Good Week

This week has been AWESOME. I started scuba last week and this week packed in the classes. Had to do several hours of preparation on my free CD-ROM and print out lots of homework from it. At the class with Scuba Steve (my instructor--remember the movie Big Daddy??? With Scuba Steve??? ha ha ha) we had to take 3 quizzes. I was the only one to rock out 100% on all of them. Result! Then this week we had to swim 200 yards (I came in second, and I was convinced that I would be last) and we had to tread water for 10 minutes. That was dead easy. I was chatting the whole time. The guys acted like they were about to die. They just don't have enough natural bouyancy (fat!). The gear is insane. I have to wear: mask, snorkel, BCD (a vest that inflates when you push a button) about 20 pounds of lead for weight, boots, fins (I bought some SWEET fins), a huge air tank, a wetsuit, gloves, regulator, alternate air source (basically a yellow regulator), a gauge that shows time, depth, remaining air pressure, and a compass. I gotta get a whistle. On Tuesday we did the swimming tests. On Wednesday we did a bunch of water skills for three hours in the pool. Last night we did 3 and a half hours in the pool and did some crazy tests. On one of them we were at the bottom of the pool (13 feet) and the instructor turned off our air. We had to signal "out of air" to our buddies, yank their alternate air sources off of them, and breathe their air. Then we had to swim around the pool together, connected by the yellow hose and breathing their air. I really like it.

Next weekend we're going to do a boat dive and a beach dive. We have a couple more pool dives this upcoming week. I don't know what we're going to do in them yet.

Oh, Scuba Steve said that once he took a spray can of cheese into the ocean and all the fish came running and ate what he squirted into the water. Then they started getting really agressive and one bit his ear 3 times. It really hurt and it bled all over the place! Ha!

Today I met with that real estate broker that I saw about 6 weeks ago. It's solid. I sign the contract on Monday and I start my training classes on the 20th with his partner. I'm so happy!

I have been out on a couple of dates and they have gone well. No one I want to invest my life in yet. I have another hot date tomorrow night and I'm soooooooo looking forward to it. He is the most interesting and positive guy I have met so far. He's 33. And the funny thing... He's French. We talk on the phone and write e-mails in French and he says my skills are impressive. When I was on the train from Brussels to Koln I spoke French to order sandwiches and beer for Tom and I and the waiter said my French was very good. I love it when I hear that. I know the Alliance Francaise has classes in Beverly Hills. Maybe when things calm down I will register for them and try to get really good. I would like to not have to fish so hard for vocab.

And I got some damn good gossip a week ago. My hot assistant principal really has split up from his wife. I found out from the in-school suspension lady at a party last Friday. When I heard that, that comment that he made about how I should get a sugar daddy came rushing back to me. Was he suggesting that he be my sugar daddy???? I have no idea. So I submitted a request for him to do a letter of recommendation for me. That is because I fully intend to flirt with him and see if he wants to go out for a drink. If he says yes and then later we end up in some horrific break-up situation, it won't really matter as far as work goes because I'll already have the positive rec on file. In theory. I'm trying to be a little smarter than I've been in the past.

Oh, and best of all. That crap student loan situation finally disappeared off my credit report. (There was a time when it said I was delinquent when in reality I was in deferment while I was in the graduate program.) So I couldn't get a decent credit card rate. And so far this week I've gotten 3 zero-interest credit card offers in the mail. Sweet. Thank God! It finally feels like all the skewed aspects of my life are getting good again.