Diving Right In

Well, I’ve got a little bit of history to share with you… First,  personal, and second, geological. (“Huh?” you say. “Keep reading,” I say.)

In reference to this post’s title, I guess I’ll just dive right in.

So, most of our close friends and family know we took up scuba diving a couple of summers ago.

Many of our close friends and family know we’ve been trying to start a family.

Few of our close friends and family know we took up diving to distract us from the fact that we were unsuccessful starting a family.

After trying to get pregnant for about six months with no success, we decided to stop for awhile and refocus our energy and attention on doing something fun together that we couldn’t do if I was pregnant. Scuba diving has always been on our bucket list. So there you go, we did it! Now, it’s one of our favorite activities, and we’ve gotten to dive in Aquarena Springs in San Marcos, Lake Travis in Austin, Cozumel (Mexico), Hawaii (Oahu and Kauai), and now Cancun. We just love being underwater together!

So there’s some personal history for you. Now for a little geology …

We recently returned from Mexico where we took a “cavern dive” in the cenotes at Chac Mool. The word “Cenote” is pronounced, ‘say-no-tay’ and is derived from  the Mayan word, “dzonot” which means ‘sacred well’. On the Yucatan peninsula, they are sometimes referred to as the “Sacred Waters of the Riviera Maya.”  We shall refer to them as “one of our most spectacular dives ever.”

More history:

“Cenotes are fresh water pools connecting to submerged caverns and other cenotes.  A combination of  various geological events and climate changes created an incredible and unique ecosystem. These caves and underground rivers were created  naturally over 6,500 years ago. Over the past 20 years, experienced scuba divers have explored these caves  discovering more than 300 miles of interconnected passageways and caves that make up this amazing one-of-a-kind ecosystem.”

Chac-Mool is one of the caverns which has a halocline, where salt and fresh water come together and creating dazzling visual effects. This was a really crazy experience. You can actually see where the water meets, and it sort of looks like a shelf (fresh water on top of saltwater). The fresh water is so clear you can see forever. When you are in the halocline, everything suddenly looks extremely blurry and confuses your senses until you get out of the mix. Kind of hard to explain, but really cool to experience!

We did two dives into the caverns. On the second dive, after going deep into the cave, past the point of any natural light,  we were astonished to surface underground (our divemaster had kept this part a surprise). It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life! It’s something very few people will ever experience, and we (including the other divers), were all stunned into breathless silence as we just tried to take it all in. Stalactites covered every visible surface, there was a hole letting in natural light from far above, and tree roots dangled down until they just touched the water.

It was magical.

Michael captured a bit on video. Of course, it doesn’t do it justice!

Here’s a professional shot of the area where the light was coming through. Pretty spectacular, eh?

So, needless to say, this was an unforgettable experience we’re so thankful to have shared. As it will be, I assume, when we successfully start our family. We’ve recently made the decision to try to adopt an infant, and we couldn’t be more excited!  Just like cave diving, we’re expecting an incredible, unique, one-of-a-kind adventure. Like freshwater and saltwater beneath the earth’s surface, we hope two families will mix together and create a sacred bond. We’re a little nervous, and have no idea what to expect.  But, as they say, we’re just diving right in.

¡Hola amigos!

Long time no blog.  Time to get back on track!

This past Saturday, we arrived home from a week in Cancun. We were celebrating Anna (younger sister)’s 30th birthday so we brought her along for the first half of the trip.  We had a great time! Lots of relaxing, in fact so much relaxing, we neglected to take many pictures. How ridiculous, right! Here’s what we have. We snapped this shot as Anna was headed to the airport. Behind us is one of several humongous infinity pools at the resort.

We took these at the outdoor restaurant on the beach.

Hard to tell how cool it was, but it was pretty great!

We stayed at the Omni Cancun Hotel and Villas. Since I’m giving them a free plug, I thought I’d include some of their promotional photos, to make up for our lack of documentation. Here is an aerial shot of the grounds:

A heated swim-up bar:

Sunset view of the hotel from one of the infinity pools:

We had great weather while Anna was with us. We spent a lot of time on the beach, ate as much as we could, and caught up on our rest. Pretty much our idea of the perfect vacation!

Ayden vs. Santa

Round 1 goes to Ayden.

Baby it’s cold outside…

Well, interesting weather it has been. Highs in the 80s followed by a hard freeze overnight! Courtesy of the great state of Texas. Yesterday morning there was snow/ice on the ground and our rooftop.

This morning’s temp was a cool 28 degrees. We thought we’d escape to California to thaw out, only to find there’s a cold front blowing in there soon too! We are not cold weather people, people, what are you trying to do to us!

Nevertheless, we’re breaking out the thermals and mittens, and heading back to our CA home for the holidays. We fly out tomorrow morning and we’ll stay until Christmas Eve. Hope to see you sometime! Give us a call at 512-965-3481 or 3482 if you want to meet up. We plan our regular Claimjumper gathering next Thursday night.

Most Unfriendly Skies

Sitting in the Phoenix airport right now on our short layover. I’m trying to get over our latest Flying the Friendly Skies episode. Only this time it was Most Unfriendly. I’m writing about it now so I won’t forget the specifics later when I write my letter to Southwest.

A grumpy flight attendant was standing in front of me talking to another passenger when he noticed I had my knees pulled up to my chest, balancing my weight on my feet, which is how I often sit to relieve pressure from my spine when I’m in pain and have to sit.

“What did I tell you about your grubby feet?” he barks at me. “Get your grubby feet off the seat,” he demands rather loudly. I had earplugs in and thought maybe I misheard him.

“Excuse me?”

“I said, get your dirty feet off my brand new seats. Your feet are disgusting.”

“I’m sorry, are you being serious right now?” I thought he must be joking.

“Yes, GET YOUR NASTY FEET OFF THE SEAT.” He was clearly not joking.

“I HAVE A BACK PROBLEM AND I HAVE TO SIT THIS WAY IF I CAN’T STAND.”

“Fine then, I’ll go get you some wetnaps so you can clean your filthy disgusting feet.”

And he did. He threw three packets of wetnaps in my lap, which themselves were stained from having been wet and sitting in coffee. I was so mortified because he made a huge scene out of it. And I understand, maybe it’s generally rude to have your feet on the seat, although it’s leather, but I had just slipped my shoes off and my feet were clean and sparkly from my weekend pedicure. It was my bare feet, watermelon pink toenails smiling at everyone who walked by. And I have rather nice feet, if I do say so myself.

Nevertheless, I put my feet down. He smugly went and sat down in the flight attendant jump seat. I waited ’til he buckled himself in and we made eye contact again, then dramatically re-positioned my feet and twisted them into the seat for maximum grub transfer.

Flying the Friendly Skies 2

Read Flying the Friendly Skies 1

Michael and I sat across the aisle from one another on our flight into Sacramento. I was resting my eyes as we prepared to land when I heard the flight attendant say to Michael, “You look way too young to be married!” She had noticed his wedding ring.

“Oh, well how old do you have to be?” Michael replies.

“I don’t know, at least 25 or 26. How old are you?”

“Thirty.”

“Oh my gosh, you don’t look thirty at all!” Michael smiles, revealing the very dimples that often instigate comments like these.

“Guess how long we’ve been married?” I pipe in from across the aisle, thinking this will impress her even more.

She just laughs. Ha ha ha ha. I ask again, thinking maybe she didn’t hear me over the noise of the landing gear descending. More awkward laughter. I’m confused until I realize she thinks I am joking. Like, “Yeah right, sister, you wish.” Soon realizing her error, she stammers, “Oh, you two really are married!”

How embarrassing. So is it that I look way too old for Michael, or he looks way too young for me? I think I’ll try to look at it that way, like I snagged a hot younger guy, way to go me.

But then I realize it likely has nothing to do with age, but maybe appearance? Are we a mismatch? Or it could be the fact that we weren’t sitting right next to each other. Yes, that must be it. Except now, the friendly male flight attendant has joined in the conversation, and, much to my dismay, I soon realize where this is going.

“You know who you look like?” he gushes to Michael.

“Ummm …”

“Leonardo DiCaprio!” he declares with vigor.

The she-attendant asks Michael to remove his sunglasses and hat so she can inspect this assertion. Of course, she concurs with he-attendant’s discovery and then it is 10 minutes of nervous giggles and admiration, as if it were Leo himself sitting there.

I will admit, this is not the first time we’ve been through a similar situation. This happens quite often, although it was far more frequent in the faux-twins’ (Michael/Leo’s) younger days. When we were about 18 and Romeo and Juliet had just come out, Michael was a near dead-ringer for Romeo, and was regularly approached by giggling teens, and even asked for autographs. Oh, and then Titanic came out, and Michael may as well have been the King of the World.

But this was the first time all the attention made me feel a bit self-conscious. As if these stewards of the sky were secretly trying to hint to Michael (from behind the bulkhead wall that was only partially protecting them from my view), “Pssst, hey, you could be a MOVIE STAR, what are you doing with her?!!” Accompanied by raised eyebrows and a not-very-sly head tilt in my direction.

By this point, Michael was more embarrassed than I think I’ve ever seen him. And I had shrunk down in my seat a little as well. We barely escaped the plane with our dignity, practically running from the other passengers who had now joined in the revelry. We made it safely to the baggage claim area and sat down to wait for our luggage. About two minutes later, he- and she-attendants come walking our way, joined now by the pilots and another attendant. “Hey Leo!” They all shout across the crowded lobby, stars in their eyes. “Can I have your autograph?” Fits of laughter. “Oh my gosh, it’s Leonardo DiCaprio!”

Oh my gosh, mortification. Ah, well, such is life with a movie star by your side. Now, where is that limo to pick us up?