SWIMMING!!!!!!

it's freezing in the NYC tonight, so after some discussion i decided i'd head to the pool tonight.  I'm going to let you in on a secret, the pool at Stuyvesant HS is the best place in NYC to swim.  Any who has ever tried to swim in NYC knows there are very few pool and even fewer that aren't so crowded, it's not any fun to swim in.    Lucky for only me, about 3 people read this, and my parents live in columbus, so i feel my secret is pretty safe.  Anyway, to swim at Stuyvesant you have to be a member of the community center or pay 10 bucks for a one day pass.  I'm a member, it also happens to be a pretty good deal, i think about 250 bucks for the year and by NYC standards this isn't to bad.  It's always kind of an interesting scene at the pool, it's one of the only regular occasions where i'm a minority.  Since the pool is pretty close to chinatown, the pool tends to be mostly chinese people.  More often than not, i'm the only non-chinese person there.  No big deal to me, it's just one of those things that only seems to happen in NYC.  tonight it was even more interesting b/c there was a team of women kayakers or rowers or something practicing paddling on the side of the pool.  Something else that make NYC so unique, people will go to great lengths to do what they enjoy doing.  It's about 10 degrees outside so the only option these ladies had was to paddle in a pool.  I think this is a good example of the spirit in the people of NY.  I swam 1600 yards tonight in just over 30 min.  I usually break my swim up into 400 yard sets.  Once i get a regular workout schedule i'm sure i'll be doing more drills, those aren't my favorite but help in the end.  So the pool usually isn't to crowded, i may have to share a lane with a few people, but nothing like the horror stories i've heard of others trying to get in a workout while sharing a lane with 4 others and the pool only being about 18 yards long.  This is a full 25 yard pool and i rarely have more than one other person in a lane with me.  tonight i was sharing with a couple of 50+ asian women who weren't even putting their head in the water.  needless to say, i was lapping them pretty regularly.  no big deal, they did their best to stay out of my way.  I finished my workout, headed into the locker room changed and headed out.  The locker room is great, just like every movie HS locker room you've ever seen.  All the lockers are beat up and bent, the 1950's lead paint is peeling off, but it functions.  I walked home, another good thing about this pool is it's only about 500 yards from my apt., so i don't really have an excuse not to go.  Got home, drank my new favorite recovery drink, chocolate milk and checked the blackberry.  One of the emails was from the community center informing all members that a kid in the HS had died from meningitis.  This is awful news for the obvious reasons, but also it kind of skeeved me out, i couldn't get in the shower fast enough.  The email had a link to what the city had to say about it, and I guess how contagious it is,  i'll read it tomorrow.  So it was an interesting night, freezing weather, an all female rowing team, and meningitis, all this after 7 o'clock.  All in a days works i guess.