"Try-Athletes": 'Tis The Night...

'Tis the night before convention

And all through the house

There is so much to do

I could just choke myself

For leaving it all 'til the last minute

And thinking I could do it right quick

When what I want to do now

Is between the blankets, just slip

With the dishes piled up

And a-barking's my dog

Here I am on the computer

Writing just one more blog

Well... the laundry is washing

And the dog's bag is packed

Jenny bought the snacks

So things aren't THAT bad

Getting hair done tomorrow

And I don't wanna go to bed late

My big problem now

Is which purse to take?

***

Tonight, instead of staying home and getting ready for convention, we got in a second workout this week. We went swimming!! Yay for us! We have to be committed because we missed almost a week and we will be missing two days this week due to convention.

So, Jenny, Lisa and I got our butts in gear.

Ok, first of all, I just want to say that we were all business tonight. That was odd. Alanna didn't get there right away because she was super sick and busy so we got at it. We did the Swim Lesson Plan from before, because it is kind of our go-to thing anyway, and we were At Work right from the get-go.

We hopped into Arctic Pool. Within the first 5 minutes, I had done 5 laps. Not even kidding.

Um, almost unbelievable, I know, but I double checked the time and everything. Not saying I didn't take a break at each end, because I did, but I did swim 5 laps in 5 minutes. Oh yeah, oh yeah *running man dance here*. And I kept going. In fact, we all swam (swum?) flat out until about 8:15 when we were just exhausted.

We all kept an eye on each other's progress tonight. Lisa does a mean backstroke. She is all business on that one. She is working on her front crawl.

I am getting better on my left side breathing but it takes me a bit of time to work up to do it well enough not to drown when I'm doing it.

Jenny is doing well all around in the swim department, and she started using the little float buddies tonight. They send your arse flying up into the air even if you would like it to stay in the water. Whatever about it, arse up you go.

Alanna corrected my form tonight. Yay! I have a 'form'! WOOOOOO! That looks like a calm 'woo' but it is not, let me assure you. It is a shrill, coming from the gut and hurting my throat while busting your eardrums kind of 'woo'. I have to kick more from the hips. So I practiced and now I swim really fast, like a shark. Alanna always tells me to swim under the girls if they are in my way. Oh yeah, no problem. I can barely swim under the lane divider so that I can go to the side in order to get out of the pool.

Alanna helped me work on kick tonight and I felt like I was just throwing my legs around. Apparently, the more you throw yourself around in the pool, the better you look. I thought the opposite, but this helps you swim faster, too. Well, I will throw myself all around the place if need be. When I feel like I am out of control, Jenny also says this is when I look my best and Alanna says this is when I swim my fastest, so I guess you can't really tell from just feeling it yourself, either. It's good to have people around to see you, too.

It's starting to get crowded in the special lane. Not kidding. We swim so fast now that we are passing each other. It got dangerous in there a couple of times tonight. At one point, I ended up stopping in the middle because the girls were both coming at me and I had nowhere to go. I was in the middle when both Lisa and Jenny were swimming by me at the same time, in different directions. I had to Think Skinny and hope I didn't get smashed or ran over. That hasn't happened before. There could have been a dangerous accident.

At another time, both girls were swimming toward me and Alanna was telling me to start swimming NOW. As in, swim toward them OR ELSE. Like, where in the name of all that is Holy was I supposed to go? I mean, I know we are getting healthy and getting smaller but there is no way that three of us could swim comfortably up one of those swim lanes, especially if one of us is swimming up the middle in the opposite direction. And I don't want to be the guinea pig swimming in the opposite direction.

I had fins on for awhile and there was no stopping me. Back and forth, back and forth. It's kind of boring when you swim that fast - the world is just zipping by. It's fun, in a way, until you get used to it. But I can see it being a big help with working on kick on the 50m.

There were a few times when Jenny would finish her lap and then I would finish mine but I would be swimming behind her and then knock right into her. She would be trying to get away from me but I would be swimming too fast to stop myself. haha.

We said that we usually get tired about 45 minutes into the session. That's a long time to be swimming constantly, at least for us. Jenny says when she gets tired, she challenges herself even more. I told the girls that when I get tired after swimming that long, I congratulate myself profusely. I say, "Hell girl, you are doing great! Take a little break, look how hard you worked! Wow! I am so proud of you today! Don't barf! Wooooo!" You gotta say something positive to yourself - the world is a very negative place. You have to be positive in your head or things will get nasty everywhere. Jenny believes in working harder while I believe in being lazy.

Also, I think you have to look around you and take pointers from people around you. I watch Alanna, Jenny and Lisa and try to work from them. The things they do well are the things that are right, so obviously we can learn from each other. I watch Lisa's backstroke so when I do it, I try to do the same things. It takes practice. Jenny's front crawl is really good so I watch her arms so I can concentrate on doing the same things. When Alanna shows me the same things or corrects me, I picture the things she shows me while I am swimming. And I ask them to show me things all the time. We all ask each other to help because we need the reassurance and the assessment and the fun and the laughter. There's nothing wrong with fun and laughter when you are learning :).

I LOVE SWIMMING.

The pool was kind of shady tonight because there weren't that many people around. The pool closes at 8pm but we are there until 8:30 because we are superstars or something. But it's kind of eerie when we are the ony ones there. It's like there is something going on that we don't know about. And then, when we are leaving, they are cleaning the place and there is this little electric scrubbing machine underwater that is just running around on the bottom of the pool by itself, which by the way totally looks like it should not ever be submerged in water especially since it is plugged in to an electrical socket, and Jenny pipes up to say, "Hey, this is just like the thing on Paranormal Activity!" Yep, just like that. Welcome to the jungle, folks. We got fun and games. (GnR).

When we left, we were discussing how far we have come in a month. We are doing awesome work. Jenny has her form back; I have a form; and Lisa lost her life saving gear. She used to get in the pool with so much stuff on that she used to just float and not be able to move her limbs ;) but now she can do the work all by herself!!

***

Today, Jenny reminded me that I turned into a bit of a devil/vampire last night when we were leaving MacIsland. I didn't mean to, a little bit, it's just that some man decided to block off all access to leaving MI, and we were trying to exit the situation.

Then, he gave me The Shrug, as if I was doing something wrong. Now, if I am doing something wrong, then The Shrug is bad enough at that moment. But when I am not doing something wrong and you are, well The Shrug is just a bad move on your part.

So I gave him The Death Glare. Through my window, into his window.

So he made hand motions at me. Oh no, he didn't.

So, I gave him The I Don't Know What You Are Trying To Say Look.

Then he gave me The Roll Down Your Window Look with accompanying hand gestures.

I was actually flabbergasted at this man. Jenny said, "I think he wants to say something to you. Be nice!" At the same time, I said, "What. The. F*&$ (except I said the word) is wrong with this A$%^#%$?!?!"

I threw down the gloves so he would know what was up.

Down went the window. Up went the chin. I couldn't even speak because I was so riled up.

"Hey, uh, is this where the uh, library is?" he asked.

I'm sure the disbelief registered on my face. Great way to deflate anger. The three words that would work with the acronym, G.F.Y., were aching to roll off my tongue, but just could not be said in response to such an innocent question.

"Yeah." was about all I could get out.

"Is it open right now?" he asked.

Do I look like the library police?

"I don't know." I responded.

"Ok." he said.

I nodded and rolled up my window, which was about all I could do. Jenny said she was sitting in the passenger seat, terrified because I was making angry devil noises and vampire eyebrows. It wasn't that bad. But seriously, who blocks access to traffic in order to ask about the library? What are you, a mad professor? "Me, I likes readin' dem lye-berry books and I gots to get me some books be-for dey runs out!"

***

I'm glad we are all together on this. It makes it so much better, and so much fun.

We go together like

rama lama lama

ke ding a de dinga a dong

remembered for ever like

shoo bop shoo wadda wadda yipitty boom de boom

Chang chang chang-it-ty chang

shoo-bop

That's the way it should be

Wha oooh yeah!

(Grease)

I can't wait to go to convention so Jenny and I can get some good Waffles.