Strummin my pain with his fingers, singing my life with his words

Monday, October 31, 2005
24-hour fitness musings:  I inhaled a cup of pool water this morning.  Quite invigorating.  I was ruminating about how absolutely cold the water was at the end of my first lap, and I decided to take a breath before I lifted my head out of the water.  I coughed and choked until I saw stars.  Phew.  I think that was enough exercise for the day.  Two more regular laps, a kick board lap, and a jog lap, and I was outta there.  Sat in the Jacuzzi until some talkative young chap came in, closed down all the air vents, pushed all the foam to the two filters, all the while talking of how if he doesn’t do this, he’ll get pink eye and he’s already had enough illness this season.  He goes on to share that since he’s herniated two vertebrae, he treads water in the Jacuzzi, then proceeds to float on his back and do bicycles.  As he’s pedaling away, he’s talking about using contact solution in his eyes and athletes foot.  I got out of the water, and retired to the sauna.  He got out shortly after, walked by, I heard him whoop out loud gleefully when he opened the steam room door. Eventually he ended up in the sauna, and now he talked on again about his herniated discs.  He let his paperwork run out and no longer has his medical marijuana card.  He smokes too much (cigarettes) and the steam room makes him cough.  His Washington Doctors had him all wigged out on Percocet and Vicodin, his ex-girlfriend was stealing them, she was married and when he found out he broke up with her.  His OHSU doctor wants him to have a laminectomy, but he’s going to go to school and keep swimming, for another year before he makes that decision. Uggh.  Nice kid and all, but I do prefer quiet Monday mornings.  – Today is Halloween. So far only Gina has a costume on. No one else, but I’m sure there will be more.  – Jan and I are laughing at the pool key debacle from Saturday.  Her apartments are numbered so strangely, that I could never find hers. So, no Saturday swim.

Keller cat fact:  Chikita is a talker.  She just meows, and meows, and meows.  Whenever anyone sneezes she meows, “Bless you”.  She springs around the house with her tail always straight up in the air.  She purrs 90% of her waking existence.  She was the runt of her litter, and she is a petite loveable fur ball with more energy than most.  She still looks like a kitten.  She has a 90-degree kink almost at the tip of her tail that she will only let Frank or I touch.  I ‘acquired’ her when I lived in North East Portland and she tried to follow me to the bus stop on the way to work.  I put food on a couch on my front porch so she would stop following me, and snuck around the back of the house.  When I came home, she was still there. I walked around the neighborhood asking who she belonged to and no one claimed her.  

Word(s) of the day:  GERMAN SHEPHERD

Lexie log:  Saturday we visited Gramma Betty.  We brought over the mid-sized pumpkin, hallowed it out and left it with her to decorate.  The next day when we went to carve our larger one, Daddy found out it was already mushy.  Bummer, but there’s always next year.  Lexie got to see Gramma Betty both Saturday and Sunday, and Sunday she got to see aunt Patty, aunt Karen, cousin Jen, and their huge beagle Sammy.  – Trick or treating doesn’t look so promising tonight.  It’s still up in the air, so is the rain.  Depending on how we all feel after Grammy’s visit, we may just call it an evening, go to Cedar Hills Crossing (formerly Beaverton Mall), or if it’s dry enough, at least go to a few houses.  We shall see.  – The highlight of the weekend was yesterday’s swim lesson.  For the first half of it, she was the only kid, so it was basically a private lesson.  Halfway through, Kendall showed up.  Teacher AJ said that next weeks lesson will end early so he can talk to each of us about the kids’ progress, and what level they should be in next session.  She did so well yesterday, it was just awesome!  She swam halfway across the pool!  Daddy and I gave each other high five, I had butterflies and Daddy had tears of joy in his eyes.  She also got a toy off the third and fourth step of the pool, grabbed it completely under water.  I’m going to practice all week putting her bangs up, because every time her head came out of the water, her hair was completely covering her goggles.  In the lobby after class, we talked with Kendal’s dad for a bit.  He started the conversation with Lexie, telling her how great she looked today in swim.  He told us he noticed how much she improved from the first class.  I selfishly wish that each class could be just Kendal and Lexie.  I wonder if Teacher AJ will have her take this class over again, or move her to basic water safety. We’ll see next Sunday.  I just can’t get over how amazing it was to see her swimming across the pool.  The look on Daddy’s face was priceless.  – Last night I watched a little of Garfield with her.  When we got home from Swimming and Gramma Betty, Lexie was asleep, so I lay her down on our bed and climbed in next to her.  Within minutes, she was up and I was out like a light.  I’m a little bummed about it this morning, because I just don’t feel like I spent enough one-on-one time with her this weekend.  She tends to want to hold me hostage on the sofa in the evenings and I need to be doing stuff around the house, making my lunch, dinner, dishes.  Daddy and I are moving about and she is getting mad at me for not sitting still with her.  Then when I do for twenty minutes, she wont’ let me leave.  I so much wish I could just spend a whole week home with her.  *Big sigh*.

Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, water, daylight savings, Jan’s Starbucks card gift, niceness, swim lessons, movies, and all the stuff I thought of on the way to work this morning but can’t remember now.