A Day in the Life
Today was a pretty busy day, but it was fun, and Howie and I were actually in the same place most of the day, doing things together,which doesn't happen often enough.
I did make it a priority to start my day with exercise. I went to spinning class at the Rec Center, and the class starts at 8 sharp. By 8:02 all twelve bikes were occupied.
I gave new meaning to "rolling out of bed"into exercise as the handiest thing to pull on over my bike shorts were my favorite jammy bottoms and pink under armour sweatshirt. My hair was everywhere (which is hard, because even though I am growing it, it still isn't that long) and my water was already iced as it had spent the night in the car. I remarked that I could have used the generated body heat from the class on my windshield when I went out to start the car. Someone said, "that's why you have a garage." My response? "Well, you haven't seen my garage, but you can visit my blog to see pictures."
The class was great, and then it was immediately on to the next. But only after catching up with the woman on the bike next to me who is someone I swam with like 15 years ago. Or maybe it was more...now I am feeling old.
So I went home, took a shower, put another load of wash in and made an egg white omelet with some dill and blue cheese (just a tad). Yummy. Boy was that good! And we got ready for the swim meet, at which I agreed to watch our swimmers and document what they were doing right and wrong. It seems like the officials have a really hard time DQing anyone, and actually think they are doing the kids a favor by not disqualifying them. The kids are in for a rude surprise when they meet a stroke judge who actually does their job, so I was recruited to provide feedback. I dressed in my whites for the occasion:
Hey, I even had jewelry to match!
Now I am back in my favorite wardrobe selection, my jammies and ready to collapse. Tomorrow is another day.
I did make it a priority to start my day with exercise. I went to spinning class at the Rec Center, and the class starts at 8 sharp. By 8:02 all twelve bikes were occupied.
I gave new meaning to "rolling out of bed"into exercise as the handiest thing to pull on over my bike shorts were my favorite jammy bottoms and pink under armour sweatshirt. My hair was everywhere (which is hard, because even though I am growing it, it still isn't that long) and my water was already iced as it had spent the night in the car. I remarked that I could have used the generated body heat from the class on my windshield when I went out to start the car. Someone said, "that's why you have a garage." My response? "Well, you haven't seen my garage, but you can visit my blog to see pictures."
The class was great, and then it was immediately on to the next. But only after catching up with the woman on the bike next to me who is someone I swam with like 15 years ago. Or maybe it was more...now I am feeling old.
So I went home, took a shower, put another load of wash in and made an egg white omelet with some dill and blue cheese (just a tad). Yummy. Boy was that good! And we got ready for the swim meet, at which I agreed to watch our swimmers and document what they were doing right and wrong. It seems like the officials have a really hard time DQing anyone, and actually think they are doing the kids a favor by not disqualifying them. The kids are in for a rude surprise when they meet a stroke judge who actually does their job, so I was recruited to provide feedback. I dressed in my whites for the occasion:
Hey, I even had jewelry to match!And then when we got home from the meet (a two hour drive away) we got all decked out and went to a fundraising dinner for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Last year I got some great things at the auction portion of the evening, no such luck this time, but we did sit with friends and had a lovely time.
Now I am back in my favorite wardrobe selection, my jammies and ready to collapse. Tomorrow is another day.
Labels: Big Brothers, Big SIsters, Spinning at the DACC, swim meet officiating
posted by www.kathypride.com at
11:17 PM
1 Comments:
You are right about not doing the swimmers any favors by overlooking DQs. Josh never had that "favor." In fact, the very first meet he competed in was his first experience. It went very badly. Granted, Josh was older when he started swimming, but that doesn't excuse this ref's behavior. Josh was coached to swim no matter what was going on around him. Except in his first race, someone jumped the gun, so the ref blew the whistle for everyone to stop. Josh didn't know what the whistle meant, and swam his little heart out. So the ref blew the whistle again, right next to swimming Josh. And again, since Josh continued to swim. When he finally got Josh's attention, he yelled impatiently and angrily that it was a false start and didn't Josh hear the whistle? At this point, the whole meet's attention is on Josh, which I think embarassed me more than it did Josh. Neither of us newbies understood what Josh had done wrong. I explained to the ref that this was Josh's first meet and he didn't understand the whistle signal. I was very upset, near crying. They started the race again, and Josh gamely took the chance to swim his best. I complained to our coach, to the most senior person at the meet (it was a summer rec league) and again when the even more senior person called me at home.
Long story short: Josh went on to swim and win many meets, captain the high school swim team, swim on a year-round club team, and make the team of his Division I swim team in college, where he continued to do very well until his shoulder gave out. Now he swims for fun and exercise. I am very proud of what he overcame on the very first day.
So teach those kiddies about EXACTLY how they need to execute their strokes and turns. THAT is doing them a favor.
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