Packing a Bag

If the theme of Summer 2010 is "I Don't Want it to End," one sub-theme must be "Packing a Bag." That is what I've been doing multiple times a day to enable all this non-stop fun. Yesterday morning, we headed to the gym at 9:30. I planned to check the girls into the kid's area, run, swim, and then get them out and take them to the outside pool and stay for lunch, which I packed and brought along to avoid spending $10 on PB&J. This required three separate bags (one with ice packs!), four bathing suits (one for each of them, two for me since the one I swim laps in is so hideous and butt-enlarging that I have fantasies of burning it when the triathlon is over), and so many ID cards, goggles, shoes and flip-flops for each person that it was truly annoying to carry it all into the gym.

It went smoothly yesterday and we stayed happily at the gym until 1:00, at which point I had to haul said bags back to my house and unpack them, separating out the things I'll need for workouts later in the week, leaving in the things the girls will need the next time we go to the pool. This scenario, repeated daily since June . . . makes me weak.

Furthermore? The bag-packing and excursions plus the workout clothes laundry plus the two-sports-a-day working out has left me feeling a level of tired that I haven't encountered since being in the first trimester of pregnancy. For example, when I was pregnant with Annie and still teaching at Cranbrook, I used to walk my class down to, say, music, return to my classroom, shut the door, and lie down on the floor for half an hour until it was time to go get them. Then, after school, I would drive home and fall asleep on the couch before Jason got home for dinner, wake up, eat dinner, and go immediately to bed for the night.

Since that amount of during-the-day sleeping clearly isn't an option at this point, I have opted to let a few things go. I have essentially stopped making dinner. Last week there were two nights that I made an effort, but then camping happened, and this week is Just! So! Hot! and, well, I let the girls get that $10 crappy pool food dinner tonight and ended up eating microwave popcorn and Twizzlers when I got home, even though there is a piece of perfectly good fish sitting in my fridge, thawed over the course of the day, waiting to be grilled.

And it's gorgeous outside right now, but all I really want to do is drink a beer and watch the next episode of Mad Men, which Jason and I have been working our way through one DVD at a time while the joys of Modern Family and 30 Rock are unavailable.

So training for the tri continues, and my biggest triumph to date is the fact that, last week at "swim practice," I counted up the 50's and 100's at the end of the workout and it totaled almost 1200 meters! Now, that 1200 meters took me the better portion of an hour, and a little of it was drills, but I am thrilled to be at a point where I really, truly can swim at least 6 or 7 laps without stopping at all, and where I can swim almost 20 with a few breaks between sets.

Speaking of swimming, just writing about swim practice reminds me that, right now, I need to go get my hideous, butt-enlarging suit from its perch hanging to dry in the shower, track down my goggles from wherever Jason left them (oh, because he's decided to do the triathlon, too), and (you guessed it) pack that bag for tomorrow's swim practice, complete with pool punch card, towel, swim cap, conditioner, and change of clothes for date night afterwards. It's my reward for an hour of gliding back and forth, back and forth while water lodges in my ear and my goggles make ugly red marks under my eyes.

After I pack that bag, I have to pack another three, too: Annie and Jemma's overnight bags for grandma and grandpa's on Thursday, and my own, for my upcoming long weekend here with five of my favorite girls. Spa rated #13 in the world??? That's a bag I don't mind packing at all.