Taking the Plunge...Finally.

Not only was Summer 2009 the Summer of Fun (except for the horrible turning 30 as a barren, spinster part) but it was also the summer of facing my fears. Okay, well really I only faced one major fear...the ocean, and yay, I took the plunge and went SCUBA diving! If you would have told me about five or ten years ago that I would become a SCUBA diver I never would have believed you. But, times change and there are fears to be faced. I went diving at Two Mile Reef in the Bazaruto Archipelago in Mozambique. Getting certified was quite traumatic (as I'm sure you regular blog readers already know) and I was sick for like a month from some weird infection I caught at the Aquatic Center (public pools sick me out) and then was added to by some infection from Blue Lake (also a disgusting body of water), where I did my open water dive for certification. But, I made it through certification and was able to actually SCUBA dive in the ocean, which is way better than certifying. And really, I didn't freak out two bad. Okay, maybe just a little bit the first time, but that is because they had too much weight on my weight belt and my BC (Buoyancy Compensator) was not inflating properly, so as soon as I jumped in I just started SINKING like a piece of lead. You are supposed to float at the top until everyone is off the boat and ready to go down. So, it was sort of scary to be sinking down into the depths of the sea by myself, when I knew I should be floating. But, I got calmed down and was able to go down 60 feet on my first dive and sort of had a good time. My second dive later that day, after they fixed my BC and weight belt, was actually really flawless and fun. We only went about 46 feet deep that time but we saw some super pretty stuff, tons of fish, and a HUGE turtle (my dive master said it was one of the biggest he'd ever seen). I had been sending out negative vibes to all the sharks and whales and other things bigger than me to stay away, but really, on that second dive when I was all calm and experienced I would have been fine seeing a nice big something. Some other people that were diving near us saw a whale shark and I was surprisingly a little jealous. Anyway, something that a few years and even months ago would have scared me to death actually turned out to be really fun. I don't see myself becoming a big time SCUBA junkie or riding on the back of a whale or anything, but I definitely hope to be able to go SCUBA diving again. Here I am looking all awesome in my wet suit and showing off my SCUBA moves. Hello everyone. I look like an alien. The reef was gorgeous, as you can see. So, one major fear faced, I was ready to take on more and I decided to go bungee jumping at Victoria Falls. Actually, I don't really have a fear of heights so I can't really say I faced another fear. I mean, yes, whose knees wouldn't be knocking a bit as they stand ready to jump off a 364 foot high bridge over a raging river certainly full of crocodiles just waiting for a taste of white meat? I guess I should say that I don't have a severe phobia of heights like I do of the ocean. Anyway, I've always wanted to go bungee jumping and decided, if not now, when? It was AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING! (That's for Tyler who called me the other day to tell me that I use the word "amazing" too much on my blog. So, expect to see it even more now.) Anyway, so bungee jumping was amazing. I would highly recommend it, even over skydiving. Skydiving was cool too, but if you are only going to either skydive OR bungee jump in your life I would have to tell you to bungee jump. But hopefully you'll be able to experience both...or actually neither if you are someone I love. I don't like people I love doing crazy things. It worries me. Anyway, bungee jumping just gives you such a great dropping sensation and a serious natural high. I was giddy all day after I took the plunge. Yay for new experiences! Here I am getting all tied up and ready to jump.

Living life just a little on the edge is so much fun!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! AMAZING!

Oh, and if you are really interested and have two minutes to spare, you can watch my bungee jumping video. Lee was making fun of me for showing everybody my video and saying "Hey, want to see the coolest video ever?" but then the next day he was online looking for bungee places in the U.S. because now he wants to go too. So there.

Oh, and you should all watch my video if for no other reason then it took me FOREVER to figure out how to edit the video and get the audio to sync with the video. I had about given up when I thought to myself, 'Becca, you figured out that horrible statistics computer program, surely you can figure out how to edit a video and put it on your blog.' So, I did learn how, and without even one phone call to Tyler. (Oh, and by the way, thanks Ty for helping me get rid of that virus I accidentally installed on my computer last week.)

Here you go adrenaline junkies... So, let's just make 2009 the year of facing all my fears, BECAUSE, now I have yet another fear to face. It was a fear that I didn't even recognize as a fear until just lately. So, in a couple of weeks I'm taking a kind of shotgun trip to Panama over fall break to do some volunteer public health work with some friends from school. One of my friends emailed me about the trip a couple of weeks ago and he was like, "Hey want to go to Panama for a week of volunteer work during fall break?" And I was like, without even thinking, "Of course, that would be great!" So, I committed to it and then it all started to settle in...my fear.

I am AFRAID of not being able to shower daily and blow dry and flat iron my hair. It is one thing to be somewhere humid and have your hair get messed up, and it is another whole thing to not even be able to shower and attempt to do your hair.

I honestly cannot remember the last time that I went a day without showering and washing my hair. Sometimes I'll get up in the morning and won't shower right away if I'm going to work outside or exercise or something, but I ALWAYS shower. Even this past Spring when I swear I had the swine flu, I would crawl out of bed, shower, and then get back into bed.

Necessity. Major necessity. I never go into public without showering. Even if I'm going to do something like go run a 5K or a service project hoeing weeds, I will shower first and then shower again when I get home.

I know all of this might sound weird to those of you out there who don't maybe have a little tiny bit of OCD behavior as most of us do in some way.

Anyway, I'm totally freaking out about this. I mean I don't even go camping where there isn't a flush toilet and a shower and now I'll be spending a week on an island off the coast of Panama where they don't have ANY option for showering, no electricity, and only latrines!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh what am I going to do? I will seriously be bathing in a river for a week. There goes any shred of self esteem I have and there goes all hope for having even one decent picture of myself from this trip.

Oh, and I'm not high maintenance. I'm just clean. What can I say?

And, in my defense I have short, yucky hair. So it's not like I can just put my hair up in a ponytail for a week or anything. So, please, if any of you that are clean campers (with short hair) have any suggestions for how I can get through this trial, please let me know. Thanks!