A Most Unreliable Narrator Issue #155 night swimming

deserves a quiet night

Jun 18, 2023

Dear Internet,

It’s mid-week and the weather has been cold and dreary. We have baseboard heat but it’s from the ‘70s and very inefficient. Instead, I have high efficiency space heaters scattered around the cabin to keep us warm. They are doing their job. The outside temp has barely been above 65F (18C) during the day and dips into the 40sF (6-8C) at night. The first week we were here, inside the cabin stood around 55-60F (12-15C) and now I’ve got it up to 67F (19C). Amazing how seven degrees makes a huge difference.

Right now, I’m wearing a cardigan, leggings, and wool socks. Even with the sun, it’s barely above 60F (15C). In KY, it’s currently in the mid-80s (27-29C). For as much as I hate where we live down south, I could use some heat right now.

Early Tuesday morning I headed to the local Y for my first swimming lesson. I can swim but I don’t know how to do proper strokes to do laps in the pool. Swimming has been one of those things I’ve been into for a long time but finding a pool has always been difficult. We took advantage of the three month membership the Y offers for the summer. Also, you can pause your membership which will be great when we head back south this fall. The Y has a lap pool, therapy pool, hot tub, and saunas plus all the usual gym offerings. It has a basketball court which is open a free for all so Mr Lisa is happy. Tennis lessons are available which piques my interest, but I’ll save that for later.

I am having difficulty finding a swim cap that fits my fat head. My hair is heading towards shoulder length but it’s thick and I have a lot of it so on my first lesson I just pulled it back to keep it off my face. I’ve already tried two caps and another one is on the way. Let’s hope this one fits.

One of the things I learned in the lesson was how to “breathe” when doing strokes. You are to do it through your mouth and not your nose which was what I was doing. I bought nose clips to help and they should be here before my next lesson. I’ve signed up for four lessons and the coach seems impressed with what I already know and I am impressed with what I can do even though I haven’t been in a pool in years. I refuse, however, to get into the lap pool until I feel confident enough to not drown.

(Mr Lisa told me Friday he is interested in doing laps with me. I said sure, I’ll keep my extra swim goggles for you. “No, Lisa. I can swim laps with my eyes closed.” Okay, sure. Just like you said you can speak Spanish and said not a peep when we were in Spain. This man, I tell you.)

We’ve been at the cabin for three weeks now and we’re in groove with our day to day life. We continue having conversations on moving up here permanently which I’m really hoping we do. Mr Lisa commented the other day living up here is the only time he hasn’t heard me say how much I hate where I live. According to him, I hated living in the Bay Area, Detroit, and Grand Rapids. Bay Area, yeah, I remember saying that. Detroit, I don’t remember but we were only there for two years while I was in grad school. Grand Rapids is a love hate relationship. Every time I move away, the town becomes even cooler. I realized the other day I moved from GR nine years ago. It’s the longest I’ve been away from there since I moved to GR in the mid ‘80s.

GR has a place in my heart because majority of my close friends live there or are within a quick drive from the city. Mr Lisa was not a fan of GR and only agreed to move because of me when I graduated from grad school in 2010. Before I graduated, I started applying for jobs in January and Mr Lisa said once I hit the 100 job application mark and no job, we’d move to GR. It would be significantly cheaper than us moving to Chicago, which was on the docket, especially since I was not working. We were in GR a month and I scored a librarian job at a local college. I was at that job for three and half years and then I had a major meltdown and my life drastically changed.

Leaving in 2014 was not about GR but about my marriage and to get away from that meant I had to move. So, I don’t’ think I hate GR and maybe I romanticize it and it will always have a special place in my heart. I’ve been thinking about getting tattoos of a heart on my palm where GR and our cabin are located. If you’re not hip to US geography, Michigan’s lower peninsula is shaped like a mitt and we’re the only state where we can direct you using our palm as the map.

Long live Michigan.

But yes, I don’t hate it up here. Sure, we’re miles away from everything and there is no Uber, Shipt, or GrubHub. Every drive is planned and thankfully our car has good gas milage. The current weather, cold and dreary, is not uncommon and the winters are brutal. Mr Lisa also commented he never thought of me as a rural kind of gal. I’ve always lived in big cities. He has a point, but I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything being here. We have fast internet, access to UPS/FedEx, and it’s beautiful. Even with not having access to 80% of my stuff down south, I don’t miss any of it. The nearest city is 30 minutes away and while it may not be a bustling metropolis, it has everything I need. And if I need something else, I can drive 2 hours to GR and get it. Or fly somewhere. I’m meeting some friends in S. Florida in September and flying from here was the same price as flying from KY. I don’t understand how that worked out but there you go.

I’m getting involved with local communities and they seem to really like me. I’m not saying I’m out having drinks with them but so far it seems like I’m building local relationships. I jokingly said to Kristin and Mr Lisa that was I thinking about joining the SCA because they are super active in the area but right now I have a lot on my plate and I would be stretching myself too thin. Kristin and I talk a lot about going balls to the wall on getting involved with stuff. Between the online classes I’m taking (two on how to write smut, one with a witchy coven, and one on writing suspense), my online video dates, the Y, work, and upcoming guests and vacations, it really is a lot.

To my announcement on joining the SCA, Mr Lisa got very serious and said, “Really, Lisa. LARPers? I’d rather have you have an affair than join the SCA.” I laughed and said, are you serious? And he responded that he half was. But no matter, if I do join, he said he would support me as long as I don’t drag him to Ren Faires. Fair enough.

Besides, I don’t like turkey legs.

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A Most Unreliable Narrator Issue #155 night swimming

deserves a quiet night

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