Water +1, Suzanne +2 (Aquatic Park)

Saturday was the last opportunity I had to swim in a bay before the Pac Grove Triathlon on September 10. When I arrived in front of the Dolphin Swim Club in San Francisco, it was a drizzly 60-something degree summer weather, typical of San Francisco. The Aquatic Park swimming area, between the swim club and the Maritime Museum, has a series of buoys which mark a 1/3 mile course from the first to last buoy, and back again. For those of you who are bad at math, you have to swim three circles around all of the buoys to complete a mile.

Over at the Aquatic Park benches, the stands and beach were full of happy Team In Training (TNT, but I like to call them TIT) groups getting ready to take the plunge in 50 degree water. My wetsuit, fortunately or unfortunately, is borrowed from someone who did Team in Training, and it has the TNT logo on the front. Everywhere I go, people yell "Go TEAM!" at me. I usually just play along.

Although the Team in Training folks had yet to approach the water, I was ready to hop in and get used to the cold. They all looked at me, confused to why I was going ahead, then wondering who I was. The water wasn't bad at all. In fact, it seemed much warmer than the water the last time I swam in Monterrey. After 5 minutes, I could still feel my feet. When my swim friends showed up, I was used to the cold and ready to swim!

The first half of the first lap was the most difficult. I had other swimmers kicking and swimming around and over me, much like a race-day situation. Over and over I had to convince myself that I was doing fine, that I was well trained for swimming, and that it would only be 45 minutes of exercise. A few times I was tempted to go back to shore, and believed that swimming open water was too much for me. Then, I thought about how hard I've trained and how disappointed I would be not to finish this triathlon. I literally had to take in some soothing breaths, and calm myself down. Mental games. Total mental games.

After the first lap, I was definitely ready to do another. After the second lap, I almost convinced myself that I'd done enough for the day. I had to tell my inner mental (psycho-ward) patient that I needed to complete the last lap, and that I needed to prove it to myself. At the beginning of that final lap, my neck started burning from the salt water - my neoprene cap was rubbing against my neck and I would most certainly have battle scars. I'd forgotten to put lubricant on my neck before the swim, and now the cap was digging into my body. This idea kind of excited me - YEAH! BATTLE SCARS!

Yet again, I swam one mile in open water. This time in the choppier, colder, San Francisco Bay with about 200 other people kicking around me. I don't know why it is taking me so long to realize that I'm awesome. And yes, I have the battle scars to prove it.

One more week to Pac Grove!

Professional Help

Not only has it taken a lot of personal support from friends and family to make me a better person, but I no longer believe that professional support is some kind of cop-out for dealing with problems.

8 months ago I felt pretty horrible about myself. In order to turn it around, I started to make changes where is was the most comfortable, and enlisted professionals from my gym to work on my fitness level. (Which is connected to your heart, mind, body, soul . . . the hip bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bones connected to the foot bone, etc) I met with Kolleen, the exercise physiologist, who suggested Dan, a personal trainer, who inspired me to sign up for TRX training with Garrett, which inspired me to get a swim instructor, Jessica.

3 months ago I decided to enlist a professional staff for my career endeavors as well. Actually, it wasn't by choice - while stumbling through job postings on Craigslist (see the desperation here), I found one for an Executive Assistant in Palo Alto. Although I knew it was coming from a staffing agency, and not directly from an employer, I shot over my cover letter and resume. Within one hour, I received a phone call from a bubbly recruiter named Amanda, who wanted me to come to San Francisco to interview with her at the agency. I really didn't want to hike up to San Francisco AGAIN (At this point, I've realized that taking a job in San Francisco would completely uproot my life.), but her agency also does staffing on the Peninsula and the South Bay - it was worth a shot. What could this "professional" do for me?

During the interview I told Amanda what I was looking for, and what I was not looking for. When I left I felt like I'd give her too much information, and sounded depressed, and I never thought I would hear from her again. I'd all but forgotten about bubbly Amanda and the Agency, until she called me within 24 hours to let me know she was updating my resume slightly to send it to a client. She had me in two interviews the very next week.

Not only am I working with Amanda, but it seems like my resume is being passed around to many staffing professionals in her office. Now, I'm getting job information from Molly and Kelli who have put me in touch with a few more employers.

I have not yet found a new job / career yet, but things are going pretty well right now. I had two interviews for VC firms, which seem a little stodgy to me (glad it didn't work out), have had a second interview with a really cool medical device company (fingers crossed), and took a preliminary English comprehension /copyright / attention to detail test for an internationally-known marketing firm (apparently most people fail!).

It has definitely perked me up to know that there are some new career paths where my current skills are relevant, that I'm not so desperate to take anything, and that I am a master of the English language. Thank ya veerra much *Elvis*.

Professional help = get some. It's ok.