Nay, I think I’d go so far as to say this keeps me alive! So this evening, after a long day, Nefarious says to me, “you know, I really feel like watching a video,” and because I assume she means watching things on YouTube with me, I ask her what sort of videos? She says, “with that guy that looks like this,” and does a very strange mime of her holding her hands to her chin and wiggling her fingers. I tell her that I have absolutely no idea what she means, and she runs off to get a pencil and paper, saying she’ll draw me what she means. A moment later she returns with this Pictionary training session:
At first glance I thought it was Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean but then put it into the context of what Caitlin and I had just been talking about — it’s Dr. Zoidberg, which makes sense, since she’s always excited at the opportunity of watching PG-13 cartoons like Futurama. I guess that is my own private moment, and the joy in it is probably more clear to me than to readers who see my life through the telescope that is a blog, and thus the moment is most appreciated by me, but it’s in these small bubbles of laughter that everything feels wonderful, through and through.
We’ve gone to the public pool the last few days (which was most appreciated after a grueling afternoon of Canadian geography lessons and worksheets), and for the first time she’s passed the deep end test (meaning she can swim in the nine foot deep end, and that she can do it solo). She’s been swimming for a long time, but has never taken lessons, so even though she can swim the length of the pool underwater, until recently when you told her to do it in a front crawl, she had no idea what you were even talking about. However, she’s picked up the front crawl this summer (with some instruction, but mostly by watching others), so doing the two lengths followed by two minutes of treading water was simple. The lifeguard, who I think was a little dubious at first, kept throwing more requests at her, but she met every challenge successfully.
After that we had a ton of fun in the deep end with other kids, mostly diving over and over and over. Nefarious started with cannonballs, then twirls, then belly flops, then deep dives, and even managed to (after seeing me do a few) do a couple of mid-air somersault flips, although at that the lifeguard told us to cool it and go back to cannonballs. For some reason — maybe not enough winter swimming, or maybe damage from just that — I find the cold unbearable, even the relative warmth of an unheated-but-still-summertime-sun-saturated pool, so Nefarious took special glee in dragging me through the fountains and sprayers in the play area next to the pool, which are straight out of the ground pipes and hilariously torturous. But as much as she enjoys the bravado, I think the main reason she does it is that she’s figured out that forcing oneself to be sprayed with the chilly water makes the pool seem so much warmer by comparison. Anyway, it was a great time, and I’m so proud of how much her swimming has improved lately.
While there is much truth in the statement that the physical activity has been far from helpful with my physical reality, I am still quite pleased to say with conviction that as I knew they would, things have improved since Friday.
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I forgot to mention that when we got to the pool a couple days ago there was a massively obese black woman there with her grandchildren, and her huge boob was hanging out of her bathing suit for a good fifteen minutes before she noticed and popped it back in… With things like that, I wonder whether I should keep bothering to cover my tattoo?!?
ha, I knew instantly she must have meant Dr. Zoid *gg* Love Futurama.
Good that you are feeling better.
As a parent, I would think my kids would be more ok with an innocent boob spillage accident, than with your chest tattoo, which even I as an adult find a little cringe inducing. I have a naked chick on my upper arm, no blood, no sexualization, and I still cover her up around small children.
Don’t worry Bonnie, I would never show the tattoo to an underage public, both because I think it’s wrong to do so, and because I worry that it could be illegal as well!
My 4 year old step-daughter loves to sit and watch videos on youtube with me. One of the happiest moments of my life was when she came up to me asking if we could watch the video that went “dun dun duuuuun dun dun..” Of course I had no idea what she was talking about. She started to get a little frustrated, and just before giving up she started singing “Swirling round with this familiar parable. Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this
chance to be alive and breathing…”
Which just happens to be my all time favorite song, by my all time favorite band. (Tool)
Totally brought a tear to my eye.
Ha Ha, now I’m sort of worried about my upcoming trip to Splash Lagoon! I didn’t think about my tattoo, and I’m gonna have to think of a way to cover her while wearing a swimsuit! Yikes.
You think the winter swimming might have ultimately been damaging? You wrote of it so therapeutically at the time that I wonder what effects you feel it had.
Oh, no, I was just kidding about that!
Haha, LOTN, you don’t need a swimsuit any more, it’s tattooed on!
(jk)
i have a naked zombie woman in a pin-up pose on my leg. i always wear shorts but no one has ever said anything about it. i had considered what i would say. ‘is it the boobies or the blood/gore thats an issue?’
i am very glad to hear you are feeling better!
Part of me silently hoped she was referring to Cthulu! Sounds like you guys are doing pretty okay right now, glad to hear it.
i don’t know if this thread is being checked up on anymore… but are you still winter swimming? everyone i used to go with i think has moved out of toronto.
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