La Phalene

Thanks to the some $100 I shelled out at the start of summer vacation, I have access to the various athletetic facilities McGill offers. One of them is a pool, and I’ve been going more or less weekly, on Wednesdays.

I’ve never been a strong swimmer. I get water up my nose very easily, I hate diving and mostly I dog paddle about. After about three sessions, I’m as good as where finished kiddy swimming lessons (which is not very, but oh well), but I still mostly cling to the walls in a limpit fashion, doing pull ups off the edge of the pool. Today was the first day I practiced seriously putting my face under water again and swimming that way… Usually all I can muster is a few tentative ducks. I think it helps that instead of the pool being filled with screaming kids who are better swimmers than me and will fight me over pool toys, it’s full of other pear shaped woman in one pieces putzing about for their health. Adulthood has its blessings. Plus I can get a pool noodle all to myself now.

I think what I like about the water is stretching out my limbs in a way I can’t do on dry land. I like to pretend I’m graceful nymph, one of the fresh water naiads of greek myths without the being-raped-by-a-god subtext. I suspect to the lifeguards I look like a distressed seal, but if I go every Wednesday for the next three months, I bet I’ll be a passable swimmer.

I haven’t been updating this, because every time I look at the account I’m deeper in spam debt. Since comment moderation has no ’select all’, I’m either forced to delete ten or twenty spam bot posts a day, or try messing around with rebooting everything. Either way, I’m not impressed.

In other news, it’s two days after my 23rd birthday. I got several cards and cheques (thank you, yes, money makes me very happy!) and numerous well wishes via facebook. I also got taken out to Ethiopian food at Le Nil Bleu, and Mothboy IV bought me makeup and makeup tools, almst entirely from the Joe Fresh line, which I’ll tell you more about later. Right now I’m knee deep in his camping equipment, as Mothboy IV spent a miserable, frosty weekend before my birthday having near death experiences on a mountain. I think it’s one of those macho cyclist things, but right now I’m babysitting tarps and propane camp stoves and other bulky portable shelter related items. Given that I live in a one room studio, I’m less than impressed, but provided they’re gone in the next two days I won’t kick up too big a fuss.