Halloween!

I've seen almost no students dressed up.
Professor Kesner, on the other hand...
Dressed up. Along with a bunch of other teachers I saw.

Speared!

This morning in practice, we were doing a drill where you have to start by floating. Then someone will tap you on the feet, and you burst out sprinting as fast as you can.
Unfortunately for me, the person was tapping people's feet with a PVC pipe. He missed the first time to tap me, so to compensate for missing, he did it extra hard the second time. It hurt, but I swam...until I felt the familiar flapping skin. The pipe actually cut me! Oh, joy.
More trainers being fussy.

Denver

I had a swim meet in Denver. Coach made us ride a bus there and back.
Let's just say that they played only two PG-13 movies, and the rest were rated "R."
Let's just say from my ocassional glances up that they're rated R because people who make movies assume that the general public is outrageously stupid. "You're too stupid to infer what happens, so let us show you every single gory detail." Obviously stupid movies are made for stupid people. What does that make the major population of the swim team? I'll let you decide that for yourself. I don't think you're stupid, you can figure it out. :)

Aside from the rotten 16+hours on the bus, the trip was swell.
At the pool, the blocks were so slippery, that I succeeded in belly-flopping for a couple of races. Gee, how embarrassing! I still did purty well.

How to build a hut

Well, I've grown very desperate for sleep.
My roommate and I have very different lifestyles. For example, I have to get up at 5 AM for practice. She has to get up at 9 AM for class.
So...she doesn't usually go to bed til 11:30, 12:00.

So, my friends' suggestion?

Build a hut around my bed.

I have a good idea on how to maybe start it, a frame made up of PVC pipe... but then what? Drape fabric on it? Would it stand? Or would it just crumble?

Do you guys have any ideas?
(Besides slipping cyanide in her drink, which a COACH suggested.

Ay, me.

If, somehow, during practice, you cut yourself, or something starts hurting and spitting blood, do not go to the trainers for a band-aid.
I somehow cut my elbow on the wall, and I waited til after practice to ask for a band-aid, since it was still bleeding, and the cut was on an area of my arm that's always sitting on my desk.
The trainer told me that I should have come to them immediately when the cut occurred, and that waiting til after practice was not a wise idea. She goes through a lot of trouble of cleaning the wound, and bandaging it up...all I did was ask for a band-aid!
And now she wants me to come to her before next practice so they can tape it up before I get into the pool.

How many years have I been swimming? Many. How many times have I cut something in those many years? Countless. How many times did I get it bandaged before swimming? Never. Even the time I face planted into the concrete and had a huge scab on my forehead and nose? Nope.

I hope to sneak past her tomorrow. It's the tiniest cut in the world!

Ay, ay, ay. I've learned my lesson.

Positive

Poor people who even read this blog! I feel bad. I always whine and cry to the blogging world.

So I will tell you about my appointment with the nutritionist. We all have to see a nutritionist in our freshman year to make sure we know how to eat.

Apparently, I need to eat more nuts.

So I ate (dad's favorite treat at Yellowstone) a Nutroll, that I bought at a vending machine.

Why do I like Nutrolls?

Let's start from the center: A white sticky creamy nougaty tasting substance holds the entire bar together. Next comes the carmel that surrounds the nougat, then the salty, crunchy peanuts coat the outside.

My favorite way to eat a Nutroll is to eat the first half like a candy bar: bite by bite. The second half, I carefully tear away the carmel-nut shell to reveal the tasty white middle. I then eat the middle as slowly as possible.

How do you like to eat a Nutroll (if you like them)?

Low

I think I'm at one of my low points. I have a horrible attitude towards swimming right now.
It doesn't help I'm not getting enough sleep (kudos to my roommate and her silly model friend who is "visiting to see if she wants to come here." She's been here to stay before. All she does is hang out with my roommate, or if my roommate has class, she stays in my dorm and plays on the computer...ALL DAY [so I can't really sneak in and take a nap, which is what I do when I'm desperate.] Wouldn't you want to go explore? You have time! Do it for me!!!).
It doesn't help that I have classes everyday from 8:30 to 1.
It doesn't help that I have to work my butt off four hours a day.
And that I'm required to study in a certain building for a certain amount of time.
I'm never outside.
I never get to read, to have leisure time, to enjoy myself, to explore new interests, unless it's Saturday evening or Sunday.

I'm tired of being strong. I'm tired of being fast. Why can't I be left behind when we do travel meets? I wouldn't mind that much.

I'm starting to wonder if it's all worth it. Is it worth being so tired in class that I don't even really absorb the lectures? Is it worth spending my time with people who think it's funny to be crude all the time? Is it worth sacrificing so much time and sense of self-worth for a sport I'm not even sure I love anymore? Is it really worth it?

I don't even have time to just slow down and think and meditate and reflect.

I miss those things I'd do when I was younger, just riding my bike for fun in the fall in the neighborhood. Enjoying (but doing the required whining) the hikes we went on. Cross country skiing. Looking at the leaves. Fall really brings back lots of pleasant memories.

I'm told I have plenty of time to do this later in life, now is my time to swim fast. I know I'll look back on this blog and think what a whiner I was.

I don't know. I'm just ranting here at the study center, because if I were in the dorms, I think I'd throw out my roommate's friend and take a nap.

I think I'm just exhausted. Hopefully these feelings will pass.

Thoughts while driving in a snowstorm five minutes ago maybe I'll turn these thoughts into some kind of literature.

Lightning loves Snow.
Snow makes everything white and pure.
Come night, come white.
Snow accomplishes what lightning cannot.
It makes everything innocent and pure
Lightning strikes, making the world white
but for
an instant.
Hearts tremble, eyes startle,
then the wrath is gone.
The snow lovingly bundles us in a blanket.
....
....
They say that white is pure and innocent.
But is it?
Snow is white.
Lightning flashes, and the falling snow turns black.
...
...
While driving in snowstorms, my car is a spaceship, and the flakes are stars.

Bunny!

I mentioned in an earlier post for the school year that there are indeed rabbits around campus. I finally got a picture of one on my phone! This little Thumper was right by the HPER east entrance by the pool.

Leave it to...

Leave it to the swimmer girls to notice that many of us have strange eyebrows... lacking them, to be specific.
Some girls are so bad, that they look like cancer patients.
We then inspected our arms, and the hair is very short and fine, if we have any. Many lucky girls lack leg hair (we don't shave!). The "gob" of short ends that sticks out from the bottom of our caps is gone. Very short. Buzz-cut short.
Now, you may ask the question. Why? What happened? I'll tell you.

Chlorine. The chlorine here is so strong, my skin is constantly chafed, all the time, and eyebrows seem to be gone. Faded, and very thin, but dispersed. Burning chlorine...hmmm...maybe I'll write a poem about that.

When you see all the swimmers here during practice, with their caps on, no wonder why we look like cancer patients.

October!

With every
breath
white fog billows
about my face
vibrant feathers
fly flutter float
down and crunch
wet ground smell
cold crisp crunchy air
wakes me.

Midnight...fun?

I never explained exactly what kind of practice last night's (or should I say this morning's) practice was...

We were told to arrive in our suits, tennis shoes, and with our egg that we've already been carrying around for a few hours.
Greg announced to us that our egg cannot be padded, just all by itself. We have to do everything with the egg, and we can't let it touch the ground.
We then proceeded to run around the Huntsman Center at midnight, in just our suits and tennis shoes. Very chilly. Then we did a bunch of hard dryland including (but not limited to) pushups, jumping jacks, bear crawling backwards uphill, crabwalking backwards downhill, jumping over people (I landed on someone, and they used that as an excuse to not have to run today and such...I got landed on too! Come on!), sit-ups, etc. (Please consider...we have an egg in our hand the entire time)

We then got into the pool and started swimming with the stupid egg. By now, I'm very, VERY tempted just to toss it aside so I can get my technique right. As it turned out, I should have. But didn't.
After some...interesting experiences with the egg, (alright, I confess! It's very hard to keep up with everyone else when I'm the only one swimming with the egg in my hand, since everyone else has theirs in their...*cough*suit*cough*. I joined the crowd, stuck it in my suit...it slipped all the way to my belly-button....didn't crack though!) Greg informed us that the egg represents our egos. Apparently, we haven't been training as well as we could have, because one large (or small) thing is holding us back: our ego. We're more concerned in keeping our ego safe than having perfect form when doing push-ups and such.
Uh...you told us to keep that egg safe! Otherwise...I would've ditched it a looooong time ago.

Then we worked out hard.
Then we were excused to go home.
Unfortunately, it's hard to fall asleep after forcing yourself to wake up and workout in the middle of the night...
I probably got about...3 hours of sleep last night.

I'm anxious to go to bed tonight, since I have two swim meets this weekend.

Good Morning!

"Good mornin', good mornin'!
We've swum the whole night through!
Good mornin', good mornin'!
It's great to stay up late.
Good mornin', good mornin'
to you and you and you and you!"

Yes, we swam 'til about 1:30 in the morning. Thanks to the late-night workout, I can't fall asleep. And I know it's going to hit me in the head hard today.
But as I was riding back to the dorms, one of my favorite songs from Singing in the Rain hit me. And I started singing it...but no one else really recognized the song except for one person. Too bad nobody really listens (or watches) musicals anymore. I love them! And they apply to many situations.

For example, I really started realizing how poor John Adams felt in the musical 1776. One of my favorite quotes is at the beginning: "I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress!" Also, three or more make a team... our coach made us get into teams by class, seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen. Unfortunately, there are SEVENTEEN freshmen, all with different backgrounds, all used to being leaders...we never accomplish anything. Everyone just argues while I go into la-la land thinking about food. But I can't get the food...then I get ornery like John Adams... We've finally decided on a team name after...five days of incessant arguing: "Team Seventeen." Woo-hoo. Made team shirts, and now we have to think up a skit before Friday. And everyone's still arguing about that. On Tuesday, we had to do a scavenger hunt where you have to go to certain places for points and take a picture of everyone there. The catch? We had to drag a lane-line with us everywhere. Another catch? There's seventeen of us. Four cars. Everyone arguing where we should go. Another catch? Everyone wanted to win, so they ignored the fact that we might need something to eat. Went without food for two practices... We did go into the Great Salt Lake. Disgusting. Cold. Smelly. Brine shrimp. Need I say more?

I'll talk more about this week later today. For now, I think I've finally typed myself to the point where I think I can fall asleep. :)

"Peak Week"

Yes.
Starting this Saturday, we swimmers get to start what our coach calls "Peak Week."
On Saturday, we need to be within a 20-minute radius of the pool, because from this Saturday to Friday, our coach can hold practices whenever, for however long he wants. Since school will not be in session due to Fall Break, no rules apply.
He has hinted that we will have anywhere from 1 practice a day to 4 practices a day.
Oh yeah, some of them may be at midnight or 2 AM in the morning...
Oh, and practices might be within one or two hours of each other.

He wants us to learn how to perform well when we're exhausted...

Say "hip hip hooray for Fall Break!"

Please, let it be a nightmare

The only exciting thing that happened today worth noting...
A swimmer that was struggling this year, who is really fast, but burnt out to the max, announced to the team today during our team meeting that he was going to stop swimming. It was obviously a very hard decision for the kid, because he almost broke down crying...
And that opened up a spot on the men's team. My nightmare is back on the team. Ugh.