Sleeping Around is an inspirational biography of Mary's global, all seven continents, adventures. Her frequent exclamation "Defying death, once again" describes her close or dangerous encounters. Other times, Mary is happy to have experienced a challenging adventure with simply a happy end-ing. The intent of this book is to intrigue the reader either through armchair enjoyment or creating an inspiration or motivation to those who may feel encouraged to follow in her footsteps.
The cover photo, taken during a dive trip by Photo Editor of the late Tucson Citizen Phares K. Weis III, captures Mary awakening from a night's sleep on a cot outside a beachfront palapa in San Francisquito, Baja. Sleeping Around is not a chronicle of cruising nor is it a travelogue. While Mary has enjoyed luxurious accommodations, she has also has experienced coed bunks on dive boats, yurts in Mongolia, a filthy mosquito-infested room, during a West Nile epidem-ic, while being detained and then deported in Hanoi, a "penthouse" apartment in Istanbul, thatched-roof cabins in Costa Rica, sleeping bags, tents, luxurious safari-type glamps, and lodg-es, ranging from basic to upscale, and more.
The reader should know that Mary's learning to fly, dive, and travel solo to developing coun-tries was not a natural inclination. It was not until she was in her 30s that she evolved into an "adrenaline junkie," when she had to overcome fear and anxiety to find the motivation spurring her adventures.
There is no pressure for the reader to follow Mary's plunging into the oceans of the world to dive with sharks, mantas, saltwater crocs, snakes, and other underwater critters. Nor is there pressure to fly or jump out of an airplane, soar, fly an ultralight, or bungee jump. If you are am-bivalent about throwing a fly rod, jumping a tarpon, explore distant countries on a bicycle, or any of her other adventures, perhaps you'll feel like making an effort to learn by allowing Mary's experiences to encourage you, or perhaps, you'll simply enjoy reading about them.
Fear, concern and various levels of anxiety are common to all of us. The answer is to accept, face, and deal with it appropriately. As you become aware of your limitations or anxieties, you can climb that "wall" to overcome that challenging experience. There is always the option to pass.
If you come away from this book feeling inspired or entertained, then Mary has done a good job of sharing her adventures and a lifetime of fun. Let's hope so.
Mary L. Peachin is a third generation granddaughter of Arizona pioneers. An early recreational shark diver, fascination with her scary experiences led to a career as an author based on one of many newspaper articles written about her adventures.
