Lap Swimming. And a really funny story.

My mom and I work out together every Tuesday and Thursday.  Today, she suggested that we do lap swimming.  I haven't swum laps since...college?  It felt great.  Though I really need some goggles.  Yikes.  Bikes!

Swimming laps reminds me of a funny and very true story.  Wanna hear it?  I thought so! 

So.  My sophomore year of college, I had a roommate who was a little...crazy.  For reals.  Let's call her...Cadence.  (Just because my son is watching My Little Pony right now.)  Cadence never went to class.  She painted her fingernails three or four times per day.  She watched The Sound of Music every single day.  She stole money from our bedrooms.  And she would cut herself with sharp objects, so we had to hide all of the knives.  It was nutty.

But the craziest thing of all about Cadence was when she went swimming.  She would swim for about four hours per day.  Not kidding.  I went with her a few times, at the beginning, before she started stealing all of my money and cutting herself.  And you know, I wouldn't swim for the whole four hours.  Just one.  And I swam laps, you know, for exercise.  But Cadence...when she swam, she would, like, flit around.  Like a fish.  She would burst out of the water like Ariel from The Little Mermaid.  She would swim in circles and flip her arms around like fins.  It was a little weird.

One time, she sat down next to me and said, "Kar, can I talk to you?"

"Sure."

She sighed deeply.  "I really, really wish I was a fish."

"Haha!  Oh, wait.  You're serious.  Wow.  Um, really??"

"Yeah," she said dreamily.  "My life would have so much more meaning if I was a fish."

"Um....oh??"

It reminded me of The Incredible Mr. Limpet.  Have you ever watched that movie?  I used to really like it.  Until it hit a little too close to home.

Things got so weird with her that, at the end of our first semester living with her, my other two roommates and I asked the manager of our apartment complex if we could get transferred to a different apartment.  Cadence said to me at this point, "If you move, I'll kill myself."

I had just had it with this girl.  She had stolen all of my money and made my life a living hell.  So I retorted (in a very uncharitable way), "Do what you want.  I won't be held responsible for you.  I'm outta here."

The apartment manager ended up moving her, instead of the three of us, and a darling, darling girl, who ended up being my lifelong friend, Lynita, moved in. 

Cadence was still in our ward at church. I often wondered how her new roommates were faring with her.  She only lived a few apartments away, so I saw her a lot in passing, and it was awkward...  But boy, was I glad not to live with her anymore.

And that is the story of my roommate who wanted to be a fish.