it happened again. another day of really bad swimming. i don’t know how to explain it. i began on such a positive note. i wasn’t even thinking of swimming in a straight line. and now, i swim like wild mercury.

not that i’m deflecting responsibility. i could blame the change in current were i not swimming in an indoor pool. i could blame the lighting because it’s darker at 8:00pm this week than it was at 8:00pm last week.

i could blame my mask. i could blame myself for not buying the fog-proof mask, if such a thing even exists. i could blame myself for not doing enough research.

or maybe i could blame the other swimmers. there were more of them to the left of me than to the right of me and perhaps that shifted the topography of the pool. but still, it was my decision to swim with them.

i could blame everything on all of the incidents i experienced during the day leading up to my evening swim. but it’s probably for the best if i do not remember any of them.