Second Place!

First of all, we're back from St. John and I'm a little depressed about that just generally.  Although I am happy my eyes are getting back to normal.  I always forget, but every time we go to St. John I have an allergic reaction to something and the skin around my eyes puffs up and itches like crazy.   This is the 4th year now.  Every year I think, "Maybe it's such-and-such that's causing this," and every year we rule out one thing or another. 


I have absolutely no seasonal allergies of any sort anywhere else in the world, but there is something in St. John that the skin around my eyes doesn't like.  My eyes are fine - they don't get red or teary.  I don't get stuffed up or cough or sneeze.  I don't get skin irritation anywhere else.  Just the very delicate skin around my eyes for whatever reason.  It's bizarre.


Anyway, once I got past my self-consciousness about looking a little freakish with my puffy eyes and just wore my sunglasses everywhere, we had a great time.  I wasn't going to let puffy eyes stop me from enjoying paradise.  We snorkeled and swam in the ocean every day.


But the important part is, we got 2nd place in our relay!  Only 2 seconds away from 1st!  It was a race to the finish for Tad and the other team's anchor.  However, I think it's important to point out that the 2 guys on the other team were both free divers and had fins that were, like, 4 feet long.  I'm convinced if we had had 4 foot long fins, we would have smoked them.   I'm proud of us!


My shoulder was great.  Earlier in the week I took one little swim around a little island in the middle of one of the swimming beaches, just to get the kinks out and see how I felt swimming with my snorkeling fins.  My shoulder started aching a teeny bit by the end of that swim, but nothing too bad.


After my leg of the relay, I iced my shoulder for about 10 minutes and I was fine.  Actually, I had little to no shoulder pain the entire time we were on vacation.


Since I got back, though...  I've realized that sitting at my desk all day, even while consciously pulling my shoulder blades together and sitting up super straight makes my shoulder ache.  My sedentary lawyer job has injured me, which is probably the lamest way ever to get injured.


However, this morning I got clearance from my physical therapist to swim again since I did so well in St. John!  She also tested my strength and range of motion and determined that I am much improved since I started with her a couple months ago.  Saturday morning, I'm hitting the pool!  I was reflecting to Jason yesterday how when it's my idea to not swim (for example, in the middle of a brutally cold dark winter), I can handle it, but being forced not to swim, especially as the mornings are brighter and I'm waking up early anyway because it's light out, has been wretched.  I'm looking forward to getting back in the pool!