We moved to California a couple years ago from New York. At the time, I was dragging my heels deep. I wanted to move but I was scared to move because I'm not that good with change but I knew the move would be good in my heart.
The kids were much better than I with the move, they left the only school they had ever known and said why not? Both my husband and myself have always lived near water. When I was younger, my parents house was on Oneida Lake in NY and we had an in ground pool. When I got married and moved, we lived less than a mile from Lake Ontario. We still have our family cottage on Cayuga Lake which is also in NY. As much as I love the water - I am petrified of natural bodies of water, i.e. oceans, lakes, ponds, etc. Let me clarify - I can be on the water but definitely not in the water all because of a small movie you may have heard of called Jaws...
Yes Jaws - you know the movie not real, the movie that Steven Spielberg decided to direct and scar my poor 11 year old soul forever. Why did you do that to me Mr. Spielberg? I was just a little kid.....
I love to swim - in water that I can see the blue bottom of. In fact I went to both the beach this morning and the YMCA this afternoon. Did I swim at the beach? Heck no, barely got my feet wet. Did I swim at the Y? Heck ya.. I even found bugs, earplugs and a necklace in my adventure today at the Y. Was I afraid during my lap swim, not once.. Throw any kind of fish in the same body of water I'm in... then I freak. When I actually have to go in the water at the cottage, I wear goggles and I can scream like a little sissy whenever I see a bass, perch, sunny or god forbid the almighty "Killer Carp".
You’re probably wondering why this has anything to do with the picture above and/or our move to California. Well my husband always picks on me, tells me that there are no sharks in Oceanside CA as the water is to cold, blah, blah, blah. I myself take no chances and in the 3 years we have lived here I've only been in the Ocean maybe 4x. Not only is this due to my belief in sharks but also it’s because the water is freaking freezing here - but I have to admit mostly because of the movie Jaws.
Well on Friday guess what happened 3 beaches south from our beach in Oceanside? A retired veterinarian was out surfing and a great white shark killed him. I feel bad for the man's family, ironic that he took care of animals all of his life and now his life was taken by an animal. A strange and uncommon thing here in Oceanside but I have to say I was right, I knew there were sharks out there in that water.
In the 3 years we have lived here my son has been surfing more times to count, in fact my daughter was on Surf PE this year. Every time, I mean everytime they would go surf I always would say”watch out for sharks" and upon their return, I would always ask if there were any. They thought their mom was a crazy person! (Yeah, in their defense I kind of am - especially with sharks). Just goes to show you I may be crazy but I was right about the sharks!
