The Pool

I feel I should warn you that this post is a bit of a rant. I was annoyed today and I just want to complain some. Anyone that knows me knows that I am an optimist. Anyone that knows me really well knows that I am also a bit of a cynic. I'm sure quite a few of you are scratching your heads and wondering how that possibly works. Let me explain. We'll use people's behavior as an example since that is what motivated this post. I firmly believe that people as a whole are capable of being polite, thoughtful, courteous, pleasant, etc if they just make a little effort to pay attention to their surroundings and take into consideration how their actions might effect the people around them. I also believe that intelligence is a choice to a certain extent - that people are as smart as they want to be. I'm not talking about Calculus - that's education, not intelligence. Now I believe that about people - optimist, but I don't expect it - cynic. The optimist is what enables me to be a good teacher, the cynic keeps me from bashing my head against a wall in frustration when confronted with the idiocy that seems to come from the average person on a daily basis. I know I'm not perfect and I know I have my moments, but by and large, I like to think I do pretty well.

So on to events at the pool today. I'm going to preface today's events with a bit about yesterday. The hotel Brian and I are staying in has a lovely pool - it's not quite 25 yards long but it's pretty close. It's a rectangle about the width of four lap lanes with a large half circle shallow area on one side. Considering it's not technically a lap pool, it's a good size and shape for swimming laps. Since there are no lap lanes, I knew that I would have to be cognizant of people in the water especially children. In these types of situations I don't expect people to curtail their fun just because I want to swim laps. I do expect that people would show me the same courtesy that I am showing to them by not swimming over them or swimming too fast. Things like not walking directly in my path and then standing there looking at me as I swim towards them. It's a big pool after all and there is plenty of space. Since my workouts are very easy and short right now, I really didn't foresee any issues.

Yesterday was just fine. I kept an eye on the pool and got in at a time when there were few people in the water. I moved to the middle of the pool and started swimming. The people that were in there with their kids moved along the long side of the pool so that they were playing next to me instead of in between me and the wall. How nice! I also noticed another funny thing about 5 minutes after I started swimming. Other people that had just been hanging out in the pool started doing exercise related activities - some breaststrokers, a couple of water aerobics people, an aqua jogger. It was almost like seeing someone else being active made it okay. It was kind of cool, and I had a really nice swim.

Today was a different story. I did the same thing as yesterday. In fact there was no one - not a soul - in the pool when I got in and started swimming my laps. I had done at least 10 laps before anyone got in the pool that I could see so my position was well established. All of the sudden there were a bunch of people in the water with their kids, and they had all taken up positions along the short wall so I had to start navigating around people to complete my lap. That's fine - there are no lanes, they had as much right to be there as I did. I was a little annoyed because there was no one playing along the length of the pool adjacent to where I was swimming like the parents had done yesterday or in the half circle area that was completely removed from where I was swimming. Everyone was clustered in the one area. It's not like they all knew each other either. I don't expect that people should jump out of the way for me but 1) I was there first and 2) it's a huge pool - spread out people! I was feeling some serious passive aggressiveness coming from the people at that end of the pool. I'm sure you can see where this is going. It was only a matter of time and the laws of probability before I ran into someone. I got to the wall, turned around, pushed off, took one stroke and smack! ran right into a man carrying a small child. I smacked her on the back of the head with my hand as I was trying to bring my arm down to the water for a stroke. I immediately stood up and apologized to the child who couldn't have been more than two and wasn't entirely sure if she should cry or not. Her grandfather gave me the dirtiest look and just turned away from me. At this point I was seriously pissed! How about apologizing to me, you jackass. What bothered me even more is that I had swum around this guy to get to the wall, and that he was facing me and looking right at me as I pushed off so the only way I run into him is if he moves in front of me. Whatever! I was almost done with my swim, but all the enjoyment I had gotten was gone. I felt really bad about hitting the child. At any rate, I was really annoyed probably because yesterday had been so nice so my expectations had been elevated. I really just don't get how people can be so clueless and rude. I don't expect people to jump out of my way just because I want to swim laps, but I also don't understand why a person wouldn't move to another part of the pool when they see someone continually going around them and their kids. It just doesn't make sense to me. I don't know why it's called common sense or common courtesy because very few people seem to have it.

Rant over! I feel much better now.