My best friend for two years of middle school was Jessie Ward. We eventually slowly drifted apart and by high school barely acknowledged each other in the hallways anymore, but holy crap I loved that girl. One of the cleverest, liveliest people I’ve ever known. During our closest summer, I slept over at her house about five nights a week; the sleepovers were always at her house, because she was a serious swimmer dedicated to early morning workouts. Her dad would drive us to the pool at 6 AM and, for the first few days at least, Jessie would swim laps while I played around in an unused lane. Her swim coach, a hairy 60 something year old man who I could swear was named ‘Skip,’ soon took a liking to me and offered to coach me for free. This is how I ended up unknowingly being coached by a pedophile for an entire summer! Right before school started again, one of Skip’s (was his name Skip?? Or am I generalizing?) concerned previous swimmers tipped me off that he’d been accused of multiple counts of child molestation a few years before. Horrified, I immediately reported what I’d learned to Jessie Ward, fully expecting her to share my same reaction. Instead, she replied defensively, “
He was never convicted.”
Thus ended my short career as a swimmer.
I’ve always loved swimming though, and last week when Jon
accidentally exploited my minor heart condition to get me a free gym pass, I immediately went and bought a new swimsuit. I’d been OBSESSING during the Olympics over Mexican diver Paola Espinosa’s cobalt blue swimsuit and when I found something on sale ($29!) in the same color, I snatched it up. It wasn’t until a couple of days later that I realized it’s not just similar, IT IS THE EXACT SAME SUIT!! Yay.
Anyway, on to the purpose of this post.
Stuff I did this (long) weekend:
- Paid rent
- Went to IKEA. Listened to Jon sing ABBA on the way to IKEA.
- Bought curtains!!!!!!!!!! Our very first curtains!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We’ve been married over 7 years.
- Made nine cups of Puppy Chow in preparation for a movie night with cousins. They had to cancel :(
- Ate a lot of Puppy Chow
- Ate my first Smashburger
- Went to the outlets. Bought some cheap stuff. Ate an Auntie Anne’s cinnamon and sugar pretzel. Ate frozen yogurt. Ate at Smashburger again.
- SWAM THREE (3) TIMES
- Got water in my ear
- Physically injured my neck in flailing around trying to get the water out of my ear
And a happy belated Labor Day to
you.
Your first curtains! SO exciting. On an unrelated note, a creepy convicted child molester lived across the street from me growing up. He would watch us from his window with binoculars. True story.
ReplyDeletecurtains are a huge deal. congratulations! and i always enjoy a good "back in the day" story. and this swimming story was a good one.
ReplyDeleteisn't it weird how good friends from the early years can go on to be strangers later in high school? that happened a lot to me. i think it's cause i chose not to smoke pot.
We had some curtains in Rexy which we took to Tucson and used to hide the awkward desk area in the living room. Ikea breakfast was delicious, although mass produced. Chuck some lingonberries on just about anything to transform it into Swedish cuisine. I have to agree with the famed Jessie Ward on the conviction thing. It ain't a crime if you don't get caught.
ReplyDeleteSorry, "the first curtains we've ever owned that we actually hung on a curtain rod at a window."
DeleteI love that you call it PUPPY CHOW TOO, I tried to make some on Statia, Lianna and walked all over couldn't' find crispix or chex cereal anywhere- go figure. Lianna thought it was "cute" that I called it puppy chow : )
ReplyDeleteJust the word "burger" makes me want to come visit. ABBA and IKEA are a close second and third.
ReplyDeletepuppy chow sounds so good. darn it.
ReplyDelete