Tuesday, May 7, 2013

day 7: "what are you afraid of"


Day 7: "What are you afraid of"

I think we all have the same fears of losing family and friends, or also leaving them behind.  I know when my kids were little, I was afraid of dying and leaving them.  Now that they're grown, I'm really not afraid of dying, but still afraid of leaving them alone.  But as I have witnessed lately how short life can be, it's something that we all definitely have to come to terms with.  So every second is to be savored.

Scary Movies: I won't watch them.  I just don't go there, as I have such a vivid imagination.  Our kitchen doesn't have any curtains on the window or the door, and if I watch anything suspenseful,  and I need to go into the kitchen for any reason, I have to run in and out of the kitchen as I'm afraid I will see a face in the window...haha...it's silly, but very real and frightening for me!

Heights: I'm afraid of heights, but I don't let it stop me from going up high places.  When we were in Chicago and went up to the Sears Tower, I was a bit scared to look down.  It was a beautiful view though.  You definitely won't find me on that glass ledge that you can go on now though - no thanks!

Sky Diving:  I have always said that the only time I would jump out of a plane is if it were a life or death matter.  It definitely is not on this gal's bucket list, no sirree!!!


Sharks and other things in the ocean:  I actually have no desire to ever scuba dive, but have been snorkeling many times and have loved it.  But everytime I'm swimming in the ocean, I do have sharks on my mind, that is for sure!  Once when I was snorkeling off a small island in the Virgin Islands I got stung by stinging coral - which wasn't fun at all (but at least it wasn't a shark!)

Toronados: Years ago I was at my dad's family reunion in Nebraska and my cousins and I were enjoying a nice sunny day on the lake water skiing and within an hour or so there was a tornado warning, we were having trouble getting the boat out of the water onto the trailer, so we just left it there and drove back to the house.  My uncle was not too happy about it, but the tornado passed by and all was well.

Earthquakes: I've been in many earthquakes in my life - mainly mild ones, but a few pretty big ones.  In the 1989 Earthquake in SF area, my nephew and brother in law were at the baseball stadium watching the World Series (as we all were watching on tv) when the big earthquake hit - I was so afraid they were going to get trampled in all the mayhem at the stadium and this was before cell phones, so it was crazy.  I remember holding onto the door frames in our place, so tightly (as that is what I do when a quake hits) that there were indentations of my fingers on the metal door frame. Crazy!  It was a surreal time, as there was so much damage and loss of life.  My neighbors and I were sitting in the park across the street and I felt like it was the end of the world, as you couldn't get in touch with people because the phone lines were down.  Eventually, phone service was sporadic and I spoke to my family and realized we all were well.  But after the big quake, all the aftershocks were actually more frightening as we just never knew if a bigger one was coming.  Nowadays, I work in a two story building and every now and then we get little tremors and I am always the first one out the door and down the stairs!  Once when I did that no one followed me, they didn't even feel it.  Haha.... 

Bears: My friends and I were camping at Yosemite, years ago when I was a teenager and as the guys were out rock climbing, me and my friend Mary Yukiko were at the campsite.  A baby bear came and started rummaging thru our things and we grabbed pots and pans and started banging them and the bear climbed up a tree so fast.  The scary part was wondering when the Mama Bear was gonna come by!  Also one moring we awoke to a man screaming and I looked out my tent and saw a man running and a bear was chasing him.  No thanks.  Note to anyone going to Yosemite:  It's a beautiful place to visit, a bucket list type of place you don't want to miss - but my advice is to: get a hotel room!!  Ha!

Last but not least, when I was a toddler, I had a recurring dream that elephants were walking in and out of our house and they always seemed pretty friendly, but for some reason I would always wake up screaming " Elephants are biting my toes"  haha....That is something I am definitely afraid of! 

Have a beautiful day, friends!
xxoo

5 comments:

  1. Hope that was good therapy for you listing all your fears--for me, it just gave me a few shivers!

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  2. I am still laughing at the image you used, their faces are hilarious!!

    I am with you on heights, I don't like them but am quite happy to go up inside buildings in lifts etc....I wouldn't walk over those glass blocks where you can see right down the street miles below, never....I know my limits LOL!!

    Scary movies definitely....I go regularly with the same two girlfriends and the last few they've chosen I haven't been "allowed" to go with them, "they're not for you Simone" they tell me....and they're right!!!

    Where's the fun in scaring yourself that much?! XX

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  3. Found you via SOML.

    I live in the country in NE and there was a tornado 1 mile from my house 2 years ago. I should have probably taken shelter, but I was too busy taking pictures so I could blog about it later :)

    Also, I HATE swimming in water that I can't see through. I'm afraid of sea monsters..so I'm going to say the ocean is probably out for me. Good thing I live in NE!

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  4. Wow Cathi ..... that's a list ..... I think that I would be scared of all of them too !!
    We were at Lake Powell once and were just bringing the boat back when a storm of epic proportions blew up just as we got to shore..... we had to hold onto things to stop being blown away and funally took refuge in a shed that held all of the boat paraphanalia !!!! It was pretty terrifying ...... goodness knows what it must have been like for the boats still out on the lake. XXXX

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  5. Great list Cathi. I'm not fond of snakes and I don't like thinking about would "big bad things" could be under the water in the ocean...mostly I try not to think about the things that "scare" me! :)

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Thanks for the smile - pass it along! xxoo

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