New Swimsuit

This is not me in my new swimsuit. This is Marilyn Monroe.


Last year when shopping for camp I needed EVERYTHING: sleeping bag, hiking boots, bug spray, sunblock, wool socks, tent, biodegradable soap, backpack, lantern, knife, emergency whistle, you name it. This year I still have almost everything, or maybe if I've run out I just need to go buy more...but still I wanted one or two new things to take to Yosemite for the summer. It is, as Rebecca always says so rightly, all about the accessories.

So yesterday I rode my bike to Sports Basement in Walnut Creek (VERY different than the ones in the city, yes) and wandered from department to department stocking up on things I did need (socks, soap) and hoping to find just a little something new and fun to take along this summer too. In the TriYourBest! area of the store--they are so cheesy with the slogans, those folks at Sports Basement--I found a whole rack of swimsuits that caught my attention. Not in love with my orange lap suit from last spring and not in love with the reactions I get from campers when clad in my bikini I decided to poke around a bit to see what I could find. I unearthed about a half dozen in my size and headed for the fitting room.

I only learned how to really swim four years ago and since that time was, until very recently, allegiant to a full-coverage suit called the SuperFly made by Speedo. Unlike Todd or Sarah I am not a butterflyer myself, but who can argue with the name? I've done laps in three different versions since I graduated from the Starfish class at the USF swim school: the black, the blue, and the purple. Last spring, though, I was at Sports Basement's store in the Presidio and needed a swimsuit right that day since the spin dryer at the Koret Center had recently eaten my blue SuperFly alive after a particularly vigorous workout with the Masters team. I had grabbed a sale-priced suit without trying it, erroneously thinking it was my usual model, only to get home and find out it was no SuperFly at all but rather the TYR Diamondback. Since then I've been hooked and so my cardboard shopping box overflowed with various flavors of Diamondback as I found an empty "room" in the the mixed-gender try-on area.

"Whoa!" the woman trying on bike shorts in the stall next to me said in reaction to my first choice as I stepped out from behind the curtain and into the almost completely public fitting room to scope out the view in the mirror. "That is one of the best swimsuits I have ever seen! You look like a total movie star."

Really? I wasn't sure at first but upon closer inspection decided it was indeed quite an accessory and well worth the investment. My new identity as a supposed movie star might be a bit of a stretch but I feel it is definitely an impactful look since my new swimsuit is a fully-lined white TYR Diamondback that makes my truly milky skin appear mocha instead and in its double-layered-ness does wonders for, you know, those parts of one's body that sometimes look less than wonderful in a swimsuit.

Rest Hour Staff Lap Swim, here I come!