Overdosing on Chlorine

As I collapsed into my bed on Wednesday night, I noticed I had gotten a text from Brother Packham at 11:30PM reminding me about the ward temple night for Thursday evening at 7:00PM. I sighed and decided I wasn’t going to go as per I had gone to the Salt Lake temple that day. As I was saying my prayers, I was struck by a feeling I needed to go. I decided to ignore it and resolved to go trail running instead. I woke up excited to start my day with the promise of Arabic food for lunch and a trail run to cap off the evening. Can I just say how amazing lunch was? I went to Mezza’s with a co-worker and if you haven’t been, you need to. The first thing I tried was the limeade. Talk about heaven in a glass. They squeeze fresh limes right into your glass then bring a tiny little pitcher of rosewater and orange blossoms to mix in at your own discretion. I also tried falafel for the first time and am in pure disarray that I have not been eating this delectable food source my entire life. Since I took an hour longer for lunch, I had to stay an extra hour after work. Perfect! Another valid reason to not go to ward temple night. As I was driving home, I took the usual exit and my car seriously started driving itself to the temple. I tentatively asked, “Are you sure I have to go to the temple today?” My answer couldn’t have been clearer or more definite. Okay, fine. I drove to the temple parking lot and had a wonderful conversation with a wonderful friend while I waited for 7:00PM to roll around. When I walked in the doors I was sad to see only Brother Packham and another boy from our ward there. Wow! A whole two from the singles ward made it. I thought, “Well, this is why I must have to be here. To raise the dwindling ward temple goers”. I got dressed and since no one was there, we got ushered in to the font right after confirmations. The boy stepping out of the font had this HUGE grin on his face and one of the temple workers smiled at him and passed him his name slip with the astronomical number of 100 on it. I stared incredulously at him and quietly asked, “You seriously did a 100 baptisms? In a row?” He just kept smiling and shrugged, “Guess so”. As I stepped into the font, the temple workers joked about me doing a hundred names. I laughed too, but secretly wished it wasn’t a joke. When we reached 25, they asked if I really felt like I could do an hundred names. Done! I was dunked into that luke warm chlorinated water a hundred times and honestly, I don’t think I have ever felt happier after going to the temple. I wore a silly grin for the rest of the night and it is still ever present on my face today.
Maybe I ingested too much water in the font, but I wanted to go swimming in the morning bad when I got home. I got together my huge pack, set my alarm clock for 5AM, and then woke up at 4:30AM with fear it had failed to go off. I just sat on the edge of my bed and waited for 5AM to come and then raced out the door to South Jordan Aquatic Center. I walked in expecting 6 or 8 lanes to show off my swimming skills. There were only two. Two that already contained two very hairy men with pot bellies. Arg. I awkwardly waded through the pool and asked one of the hairy men to share his lane. He literally just looked at me without saying a word. Cool. “How about we just stay to one side instead of doing circles?” More staring. Okay, seriously? It is 5AM, I know I look beyond homely. Then he just took off and started swimming. Get prepared to eat some major bubbles you silent, hairy man. After 12 laps, I was pretty sure drowning was on my agenda today. Mister silent man was kicking my trash. As he was speeding past me with ease at one point, he bumped my leg and my hand flew into the divider. Blood gushed everywhere into the water. From my pinkie nonetheless. How lame is a pinkie injury? “Oh, that huge noticeable scar on my pinkie? Yeah, I got that from a fight with a forty something man at the local pool. It was intense. I won, obviously. This impressive battle wound proves that”. Not quite sure currently why I thought I would still be in swimming shape considering I haven’t really been for the past three months. Overdosing on chlorine apparently convinced me I wasn’t an asthmatic walrus and also convinced me I need to devotedly go to the pool for the rest of the summer for the sole purpose of seriously kicking the hairy man’s butt.