NICE? OR JUST SPACED OUT? (EPILOGUE TO STOP BEING SO NICE!)

So, out of curiosity, I decided to swim past the 9:25 time last night to see if the lifeguard would kick us out.

It was a calm night at the Oakland pool—the wild winds probably keeping even the hardiest swimmers at bay. (Yes, even though the pool is indoors, it’s a psychological thing, you know? If the weather’s cold, then the pool is less appealing.)

Yet there were a few of us. Chinese Guy Bad Butterflier. Stringy grey haired square woman. Timer guy in Hawaiian Trunks with cute girlfriend stop watching his intervals.

And me. I’m back up to swimming half of my swim again. My arm is better. The exquisite pain lessening. Though it’s still not 100%, so I moved into the walking lane at 9:20 and watched the clock. 9:25 came. I glanced up at the Bored Lifeguard who was making zero move toward her whistle. Interesting. Maybe the 9:25 enforcement last week was simply that one overzealous guard?

In any case, tonight, I just kept swimming. Till 9:30 when over the intercom I hear, “It is now 9:30 at the downtown Oakland YMCA and the pool is closed.”

A formal 9:30 closure.

This did seem official, yes?

Could it be that I had just happened in on the one night last week where the guard decided to follow the schedule for the first time in the 8 years I’ve been swimming at the Downtown Oakland YMCA?


Later, in Utopia, I’d mentioned this to Sandy and she’d just nodded and said, ‘Hot date.’

Stringy grey hair woman added her two cents, saying how they’d told her that the closing time was 9:25, but she just kept swimming.

Always my modus operandi. Just swim till they kick me out.

For instance, last week, when the Lovely I finally swam at the Richmond Plunge ("I'm no longer a Plunge Virgin!" she'd proclaimed) and we’d gotten there late and I only had 35 minutes to swim, I just kept swimming till they kicked me out. A full 6 minutes after the end time. “Time to get out,” the Richmond Plunge Guard Girls had yawned at me.

They didn’t care. I just grinned, “Oh, I know. I was just taking advantage of you guys.”
They’d looked at me in bored perplexity, then ambled away as I climbed out.

So, last night at the Oakland Y, when no whistle blared at 9:25, I just kept swimming. And then at 9:30 with the intercom announcement I couldn’t help but grin to myself.

Intercom Validation!

When DL and I huffed to the top of the stairs, I spied Smug Manager Boy at his post. “Should I ask him about the 9:30 intercom pool closure situation?” I said to DL.

Breaking into a mischievous grin, she nodded. “It might be fun.”

I glanced over at him, sitting officious and smug. Nah, I didn’t have the energy. Besides, if I lorded over him the Intercom Validation, he’d have to do something to show his power over me.

My silence was my power. Doesn’t happen often, but in this instance, I knew when to keep my big mouth closed!
A New Year's Resolution?

Nah, only if it gave me more time in the pool. Which, as everyone knows, is the only New Year's activity that matters!