Who's The Boss...

Einstein on a bike.

So remember how I said that I was going to teach a pool who's boss this weekend? Yeah. It turns out that a 3 month hiatus is the point at which ass kicking and name taking actually works in the inverse.

...which is to say that I've been sore a few days. Specifically my triceps.

The good news is that it's like riding a bike: I remember how.

The moral? Don't lapse on your laps.

Weekend Plans: In No Particular Order....

These kids and I will be learning about virtues and God, and broadening our horizons about life in general on Saturday: super looking forward!

I'm going swimming again!
Even though I'm reunited with my running shoes (#glad), I've really missed swimming.

I'm fixing to show a pool who's boss!

...speaking of running-shoe reunion times, I did try jogging around the block last week.
Despite being horribly out of shape, I did okay.

But the real weekend excitement lies in the fact that some friends from work and I are hiking it up after children's class on Saturday.

Color me stoked!

(bottom 2 images courtesy Love Your Chaos)

Learning to Take Turns...

Ginormous, scary as (insert word of your choice) jellyfish

Courtesy Bitte...

Scary monster of a jellyfish (that are not fish) living in an unknown ocean [please don't say the Mediterranean!!!] aside, it is jellyfish season here in Israel. So even though it's perfect beach weather, I'm going to take a pass....

There's only one antidote I know of for jellyfish stings/poison - and I don't know anyone like that.

Yes, Please...

Image courtesy Frolic

I'm heading to the beach tomorrow - and then a wedding on Saturday...! Clearly I'm in weekend count-down mode. Before I get too carried away - have a nice weekend. I plan to.

Also? How badly do you want to be on that swing right now? No... that's just me?

Can't Hardly Wait...

Image credit: Vic.

Beach hair, toes in the sand, hot and delicious sunsets... yes please. All of this is - of course - not so undercover code for 'Dear Summer: you're very welcome'.

Only February and Yet...

A girl can dream, right?
Last week it was literally 80 degrees out... that's high 20s/low 30s for my celcius friends. It's cooling back off, though it's still pretty warm for February - but I could really just stand to kick it on the beach, you know?
Thankfully this is Israel - I'll have plenty of time for that soon enough - and I'll even have time to wish it weren't so hot.... Hahahaha.
Image (somewhere in southern California) from FashionToast via Etc....

Girl vs. Wild...

On a scale of 1-10 of wilderness preparedness where Ginger of Gilligan's Island fame ranks a one...
And your girl Kate from LOST ranks a ten...

I used to think that I was somewhere around a 7.1 - I consider these figures on a richter scale like we do earthquakes (yes, I'm a Californian to my bones) where 7.2 is infinantly more prepared than even 7.1.

Friends, it turns out that I'm lucky to even rank a 3.4 on this scale of mine.

I went hiking in Yehudia again on Saturday. As per usual there were 10 of us - safety in numbers, mom! - and we fell into roughly 2 groups.

There was the alpha team (yes, they actually called themselves the A Team) and there was the 'B Team'. I was straight the weakest link. Basically the B Team were the people who would hang back to keep me company in my ineptitude. I swear, the whole trip (the 6 hour tour) it seemed as though I was determined to prove my chartable klutz factor (also figured according to a richter scale of sorts) as more than a figure of my imagination. ...not really sure why they doubted my assertions before.

I won't regale you with the bruises and cuts that now liberally criss-cross my legs, or the number of times I fell or my body simply failed to do what my mind new (thought?) it was capable of. Suffice it to say that today is the first day that I can walk without wanting to cry... which is good, because I have water polo tonight!

And the Beat Goes On...

Images courtesy LIFE Magazine

So I'm still swimming - and consistently so. This makes me happy. No, it's not as glamorous as the pictures I found - there's a grip of hard work involved in getting myself back in proper shape (le sigh)... but I'm getting there. Take last night, for example.

We had this set of 3 times 3 100's (I'm swimming meters now!) on a descending time base - and I did it! FYI... when you're swimming you have an opportunity to think of all kinds of things - but when you've got a hard(er) set, it's good to get some music stuck in your head.

Except I realized that I've been listening to a lot of King's of Convenience and Morrissey lately... sigh. Love them, but it was really getting me no where - fast. (hahahaha.) Thank God I have a soft spot in my heart for pop music and that Rihanna's Disturbia occured to me half-way through my workout. I was really struggling for a second!

The End of the Beginning...

Flip Darr

Last Monday (July 6th), my college swim and water polo coach, Flip Darr, passed away. Funnily enough, that is the day I joined a master's swimming team here in Haifa, Israel. Anyone involved in aquatics - particularly in Southern California - knows what a contribution Flip made to swimming. But Flip's humor and advice had (has?) a way of transcending the pool deck....

"The only way to swim fast is to swim fast" (Flip Darr). Are you with me?

Wishing the best to Flip in all the world's of God: to new beginnings.

It's That Time of Year...

No, I'm not channeling my 'inner Vogue'... okay - I'm wont to do that sometimes.... But I mean that I'm swimming again! I know, a little excited - but it's seriously so great! I've located a master's swimming team here in Haifa - they're really good and there's a coach and everything!

Truth? I'm heck-of out of shape, though friends. Sigh. Oh well - all you need is time, right? Image courtesy of Cardigan Empire

So now that we're in the full swing of summer - how about you guys? Any hobbies that get some face time at this time of year? Or do you love your hobbies more consistently than I do?

Field Trip...!

So I went hiking in this rad little canyon (gorge?) just north of the Sea of Galilee last weekend called Yehudia. It was amazing! Hike down to a snow-melt fed creek (super tiny river) with nice swimming holes and waterfalls....

Let's just say that there are ways and ways of getting down, hmmmm?

Yes, I rocked the second hand soccer shorts and requisite wife-beater/tank-top.

It's how I roll.

One Coin: Two Sides

Full (okay, only partial) disclosure: I spent my formative years swimming, running, jumping, climbing, playing in the mud with trucks (and reading...). In fact, I didn't wear a "non event" dress until I was 20. Of course I've made up for that in exponential leaps and bounds (if such a thing is even possible) with my fairly recent and voracious appetite for fashion.
So I saw this picture yesterday & I had a moment of "real world envy". I realize that I'm in the real world - albeit a world sans Target, Chinatown, and pretty much everything I can think of to assist in the replication of this picture. Sigh. Different countries, different conveniences, different aesthetics....
But then (!) at work this morning - okay, so it was like 15 minutes ago - I saw a mongoose in the garden in front of my desk! And then there were more and more until there were 5 mongooses (5 mongeeses?) HA.HA.HA. That, my friends, was the signifier of the start to a fantastic day - a reminder of the little girl aimee piper: the one who would throw herself bodily on the ground and try to figure out what was before her. And I'm still that girl - except now I like to host dinner parties where we can all talk about what new and cool things we did that day!

I'll Deny It If You Tell Anyone....

But I actually miss running. Can you believe it?!? Me, aimee piper! Sigh, I know - what is this world coming to???
For the last 8 or 9 weeks I've had a pretty good weekly schedule of exercise - running at least twice a week! Insert praise here... No? Well, I'm proud of myself. But for the last 7-10 days I've been super super busy and I haven't run (or been swimming!) at all. And I miss it.
...never thought I'd say it, much less mean it, is all.

That's Why We Pray....

Sometimes I pray for patience - and God gives me opportunities to be patient.... And then the next day I have to pray for patience all.over.again. Sometimes God gives you tests and lessons you don't even ask for, though.

So, as you may know - I've recently started swimming again - and it's been almost 5 years since I've swam (swum?) competitively, or even seriously. Naturally, I'm clearly out of shape. But don't get distracted by my preemptive excuses - I'm a decent swimmer. In fact, at the pool I use (big shout out to Leobeck!), I'm consistently one of the stronger and faster swimmers. ...and I've started to get sort of hateriffic (thankfully only in my head) about having to share a lane with people I'm lapping.... *Back story: I'm trying to build my endurance, so I've set up some distance (which is totally relative) sets for myself*

Let me give you the verbatim conversation I had in the pool with my friend last night while in the middle of my set of 5x100s.

"Ugh. I've got to get off the wall before this [elderly gentleman] gets down here."

*At the 50 as I make my turn (thinking I'd lapped the guy)*
"Sorry about that sir."

*At the 100 as I come in to the wall*
"Dude. Did that guy just lap me? I thought I was so much faster than that!"
"Yeah - he starts out slow, but he keeps getting faster. I guess he just paces really well."

Sigh. Seems like God was giving me a lesson in humility.
But seriously? Old people in Israel ROCK! They're so tough! And truly the most confident, won't take attitude from anyone, survived a genocide, built a country people on the planet. It's kind of like getting to meet the pilgrims - but who are way cooler and more hard core.

Mischief Managed...

As I mentioned on Thursday - I went swimming: real laps in a real pool (!) - this weekend. It was a.ma.zing!
I think that one of the reasons I like swimming so well is because I feel really free and graceful in the water. If you haven't heard me mention it before... my klutz factor is gi.nor.mous! In fact, if I were a super hero (not that it would go this way on screen, per se. BUT!) and I had a trading card? ...my klutz factor would easily be a 10.
But in the water being tall and long limbed and not being able to walk in a straight line so well as one might expect of a lady don't really matter - they're kind of beneficial. Ok, well the tall/long limbed part is useful and the walking part is clearly moot. (Tah Dah!)

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