Otherwise known as The Perfect Blend.
Yesterday was one of those amazing days that are a perfect blend of productivity and sociability. I think it best to break it down chronologically.
8:30-9:30. Woke up and wrote a post about my lovely Aiko-chan, dreaded alarm kitty and sweet calico all in one. That post has now been read twenty-five times. Not bad. I drank coffee, talked with Chuck, and typed on my laptop. It was an excellent hour.
9:30-10:30. I've been feeling disgusted about letting my room be just a bit messy and the coffee table, dusty. Soooo.... I got out the cleaners and cleaned my little area of the living room, my bathroom, and my bedroom, thoroughly. Chuck keeps a really neat home for a bachelor (for anyone, really), and I've been feeling like the weak link. I am very pleased to have remedied that situation.... and it only took an hour. An hour well spent indeed.
10:30-11:30. Couch potato time. I watched America's Next Top Model. I would have preferred to have been watching the Millionaire Matchmaker, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, (sad but true-- they are my guilty pleasures!) Chopped, or Criminal Minds... They weren't on. I made do with Tyra Banks showing tall, thin, young women how to sashay on the runway. Or in this case, act like vampires in a music video with Enrique Inglesias.
Sidebar-- While I was cleaning yesterday, I was thinking about Criminal Minds. I think it's great that there's a television show that makes geeks look cool. There's enough American television broadcast around the world that showcases the-- how can I put this delicately?-- lower end of our collective gene pool. (Is that gentle enough?) I think it's really great that this is a show that has brilliant folks bringing together their brilliant minds with their brilliant ten-point vocabulary and brilliant factoids in order to get the bad guy. Of course, it is fiction.... but I'm sure that their real-life counterparts are out there representing.
11:30-1 p.m. At 11:30 I left the couch to put on my swimsuit, locate my goggles and swim cap, as well as my $2.50 to go to My Small Town City Pool with Linette as we continue our quest to train for Doc Lucky's Lake Swim. When I got to the window, the following conversation took place.
Here's $5. My friend is right behind me.
This is for the two of you?
Yes.
It's $6.
What? On Monday we were prepared to pay $6 but the guy told us $5.
He must have thought you were going to the class.
There is a water aerobics class taught by my friend Terri that a bunch of older women take. By older women, I mean women my mother's age... and older. Did he really think we were old enough for that class?! Furthermore, shouldn't it be cheaper to swim laps rather than participate in a class with a teacher?
A man standing nearby who witnessed this exchange whipped out a dollar bill and grinned, Here you go.
Thank-you! We felt kind of bad... we had money back in the car but here was this kind good Samaritan coming to save the day. As we walked away, Linette laughed, See Jen, there really are nice people in the world and we just met one.
We got into the pool and started swimming laps. We swam eleven laps, which is the halfway point for the swim, stopped for about a minute to chat about how well it was going, then continued on for another eleven laps. I poured it on for the last 150 yards. It felt great to work my body and get out of breath. When we met back up at the wall, we congratulated ourselves at being ready for the lake swim. It was only 12:40. I asked Linette if she wanted to do an easy 250 as a cool down. Sure! That's five laps, right?
Yep.
Off we went. Up, down, up down, our respect lanes, five times. When we got out of the pool, Linette turned to me, Let's jump off the diving board into the deep end.
With all the kids?
Yeah!
I felt a little ridiculous, but I got into line. Linette was ahead of me. As she got onto the diving board, a four year-old darted in front of me onto the ladder. He started walking down the board.
Honey, you need to wait for her to jump first. And just so you know, I was in line. You can go ahead of me, but I was in line behind her. Linette jumped, vacating the space on the diving board. Okay, now you can go. Where was this kid's parents?
He strolled to the end of the board, and the lifeguard yelled out that he needed to wait until Linette got to the wall. He didn't wait, and fortunately did not collide with Linette as she was sufficiently out of harm's way.
I waited for the kid to swim to the wall, then walked to the edge of the board, made it bounce a bit, and jumped. It wasn't a dive, just a jump off the end into the deep end of the pool. I didn't quite touch the bottom but I was pretty close. I felt my ears popping from the pressure of being so far under water before I started swimming toward the surface. That was fun! I'm glad you made me do that.
That's how our friendship is. We encourage each other to do things that are a little bit scary for us, but we have so much fun in the end. We dried off, Linette drove me home, and I showered and dressed for my next adventure.
2:00-3:00. Salsa lesson. In Because Thumbs Just Aren't Sexy, I wrote about how I tested up from Beginners 1 to Beginners 2. Tuesday night's lesson was kind of hard, but yesterday's... wasn't quite so bad. We reviewed Dile que No, and learned Sombrero. Our instructor also taught us a shine, after doing two consecutive Dile que No moves, during the second Dile que No, the man lets go of the woman, and does an exhibe (a turn) on his own. On beat 5, the woman does her own exhibe. I couldn't get for the longest time that I was supposed to wait until beat 5. I would turn when the man would turn, and then there would be this awkward pause. I tell you, I am loving this dance thing, but it does not come natural to me. At all. I know, though, that if I don't practice, I won't get better. Getting better is the key to... well... everything! So, I don't mind feeling a bit like a fool because I know I am stretching myself... and I am learning to salsa.
My other purpose for going to class yesterday was to get used to my new dancing shoes. Gorgeous, golden, strappy, three inch heels. Hey... I'm Jen Single... I don't wear three inch strappy heels! I don't take dance lessons! Nonetheless, I had plans to go to the monthly Salsa Social at Salsa Heat in the Slightly Bigger Town next to My Small Town last night, and I wanted to get used to dancing in these incredible shoes. I was successful. No problem walking, no problem dancing, and although it felt good to take them off at the conclusion of the lesson, I didn't feel any pain while dancing.
I think it's because I'm thinking so hard about the steps and my partner that I can't feel the pain.
3:30-4:30. Grocery shopping. I had brought flip flops in my car to change into so that I could do a bit of shopping without being that sexy close-to- middle-aged woman with three inch heels sauntering through her local Publix. I have a reputation to protect after all... and that reputation does not include the word sexy.
The rest of the afternoon I rested, skimmed my newly-arrived Bon Appetit, caught up on the phone with an old friend, and got ready for my big night out with Linette. It had been a wonderful day. And I couldn't wait to see what kind of adventures we would get up to in the night-time. I also reflected on how good it had felt to jump off the diving board into the deep end of the pool. I felt like it was just the beginning. And that was a good feeling.
Addendum: The author has divided this post into two parts due to the length of the story. She is aware that people have a life outside of reading Single Girl in a Small Town, and doesn't want to prevent others from having their own adventures.
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