Friday, January 12, 2007

The Sea Monster

While stretching my shoulders a bit after my swim this morning I noticed the woman in the lane next to me was looking at me and desperately trying to suppress a giggle. When she saw me glance over she couldn't contain herself and burst into uncontrollable giggles - her eyes welling up with tears. I quickly tried to decide if she was truly amused or just plain nuts.

"I'm sooooo sorry - I couldn't help it!" She gasped in between giggles.
"Help what?"

More giggles, starting to shake now. I glanced around the pool evaluating possible escape routes.

"It sounded like I was swimming next to a sea monster!" she replied and then launched into an absolute fit of laughter.

Nuts was looking like the right call at this point. And then I got it.

For the record, Indian food the night before a long swim is not a good idea. In fact, it's a very, very bad idea. My stomach was a burning caldron of bubbling marsala chicken and curry laced dal. As I swam I kept having to burp underwater. I guess my burping was a bit louder than I thought.

I promptly joined her in hysterical, shrieking laughter that caused waves to ripple across the pool. What a great start to my day - a 3K TT swim and spontaneous shared laughter with a complete stranger - priceless.

1 comment:

Habeela said...

That is hysterical! I wonder what people think of my coughing underwater?