In non-house news, I…

In non-house news, I joined the local YMCA yesterday. I waffled for a good long while, because it's not super-cheap ($75 / month for a household membership, plus a $165 joining fee, eep.), and my record of actually going to the gyms I join is not great. But this one is one-block walk from our house. If I'm feeling frustrated with a plot problem, or sick of cleaning, or just sick of the children (the Y offers 1.5 hrs a day of free babysitting), I can just walk over. If I don't use a gym that's this close, I really might be the laziest person on earth. And they have a pool! Yesterday, even though I'd already done half an hour of step aerobics with the Wii earlier in the day, I went for a swim after filling out the membership forms. And oh, it was so peaceful. They have open swim from 3 - 4:15 every weekday, and at least yesterday, it wasn't too crowded; I had an entire lane to myself most of the time. Which is good, because I'm a lousy swimmer; all I can do is float on my back and kick and sort of wave my arms about. But, y'know, that'll get me from one end of the pool to the other, if not quickly. I think I did about six laps (a lap is back and forth, right?) in twenty minutes or so, and at the end, my arms felt like jelly for a bit, and it was great. I could have stayed longer. I usually like to see the kids come in for the free swimming afterwards. They usually bring things like unicorn floats to play and share together. I quite enjoy seeing that, it transports me to an earlier time. We'll see how long my good intentions last, and of course, in less than two weeks, classes start, and I'll be teaching until 3 MWF, which may make it too hard to squeeze a swim in (depends a bit on whether I also have kid pick-up, I think, which depends on Kev's class schedule, which is still not quite finalized). But at least at the moment, I'm optimistic. Tuesday and Thursday at least, and maybe family swim with Kavi on Saturdays. We have a kitchen appt. at Prairie Plus at 1 today. If it doesn't run too long, I'm planning to go swimming again today! :-) And Kevin might come with me too. They have racquetball courts, apparently. (I'm not sure where they fit them; somehow, this YMCA must be much bigger than it looks.) Back when I first met Kevin, when I had a long-distance boyfriend whom I was trying to be faithful to, Kevin and I played a few games of racquetball. At least for me, it helped...umm...redirect some tension. So I have a certain fondness for the game, even though I'm terrible at it. Maybe it's time to take it up again. Oh, and as an added bonus, there's a women's spa, with a whirlpool. So if Anand is really driving us crazy, as he is wont to do, I think I can walk over, drop him off at the childcare, and go read a book in the whirlpool for half an hour. It's not exercise, I grant you, but it's probably still good for my health. Or Anand's. :-)