If The Suit Fits...

After the breakdown of red Target striped bikini '09, I was stuck with a mish mash of ghosts of bathing suits past. I had brown polka dot bottoms but that top had disintigrated so I was wearing a saggy top from blue Target bikini '05. I had loaned my 1-piece to a friend and then actually recommended she keep it, since that particular bathing suit was none too flattering in the belly area on me. Finally, after a day or two of running around LA looking for suitable suits, I got online and ordered three bikinis from the Target website. As it is technically end of season, the bathing suits were beyond reasonable and I ordered three for under 60 bucks.

Yes, I know, it's risky buying bathing suits in the store, let alone online, but after perusing over 100 suits, I narrowed my choices and settled on the final three. They arrived by UPS this morning (free shipping for orders over 50!) and I ripped the bag open. Each part was individually wrapped in plastic so I dumped them out and started unwrapping. First I tried on the rainbow stripes... didn't notice the metallic tinge to this suit online, but happily it fit. Next I tried on the coral colored one - again, not having noticed the black beading in the top online - but it, too fit.
And finally, the most expensive one - at 30 dollars, the black and white striped bikini... it fit! And the person who put the package together? Well he/she threw in an extra bottom of that one!
I should probably return it, but perhaps it was just the universe looking out for me, knowing that I'm swimming at the pool three times a week and that any bathing suit I wear consistently is going to take a beating.

I've been swimming laps regularly since May and I have no intention of stopping. If I can fit into three bikinis at age fortysomething better than I could at age thirtysomething then I know the pool, despite the crowds, the splashers, the chlorine, is doing me good.

Swimming Upstream, Slowly

My sister Jennifer and I grew up with a fabulous pool in our backyard, one with a diving board, a slide and a bank of water fountains that can only be compared to an Esther Williams movie. I spent many a summer swimming laps, practicing dives, or just floating on my back watching the clouds. I always loved everything about pool water, from the sharp chlorine smell to the sound of underwater silence. I even love the feeling of staying in too long, fingers and toes pruning from the water. 

This summer, encouraged by my friend Al, I joined the Santa Monica College pool. Actually, there are two pools, 'splash' and 'deep water'. Both are Olympic sized and relatively warm. We decided we were going to do laps so armed with my Target bikini and a towel, we signed up in late May and have been going twice a week ever since.

It's only mid-June, but already I laugh at my May naivete - a bikini and a towel? Where were my flip-flops? My goggles? My swim cap? How about shampoo? Lotion? A hairdryer? I'm still in the market for a one-piece suit. I seem to be the only one there in a striped two-piece.

You should see the long, lean Michael Phelps-esque bodies that glide along the water. There are also an inordinate number of pregnant women - I mean REALLY pregnant. They say it's the only exercise they can tolerate at this late stage. There are teams of people practicing for triathalons on one end, water aerobics classes on the other, and then lane after lane of people swimming laps, the breaststroke, butterfly, crawl, backstroke, etc.

Sure it's a little crowded and yes sometimes there are particles of...dirt? gunk? stuff? floating in the water, but for me it is worth it. At two dollars a swim I get a good workout, some amazing people watching and that indescribable endorphin high. I sure miss that bank of water fountains from the pool on Barrington, but the pool(s) on Pico isn't half bad.