Greetins from California

**Ginger** · 06-25-2015, 07:24 AM

Greetings all, I'm so happy to be here. I live in and adore California (which btw, no one here calls "Cali" lol). I have suffered from thalassophobia - fear of ocean - since I was about 12 or 13 years old, so quite a while lol. The same applies to any body of water other than a swimming pool. In my opinion calling phobias a "fear" of something is a gross understatement. My phobia has been so bad in the past that I could not play video games that took place in water without having panic attacks. Phobias can be debilitating. I have been working at overcoming my phobia and have made quite a lot of progress. Ironically, I have also always had a great love for the ocean. I live in a part of California that is sadly landlocked but I visit our beaches quite frequently and they are all amazing. Eventually I would love to be able to swim in the ocean. That brings us to why I am here

I was five when Disney's The Little Mermaid came out (do the math if you must!) and from that moment on I've been in love with mermaids - not a huge fan of the movie now, but I do like Ursula

. So, once I found out about this community I figured it would be a perfect place for me. I am NOT here to beg support from people, but the more familiar I can become with water, and specifically the ocean, the more I help myself to overcome my fear. For now, I do monofin in my pool and have been considering building myself a tail to go with. It seems that adding a bit of fantasy to any endeavor makes it easier.

In my personal life, I am a mother of one, a huge Harry Potter fan, don't even get me started on The Phantom of the Opera, I collect and sell nail polish, I also make custom nail polishes and am working on my own line of nail polish (sadly my business is not online yet, but hopefully soon!). I sing, second only to my duties as a mom

, I sew and design clothing and other things, and do a host of other things that I can't think of or seem unimportant in defining myself to you lol.

I am looking forward to getting to know all of you and would be happy to discuss anything about myself, or yourself (within reason) including the details of my phobia (or any of my other neurosis!) with you at any time, either in this thread, or in a PM (if those are possible on this forum?) I may have to change my settings to allow members to email me? Either way, let me know how and I'll let you contact me hahaha! Take care loves and let's talk soon.

**Mermaid Jaffa** · 06-25-2015, 10:47 AM

Welcome Ginger!
Do you have a tail yet? What color is it?
Everyone is friendly here, unless they're having a bad fish day...

Or its shark week... But other than that, we're nice!

**Ashe** · 06-25-2015, 11:16 AM

Welcome to merNetwork!

**Neria** · 06-25-2015, 12:31 PM

Welcome to the forum! I live in a landlocked part of California as well

Glad to have more merfolk joining the community!

**Elodea the Mermaid** · 06-25-2015, 01:59 PM

Landlocked Cali (haha) mermaids unite! Welcome :-D

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**Merman Jamie** · 06-26-2015, 08:02 AM

Welcome

**Ginger** · 06-26-2015, 11:39 AM

Thank you all! So glad to hear there are others here from California. I am in the central San Juaquin, same as you Elodea

. I don't have a tail yet, Jaffa, but my son has been encouraging me to make one lol. I've thought about trying just a cheap fabric one - out of swimsuit fabric - just to give it a go in a tail, but I'd like to make one with neoprene and sequins

- I have a thing for sparkles hahaha. Thanks again! Can't wait to get to know everyone here.

**MerMaisy** · 06-26-2015, 02:27 PM

Welcome. Have you joined the Pod of Cali? There's lots of us from California

**Moonchild** · 06-27-2015, 07:42 PM

God, I totally get you on the phobia thing... I have selacophobia -fear of sharks- (at least that's what it's called in Spanish, not sure about English...) and whenever I tell anyone they go like "oh, but everyone is scared of sharks!"
Yeah, right! I bet everyone else has panic attacks just by looking at pictures of sharks, that's very normal! -.-'

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**Ginger** · 06-28-2015, 07:45 AM

Sorry I've been away. Had a bit of a medical emergency but all is well now. MerMaisy, Yes i did join the California pod but I haven't posted there yet :P shame on me. Moonchild, I totally understand what you mean! It's sad to me how ignorant people are of phobias when phobia is a fairly common thing.