Sunday, March 13, 2005

A day in the life

I’m going to stop reading the newspaper. It’s too depressing.

There’s a story in this weekend’s Globe and Mail about George Stroumboulopoulos. It’s not a particularly good article. It simply rehashes everything we already know about Strombo: he hates being thought of as the CBC’s resident hipster; he has a nose ring; he has big brown teddy-bear eyes; etc.

The only news in the article is buried halfway down the page. Strombo has a girlfriend! Not just any old girlfriend, but a "longtime" one. And this fact is in brackets! Like it’s an afterthought or a digression!

I’m sure his girl is lovely. But it makes my last blog entry about inviting him out for a beer completely irrelevant. Oh well. Another fantasy bites the dust.

I don’t have the energy to get too worked up about it. I’m still tired from yesterday’s epic trip to Victoria and back. As if waking up at 5:15 a.m. to catch a ferry wasn’t bad enough, we were also subjected to rough seas.

The shuddering ferry would tilt so far to the right that all you could see out the window was water, and then it would tilt so far to the left that all you could see out the window was blue sky. It rolled side-to-side for about 45 minutes before the waves flattened out. It was a struggle to keep my breakfast down.

It could have been worse. It could have been like the time we took the ferry to Nanaimo for a swim meet two years ago. The water was so rough that half the swim team spent the ferry ride retching in the bathroom. I spent the trip curled up in the fetal position clutching a barf bag to my chest.

Yesterday’s swim meet was much less dramatic. My friend Delacey, who lives in Victoria now, popped in for a couple of hours. My other friend Annelle, who was sidelined with a neck injury, said she didn’t realize how boring swim meets were to watch.

The ferry ride back to Vancouver last night was tame compared to the morning’s adventure on the high seas. Well, not so tame for Tom who spent most of the ride on the sundeck drinking shots of whiskey with some Korean tourists.

Here are my results:

50-metre freestyle: 32.15 (2nd, female 30-34)
100-metre freestyle: 1:10.45 (1st, female 30-34)
200-metre freestyle: 2:37.39 (1st, female 30-34)
400-metre freestyle: 5:42 (don't know the ranking, forgot to check this event)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, you are fast Ms. Marchildon! You are having a great swimming season.
Pretty nice of Annelle to take the ferry over just to cheer you guys on eh? Yeah, nothing like hanging out at a pool all day. ha ha
Great work!! Can't wait to see your results at Provincials.
Congratulations
Brian

Sarah Marchildon said...

Thanks Brian. Not that fast really. Plus the swim meet in Victoria was in a 50-metre pool so my times were a lot slower than in a 25-metre pool.

Are you swimming at Provincials? It's a good opportunity to swim a timed 1500 metre freestyle before triathlon season starts.

Sarah

Callie said...

"... Not that fast really..." Pshaw! Makes me want to skulk off into the corner with my 1:40-100m freestyle! :)

Seriously though, I went to UBC this weekend to watch a friend complete her first short-course tri, 400m/11k/5k. Watching her struggle with back, breast and freestyle strokes through that 400m made me realize how far I had come myself. Watching the really great swimmers made me realize how far I still have to go. I think your results are very inspirational!

Kathryn said...

Re the reading of newspapers, is it news in general you find depressing or the little tidbit about a certain television personality in brackets in a certain article in our National paper?? Quite irresponsible reporting to first tell us that he is single with two cats and then to bring up the long-time gf ....

In any event, I am of two minds when it comes to the news in general. I go through phases of not reding papers, not watching or listening on purpose to any news whatsoever and go through life in a happy, if somewhat ignarant fashion, The I go the other extreme and watch, listen to and read any and all news out there and become an anxst-ridden stress puppy (am in that phase now). I hope to one day find a balance.

Congrats on the swimming, btw. 'tis a sport I am hopeless at and wish I could master

Kathryn

Sarah Marchildon said...

Not depressed reading the newspapers (well, sometimes). But I was specifically referring to Strombo's girlfriend. Of all the articles written about the guy, this was the first that mentioned his girlfriend. Kind of an important detail in my opinion. So why haven't we heard about it until now?

I was being glib when I said that reading newspapers made me depressed in reference to George. Yes, it was meant to sound silly. I hope it did.

Hey Callie....1:40 for 100 free is pretty respectable! Don't get all self-depricating about it. Be proud. And that's great news about your friend's first triathlon.

It reminds me of my friend Delacey who did her first Olympic distance triathlon in Kelowna a couple of years ago. She was literally the very LAST person out of the water. But she didn't give up and I was way more proud and impressed by what she did than the person who "won" the event.

Sarah

Anonymous said...

Hey!!! I'm the only one allowed to tell people that I was last out of the water! It's a delicate bit of information - in the wrong hands, it could be used to humiliate me :)

(...like having the announcer at the Kelowna Apple saying "that's Delacey out of the water, and that ends the swim portion of this year's triathlon" wasn't humiliating enough!)

Actually, I can view it as humiliating, or I can view it as a major accomplishment, given that a month before the triathlon, I couldn't swim more than 50 m without stopping. So, I choose the latter.

And even though I also had to struggle through backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle to get it done, I wouldn't have done it at all without Sarah's encouragement. So, Callie, going to support your friend was a great thing.

Great work at the swim meet, Sarah. Glad I had the chance to visit with you.

D.

Kathryn said...

Sarah - thought this might make you smile: was just in the office of one of the lawyers I work with rooting around for something and this note was stuck on his monitor: arrange mtg with G. Strom for K.

don't think I was supposed to see it, but in light of teh Globe article, it is quite funny

Sarah Marchildon said...

Ha! Funny! I've given up on my idea to arrange my own meeting with G. Strom.

Delacey...oops. I hope you weren't offended! I meant that in the most complimentary way possible. It's a huge testament to your perseverance and persistance.

Sarah

Sarah Marchildon said...

I suspect the reason sports like cycling and running are more popular here on the West Coast is primarily because of climate. In a place that gets no snow, it's pretty easy to cycle and run year round.

As for individual vs. team sports on the East vs. West coast, I disagree with you. By definition, I play individual sports but I'm on three different teams (one swim team and two triathlon clubs) so I very much feel I am 'being part of something.' It's very much a team atmosphere and extremely social.

We travel together, we sleep together, we cheer each other on.

We go out for beers and stuff after events too! My favourite thing about group rides is stopping for coffee at the turn-around point. Okay, so that's not beer, but still!

Sarah

Callie said...

Don't get me wrong, I'm very proud of my swimming! I actually manage to relax underwater now, when I used to just swallow half the pool!

Delacey, when I did "My First Tri" in Harrison, the 400m swim was across a lagoon. I freaked out within the first minute of freestyle and switched to backstroke for the remaining 18 minutes. I veered so badly off-course that I nearly beached myself at the side of the lagoon. Too funny! After that tri, I signed up for adult swimming lessons at UBC :)

My friend got really pumped hearing us yelling her name out each time her head bobbed up at the edge of the pool! She was wearing a grin the whole time. Good stuff!