{Are You a Fat Fish, Too}

Yesterday, after spending $60.00 on a swimsuit, cap and goggles, and after getting everyone tucked into bed for the night, I drove myself to our overpriced gym that I've used all of 3 times, and jumped into an empty lane in one of the 4 full sized lap pools at said overpriced gym. You see, I had been dreaming of swimming. Literally. Something about that water has been calling me. A friend recently told me that my Sun Sign being Picses probably had a lot to do that - that perhaps the water was healing. Whatever it was, I had to go.

I was extremely nervous, and my heart was doing little flip flops the whole way to the locker room. You see, I do know how to swim. I swam quite a bit growing up. Each summer my mother enrolled me in the local city swim team (Go Goodyear Sharks!). Not only did I know how to swim, I swam competitively. And even if I wasn't quite as good as my little sister, I won my fair share of Blue Ribbons at swim meets. Being on the swim team made the summers in Phoenix bareable. We had swim practice everyday, and a swim meet almost every weekend. My favorite stroke? The BUTTERFLY! Yes, the crappiest hardest most tiring stroke was my favorite. I think it is because it took me so long to learn it, that mastering it was quite a triump for me.

I carried on this way for many years, and finally, my Freshman year, I joined the High School swim team (Go OWLS!). I did that for a year, and then it became too much. I had to chose between swimming and marching band. For some reason Marching band won, and so at the ripe old age of 15, I stopped swimming competitively and regularly in general.

So - there I am, walking out of the locker room, heart pitter pattering, sure that I'm going to sink to the bottom (of the 5 foot deep lap pool) and suddenly it is do or die. I get in. Well - first I sat down on the edge of the pool, then I slid in. Nice and easy. I fiddled with my cap (I don't remember the stupid things being so hard to get on) and adjusted my goggles, and I was off!

I started off with Freestyle, and then started alternating between Freestyle and breast stroke. Around lap 10, curiousity got the best of me, and despite my fear that everyone else in the lap pool would drown laughing at me, I decided to give my old pal the Butterfly a try.

And you know what, internet, swimming really is like riding a bike. Amazingly enough, my arms and legs just seemed to remember what they were doing. Granted, after swimming the stroke for 50 meters, I was about to explode, so my remaining laps in the pool were back to freestyle, but I look forward to building on that!

All in all, I swam 20 laps, and I was truly exhausted afterwards. This morning my arm muscles feel sore, and I was a little tired, but I can't wait to go back tonight!

{Dry Heat}

{Sometimes}

Life doesn't make much sense.

{Goodbye, Friend}

In a very rapid (over the course of 48 hours) amount of time, our dear 4 year old German Shepherd, Guinness, went from *fine* to dead.

He was playing like his normal self on Monday, and by Wednesday night he was refusing to eat anything. We decided to take him to the vet first thing in the morning, and by that time, he was dead. We have no idea what happened - our other dog, Sammie, is fine.

While I often thought that Marley & Me was based on our trials with Guinness, at the end of the day he was still our dog, and we loved him.

We will miss him dearly.