Summer Swimming: Day One and Two

Well, WELL. Would you look at this: blogging in the summer. Its unheard of!

So swimteam started yesterday. My feelings toward it in the days approaching were not mixed. They were very simple.

 I'm a simple person.

And then the day before it became more of a unhappy acceptance. 

And by the time I was in bed on Monday night, slightly delirious with dread and sleepiness, I remember thinking, "Yeah its no big deal, I LOVE swimming."

HA. I was such a silly child.

Because by the time I woke up, 

I forgot why my alarm was going off. "Why is it dark outside? Why am I supposed to be awake?"

And then I remembered. So we're babysitting this little kid, and he's staying in Amy's room, so she was staying in my room. (So Amy, how do you feel about getting kicked out of your room by a 19 month old?" "Same way I feel about getting kicked out of my room by anyone") So I couldn't turn on the light or anything.

As a matter of fact I DO love stumbling around my room in the early early morning before its light!

All I could really think about was, "What was I thinking last night? This is HORRIBLE."

So then I go through that same range of emotions as I wake up and eat and drive to practice.

So its pretty much exactly the same people as last year, just less. I'm in the top two percent of girls, (as far as height, age and even speed goes.) not to be cocky and stuff, but all the old fast girls left. So I'm kind of suddenly one of the oldest people.

So I thought about this a lot "Get into lane four, because if you get into lane one you will be stuck there forever with no friends, and the rest of your summer will consist of you hitting peoples feet."

So I, you know, TAKE OFF MY CLOTHES. Do you want to know how cold it was Tuesday morning? It wasn't actually that cold, compared to today, but t was pretty chilly. It was the kind of chilly where I would normally go outside with a jacket on and just chill and think about how not-cold it is, but everything changes when you're wearing a swim suit with the prospect of getting in equally chilly water.

So I get in the water and swam some backstroke/freestyle drills for about an hour until some ice cold water got stuck in my ear and I got this headache that was like the most painful thing I've ever felt. Ever. So I went and stood in the 200 degree showers until it passed. Let me tell you: there is nothing like a 200 degree shower after a 60 degree pool to make a headache get ABSOLUTELY WORSE. But it passed.

So then I got back in the pool and swam for another hour and then got in the showers for another 20 minutes and then went home and slept for like two hours.

Anyway, I got up the next day and it wasn't quite as bad. I got ready and ate and stuff, and then I was walking out the door when mom was like, "Michelle, do you have a shirt?" Uh, kuduur, I have a shirt. A tank top. In my bag.
And she was like, "You might want a shirt cause its kind of chilly."
Kind of chilly....KIND OF CHILLY??
"What? Its cold?"
"No not cold. Just chilly, its 62."
..... Celsius?
What part of 68 is "not cold"?
68 SCREAMS cold.

So I drive to swim team and I'm one of the first people there, so I walk in, and my coach is on the other side of the pool with two swimmers and they're trying to pull the giant lane line holder out of the water.

Now, last year, in the last few days of swimteam, my coach got so annoyed at the lane line holder that he threw it over the fence. (the lane line holder was metal, and probably like seven feet wide and five feet tall. And the fence is also seven feet tall.)

So they got a new one. Its just as big, but its plastic and apparently pretty hollow, because it filled with water and was pretty heavy, I guess. It took like four guys to pull it out.

But anyway, I know what you're thinking. Why, oh why is the lane line holder in the pool? And in the deep end for that matter? (13 feet or something crazy like that)

But here's a better question. Why is there a trashcan in the water?

And an even better question, Why is the life guard stand at the bottom of these 13 feet? When I say life guard stand I mean life guard STAND. Its like eight feet tall, and made out of metal.

So there were like 13 boys trying to get it out for about 20 minutes.

And all the girls were standing on the other end of the pool, like,

They succeeded and in the end coach said that it was probably just some "ridiculous hoodlum" who did it. Solved that.
Girls: "Das right 20 less minutes of practice. Thank you ridiculous hoodlum!"

But then we had to get in the water.

Thats pretty much the most accurate depiction of anything I've ever seen, using animals.

IT WAS SO COLD.

Everyone was freezing the entire time. But then we got into breastroke and these two girls that have been faster than my my whole life were both like, "You're faster than me, go ahead."

Life goal: ACHIEVED.

So I led the lane for a short time and it was glorious. I looked behind me at one point (Every 25 or 50) and,

And then it was OVER (after I died from butterfly, but lets not go into that). And I was like, "Yay hot showers!" So I went to the showers and the went from 200 to 80 in about three minutes. Apparently the boys were having a shower party or something.

I've always kind of assumed that boys don't really have any interaction in the bathroom. Like, even though the bathroom is like completely open, I can never hear them talking. But today they were making a ruckus and having a party or something, and using up all my precious hot water.

But anyway, since I'm saying all the negative stuff about swimteam, it makes it sounds like I like absolutely nothing about swimteam, and then people are going to be like ,"Then why do you do it, Michelle? You want to torture yourself?"

There are things about swimteam that I like. I like swimming, and thats the biggest thing. I like the coach, I like most of the people, I like competition and I like winning. So its not all depressing.

Anyway. Hopefully I'll get to blerg some in the near future and tell you more about my incredibly interesting life.

-michelle.