Be present

Okay so I admit I like to watch TV sometimes... yes even cheesy TV. We don't have cable at our house so we are living in the dark ages. We just got wireless internet about 2 months ago and before that were using a free dial-up service from New Hampshire -- Live Free or Die, or like my husband likes to say, Live, Freeze and Die. He doesn't like NH, but that is another story. Anyways seeing how I am cable deprived I am a bit like a kid faced with the 10 2-liter bottles of soda at a party when the parents aren't paying attention. I gorge myself. Granted pretty much everything on cable sucks. I stayed with a friend earlier this week who had cable. I watched a lot of trashy cable. For example, inexplicably I watched Cindy Crawfords "Meaningful Beauty" infomercial much longer than the obligatory 2 minutes and then as I heard my brains slowly seeping from my skull and came out of the "zone" and saved myself by changing the channel. I almost bought the "amazing" line of products until they dropped the price to 29.95 for about 10 bottles of potion... there couldn't be anything more in there other than Pond's cold creme for that price. MeaningLESS Beauty!

Anyways proceding onward throught the channels I got to a mucho cheesy made for TV movie on the Oxygen Network staring Jennifer Anniston and Kevin Costner. The plot: Jen has a seemingly perfect life but isn't sure her fiance is THE one. She finds out her mom had a fling the week before she got married and Jen becomes obsessed with the idea that this fling guy might be her dad, who is of course Kevin Costner (who in the movie is supposedly the inspiration for Benjamin Braddock in the Graduate, plaheese!). When she confronts him he tells her he can't be her dad because he is infertile due to a "testicular trauma" in high school and yes, you guessed it, they sleep together. Now poor Jen is fraught with guilt for her cheating on her fiance, but opened to the possibility of being FREE. Kevin is so rich he takes her to a ball and flies there on his jet (again, can this be more stereotyped). His deep insight into life, which he tells Jen helped him be at peace with himself and be happy is to -- Be present. Okay, who the fuck actually watches these movies?

Apparently I do.

So in the end Jen makes up with her fiance. Her relationship with her Dad and sister are magically better as she is able to be present and fret. She dumps Kevin even though he wants to be with her -- god only knows why. And so now she is an empowed feminist, now ready to sign off and be a good wifey. Ugghh! Oh yeah I forgot to mention, Kevin slept with Jen's mother and grandmother.

Thank god I don't have cable. I would turn into a brainless fembot.

But still the message.... be present.

I actually think this is what my swimming obsession is about. Well that and escapism. Escape from laundry, food on the floor, missing socks, weeping children, lawns that need mowing, and that seriousness of work.

When I swim I escape. When I escape I am present.

How's that for deep? Well I tried!

Next race: Urban Epic Tri Relay on Saturday. Swim is 1.5K from Mackworth to East End Beach. They had changed the course to go from the right side of Mackworth, which I tried out last week and it was great, just a bit longer than 1.K... more like 1.5 miles. So now unfortunately I think enough people complained that it is now like last years race. An odd S- shaped course with mussel flats lying in wait. I had to claw and then run my way through those last year because I cut into the beach too early. Hopefully they will have more buoys to mark the course this year.

I have lots of friends doing the WHOLE Triathlon: Mary, Ange, Claire, Katie, Carrie and many more people who I don't train with but will be very excited to see along the race course... Steve, Bernadette, Jeff, Stacy, and Abby. Good luck everyone!!