Oddly enough, the idea for this story came together while upside down tonight. Granted I had been thinking about it before, but it all came together while hanging upside down in the warm water which, as warm as the water is, feels rather slimy.

Whether it is due to nature or nurture, who knows. What I do know is rarely do I like anything easy. If it can be done on the first try, then it is boring and there has to be something else out there more interesting. Usually there is. This means I constantly like to test myself, one way or another. At any given time, I am always trying to redefine my personal limits in some way.

Being a slalom junkie, this means as of late, I have started to combat boredom on the course by trying to figure out new moves to set. Lately, some of them have been particularly heinous. This morning was no exception. Granted I could hit some of the moves some of the time, but reliability was most definitely elusive. After work, while on the water this evening, my luck was about the same.

Laura, my landlord or roommate, however you want to look at it, when she first saw my new boat, she told me I needed to paint big red lips on Taz. I was not following her logic. Laura explained since my boat is my mistress, there should be some big red lips on Taz. Laura is not completely off base. My sport has been the demise of three relationships thus far. My confidence in a girlfriend lasting though a season is not all that great anymore.

Hanging upside down in the eddy...well more on the eddyline, or eddyfence...being Charlotte, it is more of an eddy warzone. Regardless, hanging upside down, it really occurred to me. My boat is not my mistress. Initially I thought it more a marriage, but that stupid thought quickly gave way to seeing the more realistic reality. Slalom most closely resembles a girlfriend at about 18 years old. Nothing ever makes sense. You most definitely have love there, but rarely do you have any clue what is going to happen next. When it is good, it is very good. When it is bad, you begin thinking you would rather be dating Katrina.

This was especially true as of late. I have been on the water a lot. Typically my progression is slightly broken up by traveling for work. This makes it quite difficult to get in a rut. For the last three weeks though, I have been here and have been on the water...a whole heckava lot. This has been good. I have been figuring a lot of things out.

During the last couple of days though, it has been frustrating. Even just one run to the next, being able to execute seems rather elusive. Granted, I have been pushing myself. It just would not be Joel if I was not. However, to be able to dial it in on one run, and be upside down on the next, this is a little infuriating. Hence training as of late, it is just about as predictable as a girlfriend during freshman year in college. Most of the time, the only thing left to do is just wonder what the...