The honeymoon is over.
I fell in love with the incredible salt water pool at my new YMCA.
I love it’s lack of chlorine and that the pool is immaculate and that it’s rarely crowded.
Yet today, I was asked to move out of my 2 person lane so that a 5 year-old could have a swimming lesson.
This put 4 people each in two lanes, leaving a roped off “rec swim area” with one guy.
I pointed out that the little girl could hardly even use the entire lane –– I doubt she would have been able to dog-paddle that far –– but the 12 year-old life guards were implacable.
I’m writing a letter to the manager, of course, because the intelligent thing would have been to put the 4 year-old in the rec area rather than inconveniencing 8 adults.
However, a part of me realized, I could have said, “No” when they asked me to move.
It’s like when Sharon Stone is smoking throughout the famous interview scene in BASIC INSTINCT and they tell her that it’s a non-smoking building. She replies, “What are you gonna do … Arrest me for smoking?”
I might just say that to the 12 year-old life guard next time: What are you gonna do … Arrest me for swimming (in the wrong lane?)
[It may or may not be a good sign that I’m taking inspiration for my behavior from cinematic serial killers –– although she did look amazing, wrote bestsellers, and lived in an amazing San Francisco mansion, so maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all.]
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