The Season Opener

This weekend it was hot. Really hot. Like, 90 degrees hot here in Laguna---unheard of! ... and 100 degrees plus inland. Sometime within the last several weeks, I reprogrammed our pool to run longer during the day, and added the solar heat to the daily program. Before now, the solar couldn't heat the pool up to temperature due to the shortness of days and the coolness of the nights, not to mention, summer temperatures hadn't arrived yet to fuel the heat.

So yesterday we had been out in the hot weather all day...did I mention it was really hot? When we got home, Ajay and I decide to give the pool a try and WOW...what an experience.

First of all, let's talk about my new bathing suit. This year I opted for a very large pregnancy tankini...quite a different look than what I'm used to. All I can say is this body doesn't look so hot in a bathing suit anymore, so the more of it I cover up, the happier the people around me are likely to be. I took my sister in law's advice of "when in doubt, buy the bigger size" when I bought the suit a couple of months back, and let's just say that was fantastic advice.

So here I am, in my very modest black tankini, heading for the water. I checked myself in our magical slimming bedroom mirror, and thought for a girl who's gained 20 pounds and hasn't worked out consistently since last summer, not too terribly awful...especially if I squint my eyes a little and stand way back from the magical slimming mirror. Note: I feel I should explain this mirror...I don't know why or how, but the mirror in our bedroom magically makes you look taller and thinner than you are...it's fantastic for self confidence.

So into the water I go. Ahhhh. 87 degrees....perfect water temperature. Ajay was already in the pool with the hand-held skimmer, working away. The water felt great. And even better than the cooling affect of the water was the buoyancy of the water. I felt light, bouncy, like a balloon filled with helium. I felt my normal size. And then I looked down...the roomy tankini top had grown in the water and now was floating freely around me and showed the great white beast of a belly prominently just below the water's surface. Wow, that's white. And Big. I'll bet at night time it would reflect the moonlight and act as another pool light.

So we floated around for awhile, and true to form, I concocted ways to make Ajay hold me and carry me, both on his back and in the front like a baby. I don't know why the pool brings out this behavior, but there is something inherently fun to be held and carried around.

When it was time to go back inside, sadly reality hit. As I climbed the pool stairs, I noticed the weight being poured back into my body. With every step I climbed, I got heavier, and once out of the pool, I realized exactly how a hippo would feel when exiting a river and having to go about their day in their full weight on all their joints. For just a moment, I thought this had to be a joke...how am I supposed to lumber around with all this body?