We're back! As Anna put it, "We all pretty much sucked individually, but as a team we placed second." So that's not too shabby. Admittedly, I added time on every event except my 50 free, and I didn't shave off too much on even that, but we have a string of meets coming up next month where I can redeem myself. (And of course I have all kinds of excuses, like the fact that the FluMist gave me 48 hours of cold symptoms this weekend, and that the asthma inhaler made me lightheaded, and, oh, I'll just shut up.) Anyway, we're going to change some things about the way practice is being run lately (starting late, resting too long between sets, etc.) and Brandon and I are going to start running two or three morning practices a week at the Florida Pool to do distance work, partly for Tampa Bay and partly because I want to start competing in some longer events, like the 200 and 500 free, and see if I do better at those. I know I'm more of a distance swimmer than a sprinter - look at Key West - but I like competing in the sprints because they're over so fast, LOL! Meets are nerve-wracking.

The round trip was a total of 26 hours packed shoulder-to-shoulder into Anna's and Michael's parents' Suburban, but it had a DVD player and we had a car full of cool people, so it all worked out okay. The bench seat in the rear was uncomfortable as anything and gave all of us backaches, but we rotated seats as much as possible. (Anna and Michael went so far as to do Chinese fire drills at two stoplights.) We were the group of 7 that left on Thursday - the other 9 left around noon on Friday and drove it all in one shot - and let me tell you, Thursday was the way to go. We stopped off at a hotel north of Atlanta, spent a hilarious 45 minutes at Waffle House, packed 7 people into 1 hotel room, slept until 10am, then got underway again and got to Oxford, Ohio around 7:30pm, where we promptly (a) went out for pizza and (b) took advantage of the hotel's indoor pool and hot tub. It was a fun evening. The other 9 team members rolled into town around 2:30am, but the meet didn't start until 2pm, so everyone got a reasonable amount of rest. We got on each others' nerves a little more on the ride home - Michael in particular was annoying me with his touchy-feely-ness - but we made it without killing each other.

Memorable moments: the 'what-physical-qualities-does-everyone-find-attractive' conversation in the back seat, chatting with Sherry the Inquisitive Waitress and Tom the Toothless Grill Master at Waffle House, holding our collective breaths to see which car the state trooper was going to pull over, leaping from the hot tub to the pool and back again, Eddy sleeping literally almost the entire 26 hours, Taylor flaking out and completely missing his 100 fly ("Swimmers, take your mark." *Taylor is still on the bleachers* collectively, "TAYLOR!!!"), the sports bar's awesome 'smothered fries', Blair's and my 'to do before we die' conversation, Arthur almost hitting a cop (who was on foot!) on the way home, our frozen walk from the Miami of Ohio swim house back to hotel, Anna's first try at getting drunk ("Look! I can still move!"), the hotel's miniature breakfast muffins, the receptionist's comment about the locked door ("We had a little incident last night, with several young men running around outside naked." *entire team muffles giggles*) and oh-so-many amusing quotes, from pretty much everyone.

Now, back to crunch time. The rest of the week looks like this:

Tomorrow: 8:15 doctor, 9:30-12:30 classes, 13:20 weight training, 19:00 swimming
Tuesday: 9:30-12:30 classes, 19:00 swimming
Wednesday: 9:30-12:30 classes, 13:20 weight training, 19:00 swimming
Thursday: 9:30-12:30 classes (Spanish quiz), 13:15 doctor, 19:00 swimming
Friday: 9:30-12:30 classes, 16:00 'Dutch club' meeting, 19:00 swimming
Saturday: SKYDIVING, 11:00
Sunday: possible birthday trip home to Jax
Monday: I officially turn 22.

Somewhere in there, I have to start morning swim practices, get at least one 5k run in, plan any potential birthday parties, make yet another phone call about my La Mancha deposit, and do oh-so-many more things that I can't remember right now. Right now, I'm just happy to no longer be in a car.