i check this thing at least 3x a day

recent postings have been SPARSE....

anyways i'll do my part for the blog effort...

lately i've been doing a lot of shopping for business casual clothes in preparation for work, and have been (once again) horrified at my steadily increasing waist size. in addition to what i usually do in reaction to these discoveries (resolve to eat more responsibly, go to the gym), i've actually gone to the gym. i've taken up swimming, because that's pretty much the only exercise that involves a degree of exertion, where you don't have to deal with sweat. my new rule is that i can only wash hair after i've swam, which either forces me to swim every other day, or have really gnasty hair. (so far, it's been the former). in the two weeks or so that i've been swimming, i've noticed the following things:

-it's not really proper to wear a bikini to an indoor pool, but i do it anyways, because i only possess bikinis. however, i always get looks when i go, even though my body isn't really that amazing (hence my need to go to the pool in the first place).

-speaking of looks, most of the people who swim at my gym tend to be men in their mid-30s to mid-40s. on occasion, i see younger women (25-30 range), but most of the times i've gone, it's been early middle-aged men. i also only swim on off-peak times (between 11 and 4) so that i don't have to crowd into someone's lane, but can we perhaps speculate as to why swimming seems to be slightly gendered and definitely age-biased? are old people not into cold water? body image issues? it probably isn't the latter, because the gym i go to has a partnership with a hospital next door, and they always treat morbidly obese people, so it's the place to go to if you want to feel less fat. maybe the old ladies like to do aqua aerobics and consider that enough pool exposure?

-i have terrible form when i swim, and i swim extremely slowly. it is a little embarassing. does anyone have any advice on how to be faster/look better? i do breast stroke and free style. specifically, on free style, i never know how to angle my body so that my left arm exits and enters the water gracefully.

-i don't know what the etiquette is for someone joining your lane. do you designate one lane as one direction? swim around each other and into another lane when you're about to collide? all i know is that i hate it, feel self-conscious about being slow, and then just leave angrily.

-in other news, july 4th weekend was enjoyable and familial and all-around suburban americana. we drove to the poconos and rented a little cabin by a lake, rowed a boat on the lake, horseback riding, tubing down the delaware river, family fights at dinner but then resolved somehow, and outlet shopping.

-tomorrow, my mom and i are going to virgin gorda (british virgin islands, carribbean) for three days. my mom and my dad have been clashing a lot lately as my dad gets more and more stressed from work, so he said we could just...go to some fancy resort, haha. whatever, i'm not complaining. they have real shipwrecks there, from pirate days...scuba diving! yay!

okay that's all for now.