Potatoes in the Mist

You'll be happy to know I dragged myself to the pool today. I enjoyed it once I was there. The pink noodle and I swam slow laps for 20 minutes. I also saw my pool friend. I'm usually shy with new people unless they're the friend of a friend, but this woman is very easy to talk to. She spotted my belly when I was getting out of the pool a few weeks ago and asked me a couple of questions. Turns out she is pregnant too -- but does not look it. She actually has a bigger frame than me, not in a fat way but a broad-shouldered, powerful swimmer way -- but her stomach is like a hard little apple. It's nuts! When I got home, I did a search for due date statistics. It turns out most women, 37% or so, give birth between 40 and 41 weeks...June 10th-16th for me. But two of my friends gave birth recently and one was 2 days before her due date (39th week) and the other was 3 days before her due date (39th week). We shall see. Another thing I have noticed is that NO ONE wants to talk a...

Tidbits from today: 1) I went swimming this morning. A while ago, I asked myself, "Who are you trying to impress?" and gave in to the urge to use a pink noodle under my arms while I do the breaststroke. This way, I can do 30 minutes of laps and not get tired. Anyway, the old man I was sharing the lane with said, "You move at a remarkable clip! I thought I would have to pass you, but you were always ahead of me." I wonder if it's that I was fast (thanks to a little help from my pink noodle friend) or he was slow. But it was a nice compliment all the same :) 2) I was contemplating my toenails and realizing I should clip them, but this is a Herculean task that is just not going to get done -- by me, anyway. I'm still shaving my legs but even that involves gymnastic contortions, and toenail clipping requires fine motor skills in addition to the contortions (shaving just requires broad strokes). And I'm too much of a germophobe (and cheap/frugal/whatever) to ...

I went swimming with A and D today, and we all met in the lobby before heading out to lunch. There was a guy in a gray T-shirt standing across the lobby, and I poked A and said, "See that guy in the gray T-shirt? He's an actor. He was in the Chris Rock movie." I was referring to Head of State. The only problem was, he walked toward us as I was talking, so he heard what I said. I felt like such a dork. You're supposed to pretend to be above it all (the whole celebrity thing, when you spot one) even though you're star-struck. I've even patted this guy's dogs before, without letting on that I knew he was famous. Oh well. I don't think he cared -- he smiled at us -- but I was embarrassed anyway. Then we met up with A's girlfriend at the Irish Rogue, which had been taken over by a rugby game. Huge TV screens showed young men with powerful thighs, duking it out. The whole bar was rooting for Ireland, but A, to be perverse, decided to root for Scotland (h...

So today I went swimming. I try to swim or do yoga every day. Before you get bowled over by my industriousness, note that it's usually yoga, and I use a DVD so I don't need to drag my butt out of the house. The #1 enemy of working out? Laziness. The #2 enemy of working out? Having to schlep my bathing suit, flip flops, swim cap and lock all over town. So I rented a locker at my gym today! This was one of those measures that I was too cheap/frugal to adopt immediately; however, I can say it has improved my life. Now I can swim whenever I want! I don't have to pack a bag full of stuff because it's already there. :)

So D and I went to his pool today. It is known as an "actors' pool", and I did see one kinda famous actor -- Chris Rock's advisor in Head of State. I dutifully went in the slow lane and the swimmers were not as strong as they are at the other gym. They were all comfortably slow and we coexisted peacefully together. I really like swimming lately. You can lie on your back, flutter your legs, do backstroke with your arms or just bring them together above your head and then down by your sides. It's completely relaxing and yet you are working your arms, legs and trunk. It's amazing.

So I recently joined a very cheap gym. I'm excited because (a) it's $6.25 a month, (b) it's really close to me and (c) my previous, $89.00-a-month gym could NOT do billing. For some reason they got it into their heads that I had 2 different memberships (at 2 different rates) and billed me accordingly. I had to explain that I'm 1 person and only needed 1 membership. Then they did it again. Then I told them I was leaving unless they fixed it. They fixed it, but I ended up leaving (a couple months later) anyway. Because the lure of $6.25 a month (with an Olympic-sized pool! 3 blocks away from me!) was too much to turn down. Well, I had a minor embarrassment there this morning. Some of the lanes were very crowded, so I picked the least crowded one (1 other person in it). Well, this dude was apparently Greg Louganis, because he was swimming so fast it was scary! I got tired watching. Then the lifeguard came over, smiled and said hi (I guess to soften the blow), and gently di...

So the Crunch pool reopened today (or a couple days before)...yay! I had missed its bathwater warmth. It took a little vacation over the holidays, and then it was extended. But now it is back in use. I tried blowing bubbles in the pool today while I swam, and though I didn't submerge my face entirely, I did dip my head and blow bubbles on the exhale. Progress. Of course, my mouth was stinging from all the chlorine that seeped in. But I enjoyed it anyway. After swimming, I relaxed in the hot tub, which felt really good, though I missed the friendly, gold-chain gay man and middle-aged photojournalist who are my usual hot tub companions. I guess they only go during the week. We went to Candela with DG last night. I liked my salad special, which was arugula with orange vinaigrette, roasted beets (nestled at the bottom), and crispy vegetarian spring rolls, which I shared with the Others. (My friend Carpe and I always spell "others" with a capital O.) The real highlight of the ...

I've developed an aversion to cardio. I don't know how I logged in so many hours on the treadmill, Precor, rowing machine, etc. in the past. I can't stomach the gym now...with a couple exceptions. Pilates. I show up reliably once or twice a week for Pilates with my very favorite teacher. She is occasionally snide, which makes me laugh. I can't remember exactly what she said, but the gist of it was a bunch of people would bombard the class after New Year's, and she ended with, "Don't worry, they'll be gone soon." She also noticed that I had a different book each class, so I worried she might think I was a speed-reading freak. Then she said, "I read really fast too," and I asked her what she liked to read, and she said, "Stuff like that," pointing to my book. Instant bond. If she ever stopped teaching, I would cry. A lot. Swimming. For some reason I always share the hot tub with the same man (a chatty gay fellow with a gold chain ...