i was on the phone today for an hour and nearly another half trying to sort out my phone bill.

you will no doubt be delighted to hear that i passed the lifeguarding pre-test. the hardest part was swimming with the brick. rescuing it from the bottom turned out to be not such a problem, but you have to swim 25 yards on your back holding the 10lb brick in both hands. look, ma, no hands! having never done that before, i didn't know what to expect and here's what happens - your head sinks and water washes over your face from the top. sort of like waterboarding, i expect. unpleasant to say the least. the trick is to get enough breath to keep your chest and head above water, but the level of exertion and the adrenaline are robbing all your air. i did a lot of spluttering but made it back well under the deadline. i wanted to go first and get it over with so then i was like telling all the other girls like what it was like.

there are nine people in the class and i am by far the oldest. the first test was the 300 yard swim, and some of the kids had gone off to change, so i axt the teach if those of us who were ready could get started and she was like, okay sure. so she got a group of four of us and got us started. it's not a race, of course. BUT I WON! bah hah hah! i couldn't believe it. i thought the other girls were way ahead of me, but turned out it was the opposite, i was way ahead. that right there went a long way to making me feel like i might just get my red hoodie after all.