Pool Party

I had a horrible cold last week that left me exhausted and drippy. So like a character fresh from a Jacqueline Suzanne novel, I headed to Palm Springs this weekend to dry out.

I have lived in cities all of my adult life and have never owned a car, which means weekend trips always involved some kind of public transportation. Now that we live in the ‘burbs, we have Tony, our trusty steed, who takes us where we need to go. This made for a rather revolutionary weekend away.

It's not that I've never been on a road trip before (see the drive through Florida, Spring Break '98), but I've never been on a road trip with my husband in California.

When I was younger, my parents and I would venture into New York City once a year to see a show and walk 5th Avenue. At the end of the long, exciting day, my mom would come into my bathroom with a bottle of Sea Breeze and some cottonballs, so I could "clean the city off my face." On Friday afternoon, as we drove through freeway after freeway with the windows down, I felt a burning need to "clean the freeway off my face." Something I am sure to get over in a few more months of living amidst the smog.

When we arrived in the desert, I felt very calm and very dry. And after a solid 7 days of nasal discharge, dry was a welcome feeling. We collapsed into a king bed (oh how I've missed you) and slept off a hellish week.

The next morning, we headed to the pool to have our life forces sucked dry by the desert sun. Luckily, no one else was (foolish enough to be) at the pool that day, so witnesses to my new maternity bathing-dress remain at one.

I've never been a big ocean person - after countless wave incidents involving both involuntary nudity and water in my nose - but I am a total pool freak. I love the pool. And I especially love the pool when CinS and I have it all to ourselves.

Please don't get the wrong idea. We don't do anything naughty in the pool. We just like to play games. Games that look really foolish when played by chubby adults.

When I am in better form, I usually initiate a handstand contest and/or back flip contest. CinS enjoys cannonballs. But we always play Mousetrap. Mousetrap is a game where one person (the Mouse) swims through the other person's legs (the Trap) without touching their opponent. With each successful pass, the Trap's legs close a bit, until the Mouse can no longer pass through untouched.

As I'm sure you can imagine, we look ridiculous playing Mousetrap, as we are over the age of 10. But I promise you, it's way more fun than pool volleyball or whatever other "adult" water games you're playing.

CinS and I will be moving out of his parent's house and into our own place in about a month, and our new place has a pool as well. But I doubt that we'll ever be able to replicate the empty, aquatic bliss of our weekend in the desert. We will have to be civilized. We will have to enter the pool from the stairs. We will have to dunk our heads only occasionally, just to cool off. We will have to discuss world politics and art history while listening to Brazilian Jazz.

This blows.

I'm now counting the days until my unborn child becomes a master underwater swimmer so CinS and I can play again, shame free. But there is no way she is taking my Handstand Grand Champion title. No way in hell.