I am suddenly involved in crew for the first time in my life. I've had a passing interest for a while, but when the time came for intramurals this quarter, my coworkers decided on the traditional 6am slot, which made me reconsider.
Until... many of the women in my lab admitted they didn't know how to swim. Of course, to be on a boat out in the lake as part of UW Crew, they make you pass a swim test. It was a piece of cake for me, but I doubt it would've been for the others.
So I roped myself into the whole thing. Yesterday, the 5 of us were out on a boat together for the first time. Ever. None of us have significant rowing experience, so it was... interesting. We had trouble going in a straight line at any time... the boat keeled to the left a lot...
And perhaps the most interesting thing -- the coxswain is our boss. All of us work for him. It's interesting how cranky he gets out on the water. Some of the others took it personally; I just laughed it off, figuring he's a competitive soul, and would never hold grudges about this sort of thing in the workplace.
Tomorrow we're out on Portage Bay again, the 5 of us, at 6am. It will be... interesting... to see how much, if any, progress we have made. And it's darn discouraging to see these other undergrad teams -- our competition -- when all of us are over 30. (Handicap, anyone?)
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Just saw your comment on my site, so I thought I'd stop by to say thanks for the kind words. They were much more encouraging than the usual "Watch out for the Caribou" or "There are a lot of hills in that one, right?" that I usually hear. I'm excited to check out your blog now.
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