Adult swimmies please...

So, in my continual quest for physical fitness, I've been trying to swim laps at my neighborhood pool for the past few weeks. Due to my unsecured future, I did not want to renew my gym membership in any way since I could be moving somewhere else any week now. Well, I've read up on some swimming tips, bought some goggles, and am headed toward a new level of physical conditioning....right? 

Not so. Let me back up a few years, and first say that my parents never really taught me how to swim properly. I brought this up to my mom a few weeks ago and the conversation went something like this:

Me: So mom, I'm a little bitter you never taught me how to swim properly.

Mom: Well, you could always sign up for swim lessons...(smirk on face).

To help explain, please note my freestyle is probably a glorified "doggie paddle" at this point, and all the sudden I decide to begin my swimming escapades as visions of gliding elegantly through the water percolate through my brain. NEWS FLASH: it doesn't work that way. Swimming is hard. Really hard. In fact, today was probably my 3rd or 4th time trying to swim laps and I've finally figured out how to breath and not inhale half a gallon of water at the same time (which makes the whole swimming thing much less like Drowning Survival 101).

So, with that preface, I woke up this morning to swim laps and got to the pool early (to prevent the seething jealousy that would inevitably ensue in the minds of any passers-by). Overall, my exercise in futility showed slight improvement over my past few experiences, however I still maintain that swimming is really tough...surely this will get easier.

The next logical step for my day (as a newly emancipated worker), was to hang around the pool the rest of the day since I had nothing better to do. After coming back home for breakfast, lathering on some SPF 30 (my mom has effectively convinced me I'll get skin cancer without it), waiting the appropriate amount of time for it to soak in, I headed out.

All in all, I was at the pool about four hours; yet, somehow, despite my sunscreen application, I've managed to burn the bottom 2/3rds of my back beyond all reason. This makes no sense - and to make me feel even more SPF illiterate, its the second time I've burned myself horrifically this summer. Not pretty.

I've now decided this has become my Murphy's law of pool relaxation (I use this term because laying out sounds feminine). I used to always cut grass and work outside, so sun burns, due to persistent sun exposure, were never a problem before (even without sunscreen, by the way). At any rate, maybe after this I'll avoid the unpleasant experience for a while.

Anyway, for all of you out there, enjoy sleeping on your back because it will be a while before I can do that again - I'll be stuck in an uncomfortable sleeping position without a sheet to cover me tonight.