Dad called last night to apologize for not calling last night. I could hear in his voice that he felt terrible for missing it. The effect the call had was amazing – the weight lifted entirely off me.

Dad is coming to Accalia’s dance recital this weekend. First time he’s been to the house since Thanksgiving. Looking forward to his being here.

My swimming has been coming along well. I’m at the point where I can get in 25 laps in just over 30 minutes. I have a little trick I started doing at the end of last week: there is a guy who swims every day who reminds me of a coach in high school (very much a jock – will start swimming faster if you and he make the turn at the same time). In talking with him and overhearing him talk with others, he seems nice enough, but I digress. He swims a little bit slower than me but usually has a lap or two done by the time I hit the pool. SO, to challenge myself, I decided to make him my "rabbit." My first goal is to catch up with him, so we are each on the same number of laps. My second goal is pass him and see how many times I can lap him during the time we are both in the pool. My record to this point is catching him 4 times. Had I passed him, I’d have lapped him for the third time. I was on lap 19 at the time. Doing this has been nice as I’m motivated not to stop between laps and keep going so I can gain more distance on him. I’m hoping to get in 4 miles by the end of the week – something made easier by the mile I did on my birthday (a lap for every year – will definitely want to rethink that as I approach my 40’s and 50’s. For my birthday, Amy got me a waterproof FM radio that attaches to swim goggles. I tried it today at the pool and it didn’t work. If it doesn’t work again tomorrow, I’ll send it back and see about getting a waterproof MP3 player. I saw a cool one designed for lap swimmers – uses bone conduction for the sound – supposed to be incredible sound quality. It also attaches to the google strap. I’m hoping that having something to listen to as I work out will help to boost me toward my goal of swimming a mile in 33 minutes (ultimate goal is to be able to get in a mile in 30 minutes – am at 45 minutes currently).