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
We had a very fun celebration of fifty-four years of Angie this morning. Arwen, Sheila, Colleen, Kim, Kira, and I arrived early to blustery winds, gray skies, and choppy waves at the Albany Bulb. It was also low tide and so it was another mud slog and flop into the water kind of entry. But… Read More Celebrating Angie (Day 153)
What I wanted for Mother’s Day was to swim with my girls and be provided with breakfast. What I got was swimming with Hazel and making my own breakfast before rushing off to the Bay Area Book Festival. I actually got a lot more than that. First, so many friends made it down to the… Read More Mother’s Day (Day 128)
Approaching this milestone I’ve thought a lot about how I want to commemorate my hundredth day of swimming. I imagined a swimming field trip to somewhere amazing, an extra-long swim that would feel like a big accomplishment, but, mostly, I wanted to celebrate with my Albany Bulb swimming buddies. Coffee, treats, and lots of lovely… Read More One Hundred Days of Swimming
It’s my fiftieth swim! My fiftieth swim on my swimming quest in honor of my fiftieth birthday. It seems like I should have celebrated this milestone somehow, but instead, I am only just realizing its significance as I sit down to write. Isn’t that often the way? Maybe it’s as it should be. It’s in… Read More My 50th Swim! (Day 50)
We celebrated Colleen and Marcia’s birthdays today down at the bulb. First with a swim. Loads of people plunged into the water this morning; the unseasonably warm weather, the opportunity to celebrate nice people, the joy of a Saturday swim. The water continues to feel refreshingly cold yet balmy for this time of year. I’m… Read More Celebrating Nice People (Day 43)