Houston, where it's too hot to swim

Yesterday I woke up early and went swimming at Memorial Pool. It's a nice big lap pool with a water slide, and, for the bargain basement price of one dollar, you can lap swim from 6-10 in the morning. I was pretty excited. It is the hottest summer every in Houston and I've been dreaming of a nice, cool swim.

So I put on my googles and braced myself for cool water. I anticipated the nice, chilled out feeling of getting out of a cold pool and into a hot car. But as my body hit the water, my brain was filled with memories of a childhood spent swimming in Houston. In the summer in Houston the pools are only cool in the most relative of senses. The water was very, very warm. Last week my father told me that the water in his backyard pool was up to 90 degrees. That was when the air was 105.

Local news stations are telling people to keep the AC in their houses set to 15 degrees below the temperature outside. Seriously, no matter how environmentalista I try to be, I just can't live in a house that is above 85. I am undeinably a Houstonian and there are things that you cannot convince a Texas girl to do, even if you threaten rolling blackouts.

But, apparently, I will swim in a pool that it that warm. It was like doing a Bikram yoga class. The heat was more of a challenge than the workout. It took me about twice as long to swim my laps and I just gave up after half a mile. Yes, some of that can be contributed to my own out-of-shape laziness, but it was undeniably hot.

Also, the awesome water slide kept pushing me to the end of my lane. It was like swimming in a river, y'all. Then I saw a woman just go up and run in place at the foot of the slide, like it was a water arobics prop or something. That made me feel like maybe my swim wasn't that pathetic, cause I was working in two directions, forward and to the right.

Anyways, I just can't wait until I take the MCAT and I can get out of town. "Where will I go?" you ask. Barton Springs, Austin, TX. Or, even better, San Solomon Springs, way out I-10, TX.