Pool Party

What could be better than swimming?

Swimming in the dark, of course.

This was a pool party for Special Olympics, participants, volunteers and families. It started at 8:00, when the pool normally closes. Well, for kids, it closes at 7:00, the last hour is Egyptian Swim, all Hebrews out of the water.

It's been so freakish hot lately, the pool was warmer than the night air by the end of the evening. The water was like the hug of a fat, child-molesting clown. But in a good way, because when you got out, the evaporation factor still worked to cool you off.



At first, Mo wanted a life jacket for the diving board. She'd gone without the one time, but since then she's preferred to bob like a cork. But then, after she'd tired of the diving board and ditched the jacket to do some regular swimming, they announced a contest. Well, first there was a race across the pool, and Mo couldn't give a shit about racing. But then they had a splash contest at the diving boards. I don't think she's got any more competitive instinct about the splashing bit, but I think seeing almost every kid there lining up and jumping in sans jacket might have made an impression.

Hard to say. Most kids are going in that way when we're there during regular pool hours, but maybe Mo thinks of this as a different set of kids. She knows most of them, from school and/or Special Olympics.



But she went over and over off the board. Jalinda, who took these pictures and emailed them to me (thanks!), tried and tried to get Mo in mid-air going off the board. But Mo kind of stands there thinkng about it for a while, and then with almost no warning, splash, she's in the drink. Then the challenge is to convince her to swim to the ladder so the next kid can go, rather than just floating under the board, waiting for the next jumper/diver to crash down on her.