Getting My Feet Wet

We joined a pool this summer - a swim club. No, not that swim club. We actually were careful to check that this pool didn't have such membership requirements before we joined. It would've been a deal breaker for us for sure. You have to be careful when you start joining organizations that designate themselves as "clubs" for that very reason. We narrowed our search down to two pools and picked the one that allows alcohol on the premises. Gotta have priorities.

The pool is lovely. It's leafy and cool, with lots of sunny spots and shady spots. It totally takes me back to the pool we used to go to when I was little. There's a snack bar and a baby pool and a deep pool with two diving boards, a one meter and a 3 meter board. When I was little the 3 meter board seemed skyscraper high. It was a terrifying thrill to jump off of it and a major accomplishment - worthy of screaming at my parents to watch me! - to dive off. It's funny to look at this board and think that it can't possibly be as high, the old board must've been way higher.

I haven't been off the dives yet. I haven't even been in the pool yet. Bo finds the pool extremely uninteresting and spends most of our days there sleeping, either on a blanket in the shade or in the stroller. Much like his attitude towards the bathtub, he doesn't really care for the pool. We got him in gradually up to his butt and that was ok but there was no splashing or laughing, just bewilderment and lots of squinting. Getting him any wetter resulted in lots of screaming. It's a process, I understand. So we sit in the shade and watch all the kids race back and forth from the pool to the playground to the snack bar.

And man, there are kids! And moms! There are lots of moms with babies right around Bo's age, maybe a month or two older. There's a mom I've seen there twice now with a baby that looks to be about 6 weeks old. I could maybe be friends with these women if I, you know, talked to them instead of silently appraising their strollers/post baby bodies/children's behavior. It might be nice to have some mom friends in the general area since I left all my friends way far away when we moved up here (this is Philadelphia, moving 30 minutes up the Schuylkill is like leaving the state). Someone who could come over for coffee and a fake play date that's really for us and not our kids.

But making friends is not my strong suit. It never has been. I'm weird and shy. Not painfully unable to function in society shy or freak you out when you talk to me weird. Just not the girl who's going to strike up a conversation with the person the next blanket over. It makes me seem snobby and standoffish but I'm really not. Just shy. And weird. It's like I'm the new girl at school and everybody already knows everybody. They all stand in the baby pool with the kids on their hips or in the water and they're chatting and gossiping and I just watch from my chair in the shade, unsure of how to get into the conversation. Or even what I would say.

But look! I'm a mom too! And my boy is cute. Wanna be my friend?