Live every week like it's shark week.

This is our favorite time of year. Shark week. It's the week when we huddle around the television in rapt attention, poring over every detail as the Discovery Channel unfolds the mysteries of the great white, the mako, the tiger shark, the hammerhead, and their more obscure cousins.

We have a collective obsession with these majestic and terrifying creatures. They frighten and fascinate us.

So, in honor of shark week, we had a shark party. And watched Jaws. And ate these cupcakes:

We call them "Blood in the Water" cupcakes because of the surprise strawberry jam centers. Blue vanilla cake, blue buttercream, fondant shark fins. Heh. Gruesome, yes. Artificially-colored, yes. But fun.

And in light of this week's festivities, a short public service announcement:

We have several guidelines for ocean safety--developed over a lifetime of beach-going, surfing, paddling, boating, swimming--which can help all you beach-goers avoid any unwanted marine life interactions.

• No bleeding in the water. Obviously. 
• No touching. Do not touch your friends while swimming in the water. Especially if you are trying to be conscious of sharks, your friends will react in an unsavory manner. Just don't do it, no matter how funny you think it will be.
• Camouflage.  Avoid wearing red, yellow, and anything shiny. These colors excite sharks. Instead, wear ocean colors to blend in with your marine surroundings. 
• Turn 360 degrees at regular intervals. And don't just turn: look. Being aware of your surroundings could give you more time to reach shore safely should an unfriendly beast appear. 
• Silhouettes are not your friends. If you see a dark silhouette in the distance under water, swim away from it. NOT toward it. 

Trust us... we are experts. Remember these things, and live longer. Sharks will show you no mercy.

Swim away,

Brandie and Chelsea

Why Pessimists Make the Best Optimists

Maybe pessimism isn't such a curse if multiple pessimists join forces. Somehow we pessimists turn our natural negativity around for good when we're together.

Quick disclaimer: Be warned, this opinion comes from the perspective of a serious pessimist. Two of them, really (so take it with as many grains of salt as you see fit).

We are two pessimists who’ve lived under one roof for several years now.  And when we say pessimist, we mean all the lovely second-hand glasses at our house are almost always half empty. You might think that this would be a recipe for miserable disaster. Picture two girls at home alone wallowing in despair, egging each other on into deeper depression, uselessness, and weepy movie marathons... terrible! 

But it’s not like that.

Just because we’re pessimistic does not mean we can't see the bright side. We can see it, and we like to see it. And just because we’re pessimists doesn’t mean that we don’t have joy. We laugh every day, and we love it.

And the thing is--even though we naturally take a negative viewpoint--there is another instinct that takes over sometimes, particularly if one of us is feeling down. We want to help each other feel better, so we instinctively take turns at holding a positive view.

Love is stronger than pessimism.

As fellow pessimists, we understand what it’s like to feel negative and why we react to situations the way we do. We also understand each other pretty well after 14 years of friendship.

For instance, when Brandie is giving a depressed Chelsea very reasonable advice and Chelsea glares at Brandie, Brandie understands that that glare means that she is listening, and she knows that her friend is right. If Chelsea lived with an optimist, that optimist friend might interpret that glare differently and have her feelings hurt, deciding to stop giving Chelsea advice (and thereby leaving Chelsea to wallow in her negativity). Brandie is neither offended nor deterred. She simply smiles back at her. And vice versa. 

We are so thankful that when one of us is down, the other is almost always ready to pick her up and shine some perspective on the situation.

In our experience, optimists always looks at the bright side, often making nice but largely-unhelpful statements like “this is happening for a reason,” or “it’s always darkest before the dawn,” or “this is a season,” or “I’m sure it’s not all bad,” or “don’t worry, be happy." This is sweet and well-intentioned, but pessimists like us don’t respond very well to nice generalizations like these.  Instead, we respond to reasonable arguments exposing the flaws in our own outlooks. Because we’re not just spouting off happy sayings at each other, we can logically determine what might be effective and helpful advice.

We love optimists. In fact, we depend on a few key optimists in our lives that bring us joy. We couldn't manage without them. But don’t count the pessimists out when you’re looking for the bright side. We can see what's in that glass just as well as you. :) 

--Brandie and Chelsea

Scared Silly

Have you ever been surprised by something or someone? Had an experience that wasn’t what you expected? 

We had one of those.  An unexpectedly frightening experience. With a ferris wheel.

It was a cloudy day in southern California, and we were in the mood for a rest. We’d been walking all day through one of those crowds that can only be found in subway stations, the mall during Christmas or Disneyland. From a distance we spotted a large, colorful wheel with buckets whirling slowly through the air. It looked peaceful. I was immediately intrigued and decided that the ferris wheel had to be our next ride.

Getting into line with the jostling crowds, we listened as the happy music piped through the sound system and the instructions repeatedly told us (in both English and Spanish) to remain seated inside the gondolas. Chelsea began to look a little pale as we waited.

“What’s up?” I asked her.

“I don’t think I want to go on this ride.”

She noticed that there were people screaming at the top of the wheel. We watched more closely and soon discovered that some of the “gondolas” were swinging wildly on the way up and down. Shrieks pierced the music-filled air. Chelsea hyperventilated at the thought of swinging through the air. I marveled at the genius who found a way to make a ferris wheel exciting.

In an attempt to comfort my friend, I told her that only certain buckets seemed to swing. Others were stationary or not-so-swingy. “We just don’t want a purple one,” I told her.

We all studied the colorful buckets and agreed that the purple ones seemed to be much more violently swinging than the other colors.  Chelsea was a little comforted by the thought that we would most likely end up with a nice tame red or yellow bucket.

Unfortunately when it was our turn to board, the ride operator directed us to a deadly purple bucket. Chelsea blanched and I smiled. Sure enough, we had gotten exactly what we didn’t want.

We got into our purple “gondola” and sat down on the benches.  I was laughing at Chelsea as she clutched at the walls of the cage in panic and whined about the lack of seatbelts or restraints of any kind. It was just a ferris wheel, I told her, nothing to worry about. We were going up at a reasonable pace.

Suddenly, our gondola swung rapidly to the side, plunging us toward the edge of the wheel and swinging our little bucket up at a sharp angle. I’ll admit that I screamed. We were all reduced to screams. It seemed that nothing was between us and a painful splatter into the ground a hundred feet below.

The wheel went around twice, with constant swinging threatening impending doom and causing us to consider the need for the vomit bags oh-so-conveniently stowed beneath the seats.

Finally we dismounted, breathless and frightened out of our wits and certainly not rested.

We laughed until we cried, then we promptly got back into line and rode that twisted ferris wheel again.

It may not have been the experience we were looking for; and it honestly scared us (scared Chelsea half to death). But we were so glad we did it, and we couldn’t wait to do it again. In fact that wheel ended up being a favorite ride and highlight of our time down there.

Life is like that sometimes. Actually, more often than not it doesn’t go the way we expect it. Things may even happen exactly the way you didn’t want. But you may get into that violently-swinging purple gondola and discover that you actually needed it or even enjoyed it.  

We’re a week into 2011 and it’s already looking a little scary. But we’re hoping that as we make our way through the year we’ll find that more of the things that frighten us are actually ridiculously awesome.

--Brandie

P.S.-- In case you were wondering, our profile pic was taken on the dreaded wheel of death just after the swinging stopped. Chelsea was still unable to contain her screams of terror, and I was considering tears. Good times.