I have been busy recently with a lot going on in my family so I haven't gotten to experience many new things so I am going to write about a memorable experience which was new to me last summer. I don't know how acceptable that is, but it's a pretty exciting experience that I still vividly remember.

So, when you compare the waters of the Rehoboth Beach and the waters of the beaches in Riviera Maya, Mexico, there's a pretty significant difference. It's more than the fact that you can see your feet in the water in Mexico- it's the smell, the feel, the beauty. Now picture looking down at your feet and barely even being able to tell you're standing in water because it is so clear now look up and picture a sky as clear as the water at your feet. Imagine soaring through that sky looking at that ocean and not having a worry in the world. 

My family hopped on a boat and went aboard on a parasailing adventure. Being the most adventurous child, I had to convince my 2 sisters and my parents to do it. I never did convince my dad who is deathly afraid of heights, but my sisters and my mom and I strapped up on the Superman sail and jumped off the back of that boat. It was beautiful. Feeling the wind blowing your hair, hearing nothing but the rushing of the waves from the speeding boat, and looking down hundreds of feet under where my dad was zooming in as far as they could to take a picture of the pure happiness on mine and my sister's face. Parasailing is something I can only imagine doing with the crisp Mexican air and clear oceans. It is something I hope I can do again someday soon. 

On a boring afternoon, a couple of my friends and I were looking for fun things to do that we had never done before. We found a new game that was a sort of spin on an average game of Twister, a "messy" version of the game. In 4 bins, we mixed shaving cream with food coloring: blue, green, yellow, and red, and put a scoop of the foam on the corresponding dots. The Twister mat looked awesome, but there's nothing I can say that could describe the mess. 

Right hand, red. Left foot, yellow. Butt dipped in green foam, blue foam in your ears. It was slippery, colorful, and the minty smell was nothing like the taste. The taste was far from minty. There's a reason you don't see shaving cream on the menu anywhere. 

The cleanup was a whole different activity. The white t-shirts we had on were now tie-dye and the stone sidewalk was painted several different colors because the blue mixed with the yellow and the yellow with the red and red with blue, etc. I was hosing down the sidewalk for an hour. 

The mess was worth it. Messy Twister is QUITE an experience! 

I recently went a period of time without using my cell phone. Seems crazy, doesn't it? I was at the beach and I just decided I needed a sort of retreat for myself. The day before I went on my "phone fast," I found that, laying on the beach, I was constantly tweeting, texting, facebooking, checking the time, etc.. It seem like I was addicted to the feeling of being involved in social media, knowing what was going on with everyone I know (and even some I don't). 

My decision to turn my phone off for an entire day ended up being an entire 3 days. I found the time, my texts, my calls, my emails, and everything else to be a lot less important than I thought it was. The first day I was reaching in my bag for my phone and begging my sisters to let me use theirs and I seemed to be having an anxiety attack from not having my cell phone on me. That drove me crazy. I knew I could do it. The desire I had to know what was going on with other peoples lives seemed so ridiculous to me. 

I find now that I have been checking my phone a lot less than usual. One of the main reasons for that probably has to do with the fact that my boyfriend has been away and unable to communicate with me for the past week and I still have another week left. That's also been an experience for me. I never really knew how important his good morning and goodnight texts were and how important hearing "I love you" every day was to me. I really take advantage of everything I have and that's what I learned from not having my phone for those 3 days and not having my boyfriend/best friend to talk to and to hang out with for these 2 weeks. 

I can't wait for him to come home. I can't wait to start noticing how great those little "I love you's" and good mornings and good nights really are. 

Last Tuesday, I had my first experience at a dine-in movie theater. My sister texted me while I was doing paperwork at work asking if I had any plans for the night- of course, I did. I was planning on hanging out with my boyfriend and going to a movie with my family or doing anything with my family really ever beats hanging out with him. I said, "no, hanging with Ben," and then she sent me a picture of the menu. I forwarded the picture along to Ben and he asked to join. So that night, I went with my boyfriend, my parents, and my younger sister to eat dinner and watch the new movie, Tammy. I had no idea what this would be like.

The dine-in movie was described to me as a theater with big chairs and waiters and waitresses who bring whatever you want to your seat. I didn't think I would like it because I thought I would be distracted from the movie, but I was wrong. We got into the theater and were led to our chairs by an usher. Yes, there was assigned seating in the theater! We sat in our seats and looked over our menus which featured every drink imaginable and food from popcorn and chicken fingers to a prime rib burger and steak tenderloin tips. We ordered before the movie started and our food was out just as the opening credits ended. I went with a "Bistro Chicken Mac & Cheese" and a cherry coke. My boyfriend copied me and got the same thing. I have good taste so it's rare that he doesn't copy me. We also ordered a brownie sundae for later. After we both finished our food, a server came out and asked us what time we wanted the brownie. We asked for it to come about halfway through the movie and got the biggest smiles on our faces when it did. 

Oh and the movie? That was good too,  but I couldn't get over the fact that I was in a giant red reclining chair next to my favorite person with great food on a little table attached to the side of my seat. I only really have one complaint about this experience- the chairs are so big that there is no comfortable way I could hold his hand and TRUST ME we tried every way possible. If you need an idea for a new date place, I strongly suggest the AMC dine-in theater! You will not be disappointed, I promise!