Not an incapacitating freakout. Just a "NOT RIGHT! WRONG! TOO HIGH! BIZARRO!" mental commentary.

I had a similar reaction on a mesa in Arizona -- I could see too far, it was too flat, too brown, just Not Right.

When I'm on the West Coast the ocean feels like its on the wrong side. I realize this sounds insane, but it really really does.

I remember a college peer who grew up in NC and did a semester out west. She was all "exposed all the time" whereas I felt claustrophobic in NC unless I drove out to a treeless hilltop (and even that wasn't enough.) Desert=norm for me. Blue mountains, beige earth dotted with dusty green, sun bleached oranges and reds, that's earth to me.

I should note that whenever I'm driving through California's "golden hills" I just think they're dead dead dead, because I grew up in South Florida and I know from green grass and I know from dead, burnt grass. My notions of lush and their notions of lush do not jibe.

I know a few people have taken javelins because they weren't watching what was going on, but has an equipment oops ever taken out a competitor?

People get beaned watching golf all the time. Plus foul balls take our a fair number of spectators in baseball every year. But those aren't really equipment failures. There has been an issue in baseball in the last couple years with maple bats exploding and sending shards of woody shrapnel everywhere. Ash bats are more common and traditional and they don't exploderate like maple.

When I'm on the West Coast the ocean feels like its on the wrong side. I realize this sounds insane, but it really really does.

I'm so used to Lake Michigan being East of me that it seems the natural place for a large body of water to be. Even after living in San Francisco - maybe 'cuz I didn't see the ocean too much, but saw the bay to the East & North all the time....

When I'm on the West Coast the ocean feels like its on the wrong side. I realize this sounds insane, but it really really does.

It took me a pretty long time to acclimate myself to the ocean being on my left side when I faced north. So I think that's fairly common for East Coast people on the West Coast.

I snorted at this, ita!

Ahem.

Great news about Gracie!

I like ocean, unsurprisingly. Lots of water. Good.

Great news about Gracie!

Definitely!

I like ocean, unsurprisingly. Lots of water. Good.

Again, Definitely!

When I'm on the West Coast the ocean feels like its on the wrong side. I realize this sounds insane, but it really really does.

When I moved to Chicago, I basically had to flip my brain because Lake Michigan had been to the west for the past 27 years.

Lake Michigan had been to the west for the past 27 years.

That'd be weird.

But the Eastern (Michigan side) is prettier....

My experience of seeing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time was that it looked much smaller than the Pacific. My EC friends scoffed, but I realized later what I was missing. It was those expansive vistas along the beach and PCH.

I like oceans, mountains, desert, woods, green hills and brown hills.

In Olympic news - how is race walking not just slow, crappy running?