Heather 365: Day 4

Vinny and I love to begin our mornings with a walk on the beach as many days as possible. If it’s just too cold outside, we at least like to have our morning coffee in the car overlooking the beach. We will see random people allowing their dogs to run free chasing sticks, balls or even the birds. Even in this crazy cold, the Seagulls are still here. (Call me crazy but I thought birds went south for the winter, not these ones apparently!) Anyhow, that got me and Vinny talking one morning about these little dudes and how they keep warm and what they eat all winter without being able to rob food from beachgoers as they frolic in the water. Btw, it is hysterical to watch the birds carefully remove towels, clothes, etc. from peoples bags and pull out bags of chips, wrapped sandwiches and whatnot and the entire flock going crazy devouring their lunches! Smart little buggers.

Nevertheless, one morning while we were walking I said, “We should bring them bread every now and again to help them along through the winter.” Although this seemed like a noble idea and all, deep down we both surely knew that this would probably never happened because I’m afraid of birds. I don’t run around crazy or anything if they are near me (like people do with bees), but I will not choose to be in their area if I don’t have to for fear of being attacked.

So, today was the day. After a brief stop at Dunkin Donuts for a nice hot coffee (it’s 27 degrees out here this morning!!) we went to our favorite beach that happens to be just down the road from us. At first, it didn’t look like there were many birds around. Vinny assured me that when I started throwing bread, they would all come. Ugh- now I was getting nervous. I was like, “What if they attack me? What if they dive down on me? What if they pooh on me?” He just started laughing and was like, you’re good, don’t worry, you can do this. So I stepped out of the car, bread bag in hand.

I KID YOU NOT….within seconds I was surrounded. I never even made it to the sand. They were everywhere! I threw the bag back into the car and honestly freaked out just a bit. I was nervously laughing hysterically. Meanwhile, Vinny’s there snapping pics and cracking up! So I grabbed a stack of the bread, tucked it in my pashmina (trying to hide it from the birds) and ran away from the car a bit. I started frantically ripping the bread and throwing it at them. They were SO close to me! I was jumping around a little and involuntarily screeching a bit. I threw some into the air where they were hovering over my head and they were even catching it in the air. I had to go back and forth to the car to grab stacks of bread at a time and every time I went back, I felt a little more comfortable.

Honestly, I was a little sad when I was out of bread. I lifted my hands to heaven and said “I did it girl!” Vinny told me I was awesome and how proud of me he was and we returned to the car to enjoy our coffee beachside.

Today’s intention was to help the birdies out with some food and to take a huge step in overcoming an irrational fear. Today is already a good day.

Love you Heather!!