swimming, quilts and pinball

Variety is the spice of life, but sometimes it seems kind of random and unbalanced. My quilting friends wonder, "What's up with all the pinball?" My pinball friends wonder, "What's up with the quilts?" And my swimming friends wonder, "What's up with all the pinball and quilts?"

It may seem like it's all over the map, but that's what makes me who I am: a swimming, pinball-playing quilt collector. "Keep Portland Weird!"

Sometimes, one activity takes over. Swimming did for a long time, and the experience strongly influences my approach to tournament pinball. It's fun to play in pinball tournaments, but it would be a weak form of validation if that's what I wanted from it.

Collecting quilts was like a competitive sport for me at times, especially when I was winning adrenaline-fueled battles with fellow snipers bidding on eBay. I didn't always make a lot of friends that way, but ended up with one heck of a collection.

Then, there is balance. I don't compete in swimming anymore, but swim a few times a week with Linda. We put on fins, grab kickboards and have an hour-long, aerobic "social kick" conversation. It feels better than winning a gold medal at the FINA Masters World Championships.

The quilt collecting has slowed down quite a bit. I've learned a lot about quilts, and now it takes something special, unusual, or very fine to make me pull out my wallet. It's good, because I still have the ability to assemble a group of quilts very quickly, but only if I'm thoroughly intrigued. After writing three books over a four-year period, I was a little whipped.

We have a league pinball match tonight. It's our team vs. a team from another local bar. Some of the teams are very serious about winning. We like to win, but we're more like a family, especially now that we've got two married couples in the mix. Some of us are more inclined to be competitive than others, and that's good, too. I enjoy the balance.