT BE AWESOME)

HELP!!!!!!!!!  LOL!

Well, first rule of Adventure Bowl is "no backing out, no excuses" so stay tuned for how I am going to figure out how to take surf lessons in the freezing cold!

What am I getting myself into?!

UPDATE #1  (Friday afternoon)

I found a place to winter surf!  Time to plan the road trip!  

UPDATE #2  (Saturday early afternoon)

So here I am in New England with not only a free place to stay but a friend who will drive me and my pups back to New York City.  I am a lucky, lucky girl.

The only problem is, I am scared, really scared to do this adventure.  Here are some of the things I'm feeling:

1)  Since I fell and broke my shoulder I have no upper body strength.  What if I can't paddle out?  Or pull myself up?  Or carry a board for that matter?

2)  I have this overwhelming need to be good at what I do.  I am not going to be good at this.  It's hard for me to be vulnerable in front of someone I don't know (instructor).  It's hard for me to be patient or easy on myself.

3)  Is this a bad time to mention I have a fear of the ocean?  I have spoken about it in many posts.  I did great with the jet ski adventure but this is different.  I've had to be rescued 3 times that I can remember since I was 19.  And I was trained as a life guard and spent my life, up until then, swimming in the ocean.

4)  Fear, fear, fear.  Lack of control.  And yes, I find this very ironic as I just wrote a post about fear.

Sitting with all this...

*****

Adventure Bowl
Learn How To Surf (But... It's Freezing!!!)

What's Fear Got To Do With It?

I have started to notice that I have been getting over fears a lot easier than I ever have.  It might be because moving to NYC was one of my biggest fears and perhaps, seeing that fear went away once I did the "doing" of moving there - I am coming to a bigger revelation that I have spent a lot of time whipping myself into a negative frenzy and then sitting in a stew of fear - rather than taking chances.

I spend so much time anticipating what will go wrong that I can dismantle a dream, like a bomb, in under :30 seconds or less.  Being negative or assuming something won't work means that I don't have to make a move.  I can stay happy (not happy) in my inertia.

What I used to do with fear is just push it aside.  (And I'm not saying I am completely recovered!  I'm just going to talk about what works for me, now.)  I would distract myself with TV, going out with friends, the internet, anything -- so I did not have to face fear.

I have always, ALWAYS been a journal writer but when I start to get afraid, I will abandon it.  It becomes too scary to face my feelings.  Though with the decision to move to NYC, I'm surprised looking back how deeply honest I am with my unhappiness in LA.

I feel like connecting with myself and writing that down made me come face to face with having to make a decision -- I could no longer push the feelings aside and be immobile.

When I got to NYC, I met a girl who worked on the same floor as me.  I liked her right away because she embodied my idea of a young, single woman in NYC.  Fun, upbeat and funky, she was running her own clothing design business out of her own showroom.

Seeing her so happy, especially being new to a city, I really started to gravitate to her.  But it was a month later when I started to see that she was paralyzed by her own fears regarding her business.  She had just moved to this new showroom and she now had a tremendous overhead.  I found her stopping by my place often or admitting she had wasted hours on the internet.

Fear.

I saw myself.

When the fear engulfs you and soon, you are making bad decisions or no decisions.  What I noticed is I became very much in the mode of Mama Bear with her.  I often did not know how to fix my own fears or give myself the pep talks I needed.

But what I could not do for myself, I could do for her.

I said I thought she was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of decisions she had to make.   What if we started having a weekly meeting and named every goal we wanted to get done for the week, named what day we would hit that goal and then printed the list so we each had it.  Then we could check in with each other every day and root each other on.

It worked.  When she was too scared to call a manufacturer about taking on making some of her items to free her up to design, I said I would do it for her.  She thought it over, "That's okay, I can do it myself."  We nudged each other.  Had I been doing my creative writing like I said I would -- even though it was for passion and not pay?  Yes I did.

Was I contacting all the companies I said I would for freelance work so I could then pay for my passion of writing just for love.  Soon, with her encouragement, yes.  All of a sudden, it didn't seem so overwhelming.   I had three or four goals to hit every day.  Breaking down in small pieces how to accomplish something makes it so much more manageable.

Pretty soon, I was determined to have days marked off for creative wring in the City.  An adventure.  A new coffee shop, a new side of me to explore.  T was finally making that call to Beyonce's stylist and took the big meeting with the manufacturer (with me going along for support).

We both can't believe what we have gotten done.  

I think the best part is every time she or I are giving the other a pep talk -- it's really the pep talk we would give ourselves.  When I am rooting her on, I feel so energized -- if I am trying to get her to believe in herself, why would I do any less for myself?

We are two new friends that now meet every week to set goals for our lives.  I think this can work with any facet of life.  Two friends outlining a fitness goal, a life goal, a business goal.  We are no more than a support team for each other.

But the key has been writing things down - small goals AND follow through.  And I promise, if you start doing the follow through, you will say, "That wasn't so bad!  Now I'm not so afraid to do the next thing on my list!"  And you become stronger and stronger.

I think the other thing that helps me is now I am promising myself that when I feel fear, I will JOURNAL about it.  I am reading back on a year ago this time about how happy I am in LA and I wish that I would chuck the fear and move to NYC.  Other years, I pushed away from these feelings - last year, the more I named everything I did not like about LA, well, the only course was action.

So maybe you have a goal.  Maybe it's a goal that feels like it could be a year away or maybe there is something you could change now.  I would say #1 - get a journal, open up your heart, be vulnerable, be honest.  Yes, it might make you cry and this will be uncomfortable.  But what I found was - I was already unhappy - what was a little discomfort?  Especially if it got me to a better place.

In my case it did.  (Not that NYC has been without it's challenges, because has it ever!)  But reading my old journal entries keeps in perspective, I am much happier now.

So my advice:  Name the goal.  Start working on a few small things you can do a day to get to that goal.   If you are having uncomfortable feelings about this goal, if it is making you feel fearful - start to journal your feelings.  This gives fear less power and YOU more power.  Enlist a friend for her support - even if her goals are different, it feels great to have a cheerleader.  And you will feel great cheering her on, too.

Let me know if I can answer any questions.  And I would love to know - what are your fears or if that is too personal, when you have fears, what strategies do you use to get over them?  

Girl Power!  xoxoxo

*****

What's Fear Got To Do With It?

I Am Right Here

UPDATE:  Sorry every one!  I have been so busy but in a good way!  Starting to overcome my fears lead to some great strides this week.  I want to tell you all about it and how I did it.  I will post soon!)

This picture, it describes it all.  Exactly where I am.  I want to write a post about getting past your fears to go after something you are afraid of.

Fear.  It stops us all.

Two of my good friends and I have been letting fear hold us back.  This week - all THREE of us had breakthroughs, threw aside the fear, went for it, got results.  So I really want to write about what we did to get it done.  Maybe it will help you or a friend of yours.

I have quite a huge deadline tomorrow but I will put up a post tomorrow!

xoxo

PS, to anyone who left me a comment on my last post, THANK YOU so much!  I just finished responding to all the comments!

****

I Am Right Here

So Whatever Happened to That Guy I Found On Craigslist?

Okay, so a lot of you asked, “What’s going on with your dating life?”  I know there’s a big gap in these entries.  In one, I talked about pulling out an adventure one week, the adventure of Asking A Guy Out On A Date.  When I just couldn’t quite get the nerve up to do it and time was running out, naturally, I just--

Put an ad up for him on Craigslist.  LOL.  And it worked.  We set a date to go out to a bar near me.  We exchanged pictures and I thought he was very cute.  I was a wreck getting ready… I mean, I haven’t really done the whole “blind date” thing in a really long time.  What do I wear?  On the one hand, you want to dress for you and what makes you confident.  On the other hand, yeah, I wanna look cute for him, too.

I wore a really fun, colorful t-shirt, a black lace cardigan which dressed it up and wore jeans and way sexy shoes.   I can’t tell you how nervous I was waiting for him.  It just seemed too good to be true that this would work out in ANY WAY.

Then he walked in, he waved and I was glad he knew it was me right away.  A lot of my guy friends talk about how they hate when girls misrepresent themselves in photos.  (Um, PS, Guys, we hate when you do that, too.)   His hair was longer than his photos, I’m just going to break it down, it was kooky hair but I loved it.  Kind of mop top curly.  And he had beautiful blue eyes and a nice smile.  Tall, I liked that too.  Smelled good, more points.

I was super nervous, but the vodka soda with a splash of cranberry was easing that.  And when I get buzzed I get very chatty but since he was shy, I think it worked out.  There was a peck on the cheek on that date and a lot of hugging.  It was very sweet and soon after he asked me out again, and again and again.  In fact, we went on six dates.

He spent time at my place playing with the dogs, we took them on long walks and held hands, we ordered dinner in and went out for dinners, too.   But my red flag was kind of going up the more we went out.  I have this type I always go out with and after one of my last relationships, I swore:  never again.

It’s the emotionally distant guy.  The ones with secrets, usually around the family, that won’t talk about anything.  They want to act like life started the day they met you and go from there.  Any “prying” (which is how they see it) into their past, which I think is just normal conversation, the way to get to know someone results in a giant wall being put up.

This concerned me.  I had already been concerned that maybe I was latching onto D because I was new in a city and this made it less lonely.  That is not a good or fair reason to date someone.  But the red flags about this other part really made me put the brakes on the whole thing.  I knew I would just become more and more attached and I knew I would be defying a promise I made myself to NOT date guys like this.   (I will say, if it sounds like I am being vague, there was one secret he was keeping from me which I figured out and it just put a knot in my stomach that he would not talk about it.  But I want to respect his privacy so that’s all I’ll say).

I don’t want to date guys like this because it puts me in my comfort zone.  If he’s not sharing, I don’t have to.  Then we are never really close.  And I can’t get hurt.

So I told him as much as I could without hurting him.  I didn’t think he needed to be deeply critiqued after a half a dozen dates.  I know what I want but that doesn’t make him a bad person or a person that has to change.  I put it all on me.  It was hard.  I even cried because he’s so sweet.  Who wouldn’t want to hang out with a sweet person?

It’s been hard.  He had once asked me when my birthday was.  And magically, on my birthday, a text came from his out of state area code.  (I didn’t know anyone else from here, so it had to be him).  It wished me a great birthday.  I started to cry.  It had been a month since we’d seen each other and he still remembered.  No one else had remembered my birthday at that point in the day so it really made me feel special.

I emailed him back about how much it meant to me.  I was really missing him but didn’t say so.  He emailed back—he was embarrassed because the email wasn’t from him.  (I would later found out it was from my cousin who lived in the same state but HAD never called me, never mind remembered my birthday. 

Now it was time for me to be embarrassed.

He said some really beautiful things in the email.  That he thought I was awesome and so much fun to be around.  And the ball was in my court because he would love to see me again.

I wasn’t sure what to do.  I wondered if I was just missing “someone” but maybe not D.  I didn’t want to hurt someone again.  But I said yes, I would like to see him, as friends, like he suggested.

But soon, he never responded to that email.  I sent another.  He replied.  He was getting really busy at work.  And oh so busy on the weekends.  He wasn’t one to play games.  I just imagined the wall was going up again.  He didn’t want to get hurt just like it was me before, that didn’t want to get hurt.

So there it is.  The lesson though is, I’ll NEVER regret putting that Craigslist ad up and meeting D.  It was one of the (pardon the language) ballsy-est things I’ve done.  I’ve thought of doing it again, hey maybe I just will.  It was nice to laugh with someone, get dressed up for someone and get excited to see them. 

Even if it didn’t work out, I was proud of myself for not falling back into old patterns.  I know I want more and that I deserve more…

So I’m putting “Ask A Guy Out On A Date” back in the Adventure Bowl.  Maybe somewhere near the top so I can pick it really soon!

Also, are there any patterns you're trying to break in dating?  Or that you had to break to find the right guy?  I'd love to know.

******

So Whatever Happened to That Guy I Found On Craigslist?

"Did You Go Back To Bed?" Um, Yeah, I Guess I Kinda Did

Wow, I have not posted in a loooooong time.  What happened there?  Okay, truth:  I have not dealt with anything except rainbows and sunshine of weather living in LA.  Coming to NY mid-October, the weather was BLISS, I literally felt HIGH by this move... like there was extra oxygen in the air.  

I walked around with the biggest, broadest smile you have EVER seen.  I wanted this move to be amazing and is was.  Then, it was just after Thanksgiving and the gloom came.  I'm on a budget so I was nervous about taking an apartment that was kind of low light.  But the point of a tiny apartment is to force you TO GET OUT OF IT, engage in the world.

But soon, with winter setting it, it was bleak in doors and bleak out doors.  My body did NOT know how to react.  I refused to go back to bed... however, I found a loop hole and would bury myself under the bed room covers on the couch, snuggled with two dogs, happy to lose the day with me.

Maybe I was wrong?  Maybe I should not have made this move.  Maybe I should have waited until spring.   Maybe, maybe, maybe...

I could see where this was going and it was NOT going to be good.  It was going to be going back to bed.  F-word.  I can't do that again.   That was horrible.  Depression, friendships hurt, work hurt, body not cute from no exercise...

So, recently, I gave myself a kick in the butt and decided to do three things that would change the sad and sorry state I was in.  #1  I started to monitor the weather for sunny days.  Even if the sun is out and it's 20 degrees, I am the HAPPIEST person in the world.  On those days, I walk in the sunshine to a cafe and work from there.  This might only be two times a week but if I know I have that to look forward to, I feel good.

#2  I forked over a little more money to my gym to take classes.  I noticed in my couch surfing state, I was going less and less.  But maybe if I was paying more, my Catholic Guilt™ would kick in and I would get my lazy butt off the couch.  That worked.  I've taken core suspension classes where we hang from the ceiling and trampoline classes where we bounce like little kids and what's that?  Oh, yeah, that's me smiling in the gym's mirror as I bounce, bounce, bounce.

Endorphins are awesome.

#3  Say yes to everything - any invitation I get, I say yes.  You should see how fast I run out of the house when my old room mate texts, "Bar?"  Not only that, I make my shy little self ASK PEOPLE to do stuff.  (And I am the Queen of Finding Cheap Stuff To Do.)  I will even run errands with people, LOL, just to get out of the apartment and have human interaction.

So I'm trying guys, I really am.  It's not easy, I'm shocked by how uneasy it is.  Oh, here's the 4th thing I do which is another reason I always ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO KEEP A JOURNAL --

I go back in my journal to read my entries from October.  I am so happy, joyous, proud of myself for this move.  The city is magical.  I love it here.  I take the time to stomp threw the leaves just to hear the "crunch, crunch."  I love how NEW everything is.  I can be a new me here and it is awesome.  

When I read that, it gives me so much hope.  "This bad time... it's only temporary."  My Mom, who has lived on the East Coast almost all her life said to me the other day, "You know, sometimes the winter's are so bad, I can never imagine that there will ever be a spring, but there always is."

Wow, okay.  That is the wisest thing I have ever heard.

Just like the dark time I had years ago, the light did come.  But, I had to take action to MAKE IT COME, just like I have to take action now.

I want to apologize for falling off the Earth.  I was dreading coming back because I was ashamed to be such a downer.  But in the comments of the last post, someone asked, "Did you go back to bed?"  Yeah, I kinda did.  But at least it didn't take me 100 days to figure it out.  (And you know that was really over 300 days but that didn't seem like a cool title...).

And maybe this will help someone who is feeling depressed right now.  

Sometimes it's so dark, you never think, the light will come.  But it will.

So, what do you do when you get down to shake yourself out of it?  Or do you have any good ideas to shake off the blues.  I'd love to hear them and I'm sure the readers would too.

Love you guys, thanks for hanging in there with me!  :)

"Did You Go Back To Bed?" Um, Yeah, I Guess I Kinda Did

We Don't Have To Explain Ourselves to Anyone

Awesome Comments becomes Awesome Quotes:  The thing is, it actually is too early to know whether you have made a mistake or not. And you know what? Worse case scenerio and it is, so what? You have still had an adventure.

In your heart of hearts though, you know whatever happens you have done the right thing for you now. And that's all that matters. The little niggly voice in your head is fear of the unknown and we all have that. Only listen to it when you really really have to...

Part One

In a week, I will be another year older.  In life though, I'm still trying to figure it all out... 

Last night I was talking to someone and they made a sarcastic remark... about how I had had an "Epiphany" and left for New York.  I felt my stomach tighten and I felt judged.  I did not have an epiphany!  

Except that I did have an epiphany... of sorts.  But the word or maybe the use of the word... knowing it was subtly being used against me or that I was being made fun of... hurt.  Maybe I have a negative connotation with the word - where it means someone going crazy religious, selling all their wares and roaming ashrams and yoga retreats, looking outwardly to fill their starving soul.  Maybe I thought about when my Mom had her nervous breakdown after my cousin's trial and even in her and excuse my language, bat shit crazy state, still knew to warn us, her kids, not to say she had had ANY sort of epiphany.

(I guess having any kind of epiphanies or religious sightings is on the check list to get you to the head of the line for a 5150 - pronto.)

I think it was more, this phone call, the idea of being made fun of... though in some ways, I doubt I was being made fun of.  I think I might have taken something said, somewhat innocently and blown it out of proportion.  But I've let it sit there and I've let it fester.  And I do feel a bit judged about picking up and moving across country and trying to start my life over but maybe the person REALLY judging me is...

... well... me.

Maybe I'm scared this is all rash and crazy (though, I swear, it does not feel rash and crazy... it feels good and right.)

Maybe I don't like feeling misunderstood.  I lined up the facts, I weighed them... I was unhappy in L.A.  I had a yearning to move to NYC but I ignored it for years.  I had a terrible accident and spent A LOT of time in bed... was it an epiphany?  I don't know.  But I could not ignore the thoughts that kept coming to me.

I am not happy.

I don't like the lifestyle here.

People care too much about money and status.

I miss my family.

I'm only here to make money.  Is that all that is important?

Maybe there are OTHER things I love to do but I am keeping the wall up and ignoring them because I am too scared of change.

I don't know, maybe that was an epiphany.  I guess I have to be okay with that, even if someone seems to be throwing the word in my face with their own sarcastic eye roll.  The person is younger than me.  For them, a place like L.A. holds so much more allure and promise.  I have grown out of that - I thank the accident sometimes because without it, I was on another five year plan to stay there and now I get to START my life over NOW, instead of five years from now.

I can get hung up on defending myself or I can just accept me leaving might look like a whole lot of different things to different people and I have to be okay about not be able to control their interpretation of my move... or life change or... oh, god, epiphany.

We Don't Have To Explain Ourselves to Anyone

Adventure Bowl Join A "Meet-Up"

This Week's ADVENTURE BOWL is "Join A Meet Up." I'm so excited because it's a really perfect thing for a person to do who has just moved to a new city.  Do you know what "Meet Ups" are?  They are fun activities planned around YOUR favorite things to do and they are all listed on Meetup.com.  You go to a meet up and instantly have something to talk about with the people you meet because you now have one common interest.

For instance, when I pulled, "Join a Meet Up" I thought about things I like:  Pugs - yes there's a Meet Up for that, Saturday mornings at the park;  Crafting, like making t-shirts or jewelry - yes there's a meet up for that but less chance of boys going; Yoga - with my back injury, not quite ready for that; Digital photography - DING!  DING!  DING!  we have a winner!

I just took the money I saved my sneaking out a week early on my sublet (I told you the couple, only together for THREE WEEKS was fighting all the time?) and put it towards a nice camera.  Now I just have to figure out how to use the camera!

The meet up I'm going to is at the Central Park Zoo in NYC and there are 115 people going!  I'm really excited and yes, a little nervous.  I get shy around new people but I'M THROWING MYSELF IN THERE!

And I hope you do to!  YOUR CHALLENGE:  Join a Meet Up.  Even if you can't go to one of the activities UNTIL after the holidays.  This is YOUR FIRST ADVENTURE!  I hope you feel giddy and excited.  It really becomes life changing to DARE yourself to do things you NEVER dreamed you would.

And this is a perfect, "Dip your toe into "Adventure Bowling" because you can join with a friend if you want.  Now, if you don't have Meet ups around you, try and find an equivalent adventure -  just try SOMETHING NEW!  A yoga class is doing a demo, a wine bar is having a free tasting, go to a nice hotel and take in the Christmas decorations, maybe a store like "JoAnne's" is having a craft night.  

Part of your new life as an Adventurer is not taking "No" for an answer.  So even if there are not Meet Ups in your town, there is no giving up!  Another idea:  host a mini Meet Up at your place!  Go to Etsy or Martha Stewart's website, find an easy craft to make and have the girls over for cider.  See?  DONE!

I want everybody to report back!  What's the new activity YOU want to try in 2011?

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Adventure Bowl
Join A "Meet-Up"