Swimming

This post feels really de ja vous or however it is spelled so apologies if I've written about it before.  

Anyways, with my time off this summer, I've spending quite a bit of time pool side.  The community pool in my neighborhood has a 25m section and while earlier in the summer it was always packed with kids and their families making it impossible for lap swimming (we have no lane lines or a designated lap time), now that the kiddos are back in school (it's year round school where I live) and I have had the pool all to myself, or close to it.  

Some things that haven't changed:

1) Swimming still comes naturally to me.  Even after not swimming for a couple years I can slip into the water and it feels as comfortable and as natural as reconnecting with a dear old friend or putting on a pair of jeans that never fail you.  

2) Water (to clarify, pool water not deep, dark, can't see the bottom open water) is still amazingly soothing to me.  Astrologically I am an air sign (traits: aloof, clumsy, desire for change, social, flexible, communicative, etc), but according to Asian calendars I was born under element of fire (traits: passionate, go-getters, intuitive, enthusiastic, leapers before thinking, fighters, power/strength, fast thinkers/doers etc - all of which can be used for destructive purposes or rebirth - think Pele).  Ayurvedically I also have a lot of pitta, or heat/fire, in me (self-confident, physical strength, gets irritated if they have to miss a meal (Juan calls this part of me The Hulk), assertive, competitive, physically runs hot, tends to have skin and digestive issues etc).  Taking into consideration that my strongest element, by far, is fire followed closely by air (let's all take a moment to acknowledge how air fuels fire), my pitta tendencies, and the fact that I live in the goddamn desert, it is no wonder that I find water grounding and soothing, and, well, cooling.  When I get anxious or nervous plunging my hands into ice cold water has a very calming effect on me.  Even when I get sick all I want is a nice cool wash cloth on my face or neck.  Submerging my entire body into cool water when I go swimming is pure bliss.  Floating around, allowing the water to come up around my ears so that the world is muffled and all I can hear is my breathing, instantly slows me down.  My brain just kinda goes quiet, my body becomes graceful and elegant moving through the water instead of my usual, fiercely annoying special brand of clumsy.  Needless to say, water is an elemental way of balancing myself and literally cooling my naturally heated system.  

3) I can still choke under water.  I know this is the reason why many people do not like to put their face in the water, and maybe it's because I feel so grounded and calm and comfortable in the water, but I've never felt like I was going to drown (save one time at the beach when I was very small hence my issues with deep, dark, open water).  When I swam competitively it was pretty much inevitable that you were going to inhale/swallow a gross amount of pool water.  In a race when that happens you don't stop.  Hell, even in practice, you didn't stop.  In fact, you do the opposite of what you might think and stick your face in the water and cough, hard, until you get the water out and then take a big refreshing gulp of air at your next stroke.  

4) In addition to being able to choke under water, there are other little tricks I learned from my swim days.  Like pulling my cap back down during a flip turn.  Flip turns, period.  Form - elbows stay nice and high on that freestyle.  Creating that little pocket of air to breathe right above your shoulder but under your chin with your stroke.  How to put a cap on without help.  That perfect, snug fit of your goggles to ensure no water leakage.  Tying bikinis up in ways so that they don't fall off.  

5) Breast is still by far my worst stroke.  Always has been, pretty sure it always will be.  Freestyle I've always been strong in, as well as fly.  While my endurance is shot with fly, my stroke is still spot on.  Since we don't have lane lines and no flags I didn't even bother attempting back.  Chances are I would have ended up beaching myself on the wading pool side in the shallow end.  

6) I can also still hear my coach yelling at me every time I breathe coming off a flip turn.  I can hear my coach making strange noises whenever my head would bob up during breast stroke.  I can also hear my mother getting "Just keep swimming" a la Dory from Finding Nemo stuck in my head.  I can also see my friend/teammate Megan counting down my distance swims for me as supposed to counting up on the laps.  Something I still prefer to do in my head.  
Things that have changed:

1) Obviously endurance.  Cardio exercises and even strength doesn't translate over from one medium or modality to another.  Each activity is unique in its own way and if you want to be good at a specific exercise you have to do that specific exercise to create the strength, endurance and power needed for it.  

2) I kick now!  I used to not kick unless I was doing fly because all my power came from my kick.  Otherwise my feet just kinda half heartedly and lazily fluttered behind me.  I kick now.  

3) I cannot spend hours in the sun without copious amounts of sunscreen applied multiple times.  When I was a kid and spent literally every day of summer pool side for a good 6hours at a time, I only ever put sunscreen on my face.  By the time school started I was so brown it looked like I spent my summer on some tropical island and was actually a native of there.  I'm still that brown now (for the first time since I was a kid) but now I have to lather on the sunscreen head to toe every hour that I am at the pool/in the sun or I burn.  I have two theories on this.  First, melanin apparently is like muscles in that you use it or lose it.  Since I am no longer spending all my time outside, my skin doesn't protect itself as well as it used to.  Second, I practically live on the face of the sun and am convinced that there is less ozone here in the desert and so the sun is literally more intense here than it is elsewhere.  

So after all that word vomit, this summer has reminded me how much I love water and how, in a way, I need it in my life.  So, babe, this is your fair warning that I want a pool in our backyard if we don't live in a place with a community pool.  

My Little Pink Book

So, I'm forgetful.  Really.  It's the running family joke that I can't leave the house in one shot because I have to come back at least once to get something I've forgotten.  Prom, good lord.  My poor mothers were constantly having to drive sometimes an hour out of their way to bring me things like the boutonniere, my make up, and even more essentially, my bra.  Things haven't really changed.  My dear husband has learned to just run through a checklist of things I am always asking him to turn around for.  "Have your keys?  Your phone?  Your wallet?  Your head?"  It extends into other parts of my life as well.  I can verbalize out loud the need to do something as soon as I get home, hell, I can be in the car driving home and verbalize that, and still forget to do it when I get home.  Grocery store, friggen night mare.  

As a means of coping with my forgetfulness, I make lists.  People make fun of my lists that I make when I pack for a trip, but let me tell you, it saves us the trouble of having to call in needed prescriptions or having to run to the store to buy essentials like toothpaste or underwear.  I menu plan for the week and make a grocery list based on that menu and sometimes I still forget something. 

I've downloaded a bunch of notepad apps and list apps and stuff like that on my pone to help with my lists.  I use them for a couple weeks and then I stop.  Not because they were ineffective, but, honestly, because I got sick and tired of always having to unlock my phone and pull the list up.  I went back to paper lists, which I know is not environmentally friendly, but there is something incredibly convenient about just having a list and a pen in your hand and being able to check things off as you go, no unlocking, no black out screens, no timing out of anything.  

While this system worked really well for groceries, messages and to dos were still getting lost in my head because I had no way to write them down.  After my friend Jil posted about her little book that she carries around with her everywhere specifically for things like this, I went out and bought one of my own.  

It's amazing.  I keep it with me whenever I leave the house, I even keep it close by when I'm at home so that when anything pops into my head I can write it down.  I haven't forgotten anything in the going on two weeks that I've had it!  I haven't completely figured out the system I'm going to use in it yet, but it is so damn helpful.  I got a voicemail and listened to it in the grocery store parking lot and boom, written down in my little pink book and it was taken care of.  I was cooking and realized I was short on some spices, boom, written down in my little pink book and I remembered to get some when I went to the store next.  Sappho needs more HeartGuard, boom, written down in my little pink book to get in a couple weeks and just seeing my little pink book reminds me that I need to go buy some.  

AND, and this is probably the coolest thing so far, it's gotten me back in the habit of writing, which is making me journal more, and that's always a good thing.  

Bonus: it even has a great little accordion pocket in the back!