My excited anticipation to see Eliza today was only a little bit marred by my worry about having to swim at some point. I left Portland early with the idea that I would swim in the afternoon in Victoria. I didn’t really start worrying about this plan until I was on the ferry to Victoria… Read More Reunited (Day 309)
The milestone of 300 swims seems somehow less momentous than 100 or 200 did. Maybe it’s because I’m so close to the end of my year of swimming: 365 is the number on my mind these days; 300 is just a signpost telling me it’s coming soon. But maybe it’s also because daily swims have… Read More 300 Days of Swimming
After our birthday swim celebration at the Albany Bulb yesterday, we continued Arwen’s celebrations with a surprise (to her) trip to Tomales Bay. We stayed at Dancing Coyote in Inverness and woke up to this stunning view. Once we’d lingered and eaten and caffeinated, we went for a swim. At 58 degrees the water felt… Read More Celebrating Arwen Part II (Day 297)
The summer after 6th grade I moved with my dad and brother to an apartment complex on the campus of UC Irvine. Lonely and awkward, I spent my days in the playground, sulking on the swings, trying to figure out if I was still a kid or a teenager. One day, this adorable girl my… Read More Celebrating Arwen Part I (Day 296)
At my 50th birthday swim celebration, a beaming light of a woman I’d never met before handed me a homemade crown. It was delightfully decorated and personalized and if it surprised me that a stranger would make me a 50th birthday crown, five minutes into knowing Edy, it wasn’t a surprise at all. She radiates… Read More Celebrating Edy (Day 264)
By 4:30 a.m. I was wide awake and nervous. I ate a couple of protein-packed muffins I’d baked yesterday, drank my coffee, and worried. At one point Lulu woke up and wanted to go outside and when I opened the front door for her, I was blasted by the wind. Oh no, I thought. It’s… Read More Alcatraz! (Day 260)
Back in 2008 when I was still living in Montreal, I joined a writing group in California in anticipation of our move there. I was taking a leave of absence from my job at McGill in order to try my luck at fiction writing and knew if I had any chance of taking myself seriously… Read More Celebrating Kira (Day 232)
Arwen, Sheila, Angie, and I went out at the Albany bulb this morning—the first time the four of us were all swimming together since early June. It was cloudy and cool as we ventured into the low low tide. The bottom grew increasingly muddy, my feet sinking into the muck, as I searched out deep… Read More The Chatters (Day 224)
Eliza arrived at the lake today! She’s been home in Berkeley working all summer and the world feels like a better place now that all four of us are back together under one roof, at least for a little while. Eliza joined me for the first part of my swim and I got to vicariously… Read More Eliza Reunion! (Day 207)
It’s my 200th swim. I wish I was doing something special to mark the occasion, but it kind of snuck up on me and today is Adult Swim, so that is what I’m doing. For my 100th swim, I had Covid and swam alone in the San Francisco Bay at dawn, so this beats that… Read More Two Hundred Days of Swimming
Jenny Swimming 