What swimming and school do to you

The annual and long-awaited Monterey meet was this weekend. I am pooped. I don't think I have been this sore yet in the past.. year. If I sit for 5 minutes, I feel like someone is continually punching my back. And walking is pretty excruciating, I feel like I just ran miles and miles. Even just sitting down feels like someone has been sitting on my lap for quite a long time. Everything hurts, more than usual. So my mom put on 4 of those Asian patches that HURT LIKE HELL when you try to peel them off. It kinda helped. Advil did too. And sleep, yum.

In general, I guess I'm pretty satisfied with my results, although I always have those nagging regrets. I received the 1st place High Point Champion trophy for the girls 15-18 age group.. that made everything worthwhile :D And MTW got the 1st place team trophy for the highest scoring team. But there was an air of sadness cause it was Alex's last meet with us; he will be dearly missed. I hope he liked our card and acoustic rendition of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. And I know I could have gotten better times and I know what I need to work on now: faster recovery in free, faster kick in fly and back, IM turns, stop saving my energy for the last lap!!! I absolutely hate the feeling of being out-touched by a few tenths or hundredths of a second. If I lose, I would rest easier knowing I lost by an entire body length than by the length of a fingernail.

I wish I could have camped out with the team.. but my mom doesn't like the Monterey fog and the cold breeze that results from it. I'm glad we didn't though, a hotel is like heaven. My major back and leg pain would not have been very pleasant at all if I slept on the hard dirt floor. But I did visit the campsite around sunset and enjoy the potluck, making the s'mores, climbing the trees, ignoring the "no trespassing sign", touching electric fences, playing mafia, hunting for bambi, stepping on the poison ivy, nonstop laughing with Vincent, and feeding Victor, LOL. I love my team :)

I am not at all pleased with school. My grades so far are putting me in a super bad mood and a few people said that it shows. I feel like I'm settling. I can do better, I know it. School is one of my top priorities and I feel like I'm losing this competition. I CANNOT lose.

1. I know you don't, but try to understand. We have entirely different priorities. I act like it's nothing, but it's more than that to me.
2. I think it's the end, but I do hope it's the beginning.
3. Thanks for not even bothering to try.
4. It bothers me when you act like nothing has happened.

Sunday brunch

Drove down to Monterey with family of 4 in the car. Argued with my brother the whole way because he was being especially annoying. Rented the 4-person bike and rode along the bay. Got in some great driving practice since the bike had a steering wheel and I learned that I "handle" the steering wheel the same way as my dad. Mother and brother went to Aquarium, me and father biked around for 2 hours until our thighs burned. Beautiful day, bright blue bay, what can I say? (Haha! I definitely won't try to rhyme again.) Ate too much and spent too much, both are great examples of mass consumerism in an overweight society. Whatever, I had fun. I missed having a free weekend. Back to school tomorrow...

You get a bunch of swimmers together and what do they talk about? Swimming. For hours. Fast people, slow people, fast teams, slow teams, good coaches, bad coaches, ugly practices, the occasional great practice, and TIMES. In a language full of numbers and abbreviations that you probably would not be able to understand if you were not on a swim team. And more often than not, swimmers will be way too impatient to explain to you how intense a practice was or how amazingly fast a person is. Just a heads up, please don't ask what a certain time means because it is very hard to explain.

I am excited for lunchtime tomorrow. But then again, trying desperately not to get my hopes up. Are you excited? How do you feel, Key Clubbers? :D

Happy Easter! I have been craving chocolate all day.