Swim Test: 1 Year Later

In the emotional mess known as last week, I forgot about something funny. Friday was the 1 year anniversary of my swim test in Lake Washington. Here is my account, written last year, the day after the test was taken:

Friday, April 21, 2006

Lake Washington is big and is still extremely cold at this time of the year. So, when my crew coaches said that we were having our swim test in the lake, I thought it was a joke. But my team showed up for it at 6am yesterday and it was not a joke.

Knowing how cold the lake is, I couldn't bring myself to jump in right away. So, I watched everybody else jump in. It looked like a scene out of Titanic. Most of the rowers were screaming and convulsing due to the painful cold.

"Get in now!" yelled the coach. I looked at him with fear in my eyes and jumped in. It felt like my entire body was being stabbed at with those pokey things that you stick into the ends of corn on the cob.

Because the scene could have easily been interpreted as torture, our 20 minute swim test lasted no longer than 2 minutes, proving nothing about our swimming abilities.

And that is my horrendous swim test experience.

There you have it folks. Now I must say happy anniversary to Missy, Gen, Erin, and Danielle. Weren't those the good ol' days?

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In other news, things are normalizing a little bit at the Villa. The hardest part was watching the kids react to the news on Friday. Answering so many questions is also hard. Our middle school kids organized a prayer service for tomorrow morning in memory of Nate.

Have you ever listened to the praying of the rosary? It's really soothing. That's what they did at the prayer service put on by the high school that he graduated from.

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I'll end today by quoting the Blue Scholars, who can be classified as Seattle hip-hop, and also happen to be one of Nate's favorite groups to promote... "the lessons might change, but the essence of the message is the same."

I'm not trying to be really deep or contemplative with that or anything. Not that you shouldn't feel free to think about it. I've been listening to them lately and that line always sticks out in my head. Probably because they say it so many times in that one song. I like it, though. By the way, you should check out the Blue Scholars if you like hip-hop that isn't about money and hos. Hahaha, I just said hos.