Busy Weekend and Busy Week

I am up to my ears this week but I wanted to at least post a preview of some of the things I plan on writing about.

This weekend was a very full one. Paul and I got started on a few projects we've been talking about for a long time. One was to get me through my dives for Rescue Diver.

Now I'm contemplating going for Dive Master, a professional rating, over the course of this coming year. I am also thinking about getting trained as an EMT--if it fits into my teaching schedule for this year.

Saturday afternoon, on the way home from diving, we found ourselves on a spontaneous balloon hunt.

And then Sunday, at a party celebrating my niece's birthday, I tried my hand at tie-dying for the first time.

This week I am preparing for a trip. This means packing and planning and an a 2 hour activity that I call disarming my purse. (So many things you're not allowed to carry any more!)

And once again, I am posting well after midnight. So off to bed with me. More to come when I can catch my breath!

Vacation in a Day

In a household where one person officiates weddings (and other ceremonies) and the other teaches SCUBA, summer is not the obvious time for a vacation, it’s the busy season. And often our weekends are spent apart, each tending to our own clients.

That being the case, my husband and I have developed the habit of taking little mini vacations—usually of one day.  We’ve found that it’s not the amount of time, but what you do with it that counts.

The key to it all for us is a laid back pace. If we leave with a plan, but wind up doing something else, it’s all good, as long we we’re together.

Two weeks ago we spent Sunday SCUBA diving in PA at Dutch Springs with our good friend Rich. It was great. A little bit of a busman’s holiday for Paul as Rich was finishing his qualifications to become a dive master. The last item on his agenda was guiding me through a SCUBA refresher. It was my first time in several years and I was so happy to get back to it as SCUBA diving often feels like the only time I’m not multi-tasking or headed to one appointmment or another.

It was a great day, hot, but clear. The water had warmed up. The “vis” wasn’t the greatest, about 20 feet. But we were under water and having fun. 

Between dives, Rich grilled some steaks and made roasted potatoes. We chatted, celebrating Rich’s accomplishment and my return to the water. We soaked up the sun until it got so hot that we retreated to the water for another dive. And after that, we ditched our tanks and just bobbed at the surface in our wet suits chatting for another forty minutes.  

We wrapped up the day by stopping for dinner and filling out our Dive Logs on our way home before going our separate ways.  It was a full day, and included a weekend’s worth of fun, a drive in the country, two dives, a BBQ, and dinner out. I got home feeling as if I’d been gone much longer than a day.

Yesterday was originally supposed to see us back at Dutch, but a long and very hot Saturday, each attending our separate vocations, saw Paul and I in great need of a lie in. But the beauty of the long summer days, is that you can still enjoy a nice day out, even if you don’t get out till after three.

Paul and I managed to pry ourselves out of the house at around three-thirty. We were headed “down the shore” –which is Jersey talk for "we went to the beach."