I absolutely love the smell of chlorine. That sounds sick, seeing as it's a potentially harmful chemical, if ingested in large quantities. It also really smarts when you get it in your eyeballs; trust me, I work at a pool.
And that's the exact reason I love the smell of chlorine. It's not exactly a crisp and clean smell, though you do know the water must be safe, if you get that scent early in the morning. It burns your nostrils and wakes up your brain. It makes your eyes sting and water, when you forget your goggles. And God help the poor soul who actually swallows a mouthful or two of chlorinated pool water - moreso because no one really knows what kids are doing in the water, not because of the chlorine. It's almost sweet, not sour, and hangs in the air and on your clothes long after you've climbed out of the pool.
One of my favorite things to do in the dead of winter is to dig out one of my village-issued swim instructor T-shirts and summon up the sights and sounds of a summer that exists only in my memory. Watching the older kids paddle through laps through my aviator shades, the world tinted brown or blue or gray. The bridge is in the distance, across the bay, promising the beach later in the day, maybe, and boats sometimes pass too close to the bulkhead for the lifeguard's comfort.
And it's not even the memories that makes me love the smell. It's the smell itself, so singular and indescribable.
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Is that really what I look like today? O.o
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I don't need everything in that enormous sack I insist on lugging around. I think I just have so much in the bag because the bag is so damn big, and I need to make it feel like it has worth. Or maybe I'm just trying to convince myself that it wasn't a waste of money.
Which it wasn't.
But the summertime brings about plenty of changes in these parts, in my life. As much as I love my Barnes & Noble bag with the Abraham Lincoln quote on one side and my favorite book quote (from Erasmus) on the other, I really don't need to carry around hand sanitizer and so much gum and trash stuffed in the tiny pocket and my glasses (unless it's nighttime and I need to drive - my night vision is terrible). So, I've been cutting back. I lost my favorite Disney drawstring bag, which I'm convinced I saw somewhere in my room a week ago and I'm hoping to dig up, so I managed to find my official Red Cross backpack in the back of my closet. I got it as a reward for passing my swim instructor test and then promptly tossed it in the back of said closet and never used it again. But it's been coming in handy, on bike rides and tennis excursions. And then there's the House bag I got for cheap from the NBC Experience Store, which might be this year's beach bag.
I only need my car/house keys, some money, my driver's license, maybe some water, maybe a tennis racquet. So, I'm down-sizing for the season.
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And an apology, for my lack of post last night. My day suddenly got crammed full of both semi-important and to-hell-with-doing-anything activities, from around eleven in the morning to about three the following morning. But, it's been a slow day today, plenty of time to think of some things to share and post them here. I was going to post my thoughts from yesterday, as well, and maybe I will, someday. But I won't today. Because yesterday was yesterday and today is today. This is about writing and sharing when you can. It's okay to miss a day.
And, really, I did write and plan yesterday, so I didn't really miss yesterday! I just didn't get home at a normal hour, in time to post :]
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