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I've been craving swimming laps lately. I'm not sure what exactly brought this on, but I just really miss swim team. It was actually nice in a way getting up every morning and swimming laps for just under an hour. It was a good way to wake up. Not so much the Inglemoor 4am practices, but for the summer swim league, being up at the Aqua Club by 7:15am wasn't too bad. There's just something calming and wonderful about that repetitive exercise. Also it's hard to feel anything but graceful while moving around in water.
There are some really fun memories from the various swim teams. I was in a really odd position skill-wise at the Aqua Club. In the exhibition races, I would always win the breast stroke (okay there were exceptions, but I don't think I ever got lower than 3rd), but whenever they moved me up to the race that counted for points towards the meet results I'd come in squarely fifth or sixth. Usually sixth. I also was always put on the third relay team, but we never did all that wonderfully. Also in practices I always felt most comfortable in the slowest lanes (5 and 6), but could keep up in lanes 1 and 2 if I tried. It was always just weird and unfamiliar whenever I did try to move up though, I was used to the familiarity of the other end of the pool. Another fun thing about Aqua Club was that the water in our pool was so ridiculously thick that you felt so much faster swimming in any other pool. I never actually checked to see if my times were faster at other pools compared to AC, but it sure felt like it.
Then there was the high school swim team. I was only really on it as a Freshman, and was out for half the season because I broke my arm skateboarding a couple weeks before school started. It was still really fun. This is where I first met Jennie, and got to know Laura again a bit (although she'd just been in a bad car accident and kept cramping because of her back so eventually dropped off the team that year). Once my arm healed, I was out of practice and pretty slow, but in the meantime Jo (the diving coach) had taught me how to judge diving, so that was one of my duties throughout the season. It was actually really fun and got me interested in diving. The only time I ever got to practice with Jo instead of doing the laps workout was the day I got my period. That was interesting for sure, having my period come for the first time just before swim practice. I tried a few laps, but my body was just felt too weird because this was something brand new. So I was excused from practice for the day, encouraged to call my mother and share the wonderful news, and went to help Jo with the divers. She knew that I was interested in diving, having watched and helped with it all season, so she sent me up onto the board to do a basic exercise. Unfortunately, someone from the district was there observing so I only got to dive once or twice before Monica came over to ask that only the divers dive that day.
So, my goal is now to get a new swimsuit (the old Inglemoor swim team one is getting faded and almost see-through in places) and start swimming laps now and then. But for now, I will go back to multitasking by writing about MSI for a class tomorrow, and paying attention to the lecture I'm sitting in for Intro to Ancient Egyptian Religion. Today we're learning some of the more important gods and how they're represented and what they're for and a bit of the myths behind them.
Also, I ran across an interesting rant by Amanda Palmer last night. It's about someone accusing her of making light of abortion and rape in her song "Oasis," and is here on her blog. At the end she links to another interesting post by Katrina Galore.
This is the video for "Oasis":
There are some really fun memories from the various swim teams. I was in a really odd position skill-wise at the Aqua Club. In the exhibition races, I would always win the breast stroke (okay there were exceptions, but I don't think I ever got lower than 3rd), but whenever they moved me up to the race that counted for points towards the meet results I'd come in squarely fifth or sixth. Usually sixth. I also was always put on the third relay team, but we never did all that wonderfully. Also in practices I always felt most comfortable in the slowest lanes (5 and 6), but could keep up in lanes 1 and 2 if I tried. It was always just weird and unfamiliar whenever I did try to move up though, I was used to the familiarity of the other end of the pool. Another fun thing about Aqua Club was that the water in our pool was so ridiculously thick that you felt so much faster swimming in any other pool. I never actually checked to see if my times were faster at other pools compared to AC, but it sure felt like it.
Then there was the high school swim team. I was only really on it as a Freshman, and was out for half the season because I broke my arm skateboarding a couple weeks before school started. It was still really fun. This is where I first met Jennie, and got to know Laura again a bit (although she'd just been in a bad car accident and kept cramping because of her back so eventually dropped off the team that year). Once my arm healed, I was out of practice and pretty slow, but in the meantime Jo (the diving coach) had taught me how to judge diving, so that was one of my duties throughout the season. It was actually really fun and got me interested in diving. The only time I ever got to practice with Jo instead of doing the laps workout was the day I got my period. That was interesting for sure, having my period come for the first time just before swim practice. I tried a few laps, but my body was just felt too weird because this was something brand new. So I was excused from practice for the day, encouraged to call my mother and share the wonderful news, and went to help Jo with the divers. She knew that I was interested in diving, having watched and helped with it all season, so she sent me up onto the board to do a basic exercise. Unfortunately, someone from the district was there observing so I only got to dive once or twice before Monica came over to ask that only the divers dive that day.
So, my goal is now to get a new swimsuit (the old Inglemoor swim team one is getting faded and almost see-through in places) and start swimming laps now and then. But for now, I will go back to multitasking by writing about MSI for a class tomorrow, and paying attention to the lecture I'm sitting in for Intro to Ancient Egyptian Religion. Today we're learning some of the more important gods and how they're represented and what they're for and a bit of the myths behind them.
Also, I ran across an interesting rant by Amanda Palmer last night. It's about someone accusing her of making light of abortion and rape in her song "Oasis," and is here on her blog. At the end she links to another interesting post by Katrina Galore.
This is the video for "Oasis":
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