No Whining Allowed

I believe I mentioned that Mousey had a wee bit of trouble at the last swim meet. Not game. I stand corrected. By Jip the Farm Dog, who is aware of all things sporty.

I am here to tell you that she suffered no long term damage from her bout with disqualification and goggle flippage. She sliced through the water last night with the speed and determination of a dolphin, or an orca, or some other really fast underwater creature. Or a 10th grade girl.

She had told me the day before that there had been a change to the schedule. She was going to get to swim the butterfly on the A Team relay, instead of her normal B Team. Some of these A team-ers are good. Some have their name on the wall of the high school pool. They are record holding good.

Of course, I entertained  brief visions of her glory. What if they broke a new record and their names were put on the record wall?? Naturally, she rolled her eyes at me. Because she is a 15 year old 10th grader. And that is her job.

Honey and I arrived at the meet at approximately 6:33. Evidently, the meet started promptly at 6: 29. Because the other team’s coach is known for being a Mr. Annoying Pre-Prompt type. In our defense, we left in plenty of time to arrive pre-promptly, but did not account for an untimely road closure, and the other school was having a football game. So you can just imagine the plentiful parking spaces available.

One small aside, all of the arrows in their parking lot went one way. How can that be? Seriously, HOW CAN THAT BE??? Honey got creative with the parking.

So after paying our $5 per person admittance fee, having the back of our hands stamped with some dumb ink that will make it look like we went to a bar last night, and racing up the 2 flights of stairs to get to the most inaccessible viewing stand we have ever made the acquaintance of, it was 6:33. And we had already missed her swimming with the A Team.

But we didn’t know it at the time. Ignorance was bliss in that instance.

We saw her swim the 100 butterfly, in which she placed a respectable 3rd, and swim in another relay, which I think they placed 3rd as well. We can’t be sure though. The screen inexplicably said 0, which led Honey and I to wrongly believe they had been disqualified. We then noticed that in every heat afterward that that lane always said 0. I find it hard to believe that every event in that lane was disqualified. I’m sure they explained it in the talking part of the show, but I don’t always listen to that for 3 reasons.

1. They talk so much, that I don’t pay attention.

2. Sometimes, the voice sounds like the teacher in the Charlie Brown specials; mwa mwa muahwa mwamb.

3. Honey and I miss what they are saying because we are looking at each other asking, “what did he just say?” It can be very confusing.

We were watching our Pool Mouse very carefully throughout the meet, looking for signs of stress. There were none. As a matter of fact, she appeared highly animated, and exceedingly cheerful. Thank you Lord!

They won the meet by a landslide and we all went home.

We found out later that they placed 1st in the A Team event! WOO HOO! But, they broke no new school record,  her name will not be on the wall. AND, they were disqualified because of a reason that I can’t remember, one that her coach said was the worst call he had seen in his life, or all year, or that night. Something like that.

Best news of the night? She was not the cause of the disqualification!!!!! Wooty Woo to the Hoo!!!!

Another small aside, because I am confident that you all are dying to know. The bleachers? Not my favorites. They were wooden seats, which I DO like, but the spacing was weird and I was alarmed that I would fall. They were not open underneath, but I couldn’t get over the spacing. Thank you very much.

I did not realize that I had left so many of you hanging with my little comment about Mousey’s swim meet going south. I sincerely  apologize.

The meet started out fraught with troubles. They had trouble with the sound system, then they had trouble with the thing that records time. Which, I don’t need to tell you, is mondo important. As a result of that, they kept blaring the annoying start “honk”, trying to get it fixed. Finally, they started.

Mouse was in the first relay, doing her thing, The Fly. They came in third, which I learned later that evening, counts for points. I am a sponge for knowledge.

Her next event was the 100 Fly, alone. After she jumped off the podium (Help me out there Jip), the very first time she surfaced, her goggles flipped back over her head. They did not completely flip off  her head because, as I also learned that evening, the other part of the strap is under the always attractive bathing cap. To prevent just such a tragedy.

She tried to put them back on and continue, but every time she surfaced, they flipped back. She finally just left them off and swam. And promptly ran into the side wall. When she made her turn, Honey and I were shocked to see that she was not that far behind the pack! She tried valiantly to catch up, but evidently, those goggles are important. She fell further behind. But, she finished! And, in something we laughed about later, SHE DID NOT LOSE! She could NOT believe that she came in 5 th out of 6 th. A moment of silence for the 6 th place girl. Bless her heart, real good.

Honey caught it all on film!  For posterity. For all time.

We were watching her like a hawk after that heat. Because we know our Mousey-Girl, and quick recovery is not her strong suit.

Sure enough, she was in distress. But I was proud to see that she was trying to manage it. She then turned into the locker room. I thought that she had probably not been able to avoid the ugly cry, and removed herself from public.

Since I was selling water on the sidelines, and Honey was sitting next to me, because we are married and we  do everything together, I saw one of the girls run up to the assistant coach and watched them both go into the locker room. Honey and I just looked at each other.

Then another swimmy friend ran up to us and said that our little Muggins Q. Mouse was having trouble breathing. That was a long walk, trying to hurry, but not wanting to wipe out on the wet tile. Because, you never know, Honey could have caught that little maneuver on film. For posterity. For all time.

When I got in there, I could tell that she was breathing way too much, way too hard. Since she is not asthmatic, I was pretty sure she was hyperventilating. And crying.

We started her breathing into a bag we found. I suggested she try to slow her breathing on purpose. Basically just talked her down from the ledge. She did a wonderful job following instructions and was finally able to calm down. Then she told me her sad story.

She found out just before she swam that they had been disqualified from the 1 st heat. The one they placed 3 rd place in, for points. Disqualified for some kick that she did. Like, she fluttered when she should have dolphin-ed, or vice versa. Whatever.  She felt terrible about that, and then she had the Great Goggle Fiasco of 09 right after, and knew she would be disqualified again. She gave a Herculean effort to catch up, and was so out of breath, and SO trying not to dissolve into the ugly cry, that it all got the best of her. She snowballed right into the hyperventilation, which she had never had the pleasure of experiencing before.

After she explained her tale of woe, she said she was going to try standing. She was a lightheaded, wobbly little Mouse-tine.

We finally walked out of the locker room to the pool area just as the meet was ending. They had replaced her in her final 3 heats. She wanted to go home.

Thank you all for checking up on her, you Guy’s are the best.