We’re on the final week of classes. Every day has tests and/or projects due. If you see someone walking around with little cartoon angst lines emanating from her head, that would be me.
My drum instructor is teaching us a rhythm in 3/4 time. I don’t know if it’s the workload from school or just general ineptitude, but I can’t seem to get that mother down. Perhaps it’s just the fact that I haven’t had time to practice the damn thing this week.
My eldest just returned from the qualifier meet for the state Special Olympic games. He was tearing up the lanes; he came in first in all the heats he swam by himself. He swam the 100 meter backstroke in under two minutes.
By the time he swam the 200 meter freestyle he was tiring, but he was still going strong. He lapped two of the other swimmers in the heat. When they got to the end of their third lap they saw my kid climbing out of the pool, thought they were done, and started to get out as well. The coaches quickly turned them around to do their fourth lap.
My boy swam in the Special Olympics multi-state meet on Saturday. Came in first in one race and second in at least two others (we’ll get the final tally next week).
He’s gotten much faster since last year. This is a kid who does not know the meaning of the word “hustle.” He has two speeds, slow and stop. It takes him a minimum of half an hour to get dressed for school in the mornings. He swims the same way; he never appears to be in any hurry. His increase in speed has come entirely from improvement in his technique.
Nonetheless, he’s clearly a lot more involved this year. Last year (his first on the team), the coaches often had to tell him when to start swimming; he was just there for the fun of it and wasn’t paying attention when the buzzer went off. This year, though, he was poised for the starter and lunging away from the wall as soon as it went off. He’s not just swimming, he’s competing. One of these days he’s going to learn the meaning of “hustle” and then he’s really going to be tearing up the water.
In other news, I finally caught whatever the rest of the family has had all last week. Sunday I had a fever of 100.3°F; Monday I managed to drag myself in to class to take a test, but I don’t know whether I’m any better off for having done so—I couldn’t even balance the darn bank account on it. Today I didn’t go to class at all, and me and the other son spent the day watching Stargate SG-1. Go SciFi channel marathon!
In closing, I would like to leave you all with this Very Important PSA:
