break time, merry christmas, end of the year...what could go wrong?

    Ahh the joys of winter, holidays, true blood and law & order: svu marathons, honestly "sweet dreams are made of these..." But I truly do enjoy my long five weeks of break with the family...long...five...weeks. But hey why complain? I have nothing to do except the days that I work at the--that's right--the pool! The pool is like an entity of its own--it keeps absorbing me into its black hole otherwise known as chlorine infested waters.
    Since August, I can genuinely say that I have had many new and enthralling experiences at my very own  natatorium. Training at the beginning of the year was a horrid nightmare that I can gladly say I lived through. It was long, hot and very tedious-- thank god for bars...I would have never made it through.
    Now, for what you have all been waiting for--another lifeguard revelation! During this past semester, I had the swim team shift. It's a rather interesting shift because you get to watch the whole swim team for 1.5 hours. When I say "get to watch (like it's a privilege?)," I actually mean: are required to "helicopter mom" them (If you don't know what a "helicopter mom" is, google it please). I'm sure those of you reading this are thinking, how hard can a shift be when the lifeguards barely have to do anything...do they even really have to watch the pool?
   You are wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. We are required to hover over the swim team and accede to all of the teams requests and demands. Honestly, shifts during swim practice can be intense with all the appeasing we must do. It's a challenge of its own but it's all in a day's work of American Lifeguarding.  Boy, I cannot WAIT until I start working swim meets shifts. Those are like swim practice shifts on super steroids...

                              (These swimmers are NOT to be trusted. This intense and familiar image of cheering is ofter misconstrued as cheers and motivating cries-- that could not be further from the truth. Through screams of cheers, these two "teammates" are actually saying: "If you don't go faster you will lose for the entire team and we will hate you forever!" Yup, it's what they mean ;-) )