Sink or Swim

A few years ago, I went to the Ballard pool to sign my son Emmett up for a Tots swimming lesson. Little did I know that the classes at the community center were apparently so popular it was going to be like signing up for swimming lessons in a third-world country.

There were about 150 people clambering about for 100 spots (at all various levels, tots through adults). Everything was done on a lottery basis, so you showed up, you were assigned a lottery number (we were told numbers ranged from 1-150) and then they ushered people into the formal registration area twenty at a time. Some classes only had two openings because once you are in the system you stay in the system as long as you keep taking lessons...so a lot of the grade school classes were nearly full before the lottery began.

Anyway, there I was in my shirt, sweater, and fleece being held captive in the 80-degree pool area (don't forget the humidity) and of course I got there twenty minutes early at 6:40 (after naively telling my husband I'd be back in thirty minutes to put the baby to bed). Well, then I drew my lottery number...

Wait for it...
Wait for it...
Wait for it...


Number 156. HUH?!

"I thought they only went up to 150?!" I exclaimed to no one in particular.

"Oh, there are a few higher numbers in there, but don't worry, there are only about 150 folks here tonight," a lifeguard attempted to reassure me.

At this point my glasses were fogged up from the tropical climate and I was wet from the spray coming from the adult "HYDROFIT" class splashing around in the pool, and I was thinking about just how angry Randy was going to be when I showed up at midnight (most likely without a swimming lesson spot), and I considered leaving.

Of course, you never know. So instead of leaving I roped the poor woman next to me (lucky number 90) into a political conversation...focusing on the need for Seattle taxpayers to start voting to give the Parks Department (which runs the pools, I assume) more money and digressing into a tirade about George W.

Eventually it was just me and one other woman sitting on the pool bleachers...feeling as exhausted as the HYDROFIT class looked. At 9:35 I finally got called. I went into the registration area. I came out victorious having secured the last available tot spot. At the time I swore that Emmett would be taking swimming lessons for the rest of his life, because I was not going through that again.

Today, thank GOD, the Seattle Parks and Recreation Departments have adopted an online enrollment process (called SPARC), and I have to admit it's much more efficient, but it's still competitive and stressfull. In order to guarantee a spot in a popular class, you must log on the moment registration opens, and pray that your ISP doesn't fail at a critical moment.

Maybe this is just "city living" and I need to get over it, but it seems to me that with the abundance of community centers this city has, everyone's needs should be met. At the very least, it would be nice to have a guaranteed spot at the next session (for example, the winter session if you were trying to register for fall) if you didn't make the cut the first time around.