Things I love

Welcome to my New Blog!

I  love to blog, its kind of like exhibitionistic journaling. I have always loved to journal and read and discuss hot topics. I have had about 22 different blogs on various topics from scrapbooking to depression to business and my life with three boys.

Instead of maintaining a bunch of different blogs, I think I finally settled on one blog for all of my various interests. Who knows how long this one will last or what direction it will take.

I decided to blog this time about things I love. I am trying to change my life a little bit, focus more on positive things, focus on getting healthy, losing weight, being a better mom. Sometimes, I don't want to put all that out there on FACEBOOK., I have not really been much of a tweeter and really prefer the long written word.

Anywho.. Things I love...

I love dancing. I mean I really really love to dance. It can be two-stepping, swing dancing, pop music - booty shaking, twerking, the works! But, my two all time favorites are swinging and salsa.

I have taken ballroom dance lessons, and were it not for the limitations of my wallet, I would probably never have stopped. Unfortunately, dance studios are business and they have their various schemes to make money and get you to take more and more lessons and I just wanted to dance, I didn't want to get broke doing it. I took lessons in Florida, when I was 19 or 20 and I loved every minute of it. I actually took out a ridiculously expensive loan to pay my way through their first program. Eventually, bills won and I had to drop out. 

Later in life, in my early thirties, newly divorced and looking to shed some baby pounds, I found my way into another dance studio in Texas. I fell in love all over again, paid for a program, took all the free lessons I could squeeze in. I competed and excelled, but once again, bills won and I had to drop out.

Now, in California, after many years in places where there weren't many places to dance, without driving for a couple hours, I am able to get moving again. Giving that I am now, trying to lose more weight, in my early forties and my kids are grown, I think it is time I rediscover one of my first loves and get dancing again.

Another one of my passions is scrapbooking. I love it because, I love pictures, I love journaling, I love creating, when you put those all together, you have tons of memories to last for a lifetime. I have an entire room full of paper, pens, scissors, stickers, flowers and other embellishments. Yep, Another expensive hobby, but it doesn't have to be, if you are creative. I Just also happen to have a shopping problem, alas, that is a blog post for another day.

Another one of my favorite things to do... Scuba dive. Now that I live in California, I need to get in the water and get my fins wet again. After living in the middle of the desert for two years, I learned to adore warm water scuba diving because all of my diving had to be done on vacations. I started in the cold Atlantic, but once I got to the warm carribean waters of Puerto Rico and Roataan, Honduras, I am not a fan of the cold water anymore. But living in Cali now, I do think it is time to get in the water again, just a few hours south and I Can be in Monterrey for some warmer water diving.

Speaking of water sports, I also love kayaking and paddle boarding but geez, my kayaks and paddle board have not left the garage since 2011 or so.. There are so many places around here to kayak, I really just need to throw the boat in the car and go!

I like so many things that I haven't done in years, I am really starting to see a trend here, It really stands out to me that I have not been doing the things that I love including camping, hiking, letterboxing, site-seeing, spontaneous road trips and all. I am not doing any of that, it really is no wonder I have been struggling so much with my depression lately. 

Ha, don't you just love how blogging can get you to the bottom of the problem. I didn't set out to solve any problems for this blog but, there it is. I wanted to blog about things I love because I have been so depressed over the past few years and I ended up realizing that one of the reasons I have been so depressed, is because I am not doing ANY of the things I love to do......