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This is the End, Beautiful Friend

This is it, the last week of summer vacation. The last week before my sweet little girl walks out of the house into first grade. First grade!

It boggles my mind.


During these last precious days I am somehow filled with both a desperate need to hold on to each moment, to make them all absolutely incredible, and a fierce impatience to just get on with it already! So I am running around the playground with Maya thinking "This is awesome, this is so much fun, look how happy she is, look at that angelic smile, look at the sun sparkling off on the distance, it all goes by so fast, I love her so much, can I sit down now?"


It has been an odd summer and my brain has lost track of what our normal routine is. Do I work camp for 8 hours a day in 99 degree heat? Do I lie on my back suffering from swollen sinuses? Am I on a beach somewhere? Does my shoulder hurt today? Do I still teach karate? Do I still take karate? What day is it again? 


To fit in with my desire to squeeze every last ounce of fun out of this summer, we went fishing this weekend. 

In the Hudson River. It was a lot of fun but no, we did not catch anything. Which is probably for the best, who knows what NYC fish look like.


Photo: Father & Daughter fishing.

While we were casually dropping our lines into the river, across the country, in another body of water, this was happening:

 

Diana Nyad finally made it! At 64 years old, she became the first person to ever swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile know that I have had mixed feelings about her repeated attempts. Despite this, I could not stop refreshing her Facebook page yesterday and when she finally stepped onto the Key West shore I got a little choked up. There is something about watching an athlete accomplish their ultimate dream. (Yes, I cry at least once during every Olympics. Well, the summer ones anyway. Winter sports are silly. Snow is for hot chocolate and marshmallows.) So congratulations Diana, you truly are an inspiration.

Speaking of athletes, I finally went back to jiu-jitsu yesterday. (How do you like that expert transition? That is fine writing!) Despite the ache of protest in my shoulder this morning, I am so glad to be back on the mats. I know I will be working at about 75 percent for awhile but nothing makes me feel like myself quite like training, even low intensity, super careful, no big dudes on my back training.  When you are sidelined for awhile it is easy to forget how GOOD it feels to just put on a gi. 

September is a crazy time at the dojo too, with all the kids returning from camp and vacations and all. But that's ok, I think I am almost ready for crazy. 

But first, to play Sorry with Maya. And to enjoy every single second of it. 

And yeah, I'm gonna cry on Monday when she goes off to school. But I will blame it on my sore shoulder. 

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