How's Yer Holidays....

I swam during the day today, inbetween patients. The water was warm but manageable. I had two interactions with lifeguards today. One before I swam and one after. Here they are in that order. The second one is a major cliche!

Rich (one of the lifeguards): How you been?
Me: Good...[thinking: I know I haven't been swimming enough]
Rich: So how many [laps are you going to swim today]?
Me:....40!
Rich: High fives me

Note to reader: I only swam 36.

Lifeguard whose name I forget: "How's your holidays?"
Me: "Good! How's your holidays?"
Lifeguard: "Good, good."

Choppy Sunday

I get blue around the holidays, especially because my trip to Ohio was cancelled due to a snow storm. I will go to Ohio in mid-February when my mom has surgery for her thyroid cancer. Anyway, when I am feeling a little down, like on a Sunday night like tonight, the swimming is always a good thing to do. I'm hoping that since school is out all of this coming week I will have some time to swim. Tonight I swam at the end of the night, with one other swimmer. He was a choppy swimmer who swam next to me. He wasn't too distracting, though. In fact, I felt sort of choppy myself.

Swim stretch:

Face the wall of the pool and hold the edge with both hands. Put both feet together so that the bottoms of your feet are pressed against each other, with knees out (as if you are sitting down indian style but without legs crossed). Push thighs down (not using your hands, just thigh muscles) and feel the stretch there. Hold for twenty seconds. This is one of my favorite stretches because it feels so good.

Holiday Swim

I swam for the last half hour of the pool being open yesterday. Three people joined me: a guy doing the dolphin, a chubby guy, and a girl. The dolphin dude and the other girl (besides me) shared a lane. I like swimming right before closing because then my time is determined (e.g. swim at least half a mile and stretch before the pool closes, shower for fifteen minutes before the shower room closes, and get ready to go for fifteen minutes before the whole gym closes). The whole event has a "beat the clock" quality to it. Even though you'd think that people would have a routine and thus realize what time everything closes...there's always someone who doesn't. Today it was a woman who wanted to shower right when "shower time" had ended. The locker room worker told her that she couldn't, and, as my mom would say, the woman "pitched a bitch." The locker room worker was equally furious and told the woman that she'd already put chemicals on the shower floor, and so the woman couldn't shower. At that moment, I stepped out of the dressing area connected to one of the showers, and the woman seized on the opportunity, saying, "I can shower there!" The locker room worker told the woman that she couldn't but the woman dashed in anyway, saying, "I'll just be a minute!" She was pretty quick.

Who are these "Saturday Night Men" ????

I have still been a total swim slacker. When I am out of a routine, I am a mess. I need to be a perfectionist or nothing. Enough about my issues, let's talk about yours! I went swimming on Saturday night, and it was ab fab! I was tired in this peaceful way, and the swimming felt like ecstasy. I was with all men, these buff thirty year-olds --about six of them-- who mysteriously disappeared a half hour before the pool closed! Then I had the pool to myself! The lifeguard swept up the water before closing, and I enjoyed my paces. Swim gym cliche:
Me (to buff crowded lane): "Sorry but I need to join you."
Buff lane: Nodds.

Bitchin' Bout the Swim Team

I had a great swim today in the midst of this major swim slump! The water felt slightly warm but not too much, and it felt like velvet. I swam easily with good time despite my lack of consistency (to say the least!). I was able to count every lap without getting lost in thought and did not need to do any back stroke. Back stroke allows me to breathe more if I am having a tiring swim. I also turn to it when I am bored. At the end of the swim about five of us discussed how we hate the swim team because they take over the pool from 8:30 to 9:30 three nights per week (Tu., Wed. and Th.). The bitch session was full of swim cliches:
Me: "They could at least leave one lane open!"
X: "Why do they use the pool at such a popular time for the rest of us?"
Y: "I can't believe I only have fifteen minutes to swim right now!"
Z: "Three nights a week is too much...."