Hello Tigers! You may have been biting your nails at not hearing the latest pool updates for two whole months — after all, what are we without a pool to keep us together? Unfortunately for you, I have a perfectly reasonable excuse for each month you were without the latest news of your favorite spot on the roof.

For the month of November, I accidentally submitted the pool updates to the University of California application, instead of to the newspaper editor. A damn shame it is we can’t ever undo that mistake and get back the lost writing. December, well, we at the Journalism club have decided not to speak about December. We were too busy congratulating our Editor in Chief for getting into her dream school early to bother writing articles, anyways. Go Fiona!

Unfortunately, our request for HELP (Hybrid-Electronic Learning and Pooling) did not go over well with the administration, something about “a dizzying array of group names, not even one page in to the one-hundred-thirty-four-page proposal for an inappropriately named plan for a severely under-used and over-budgeted location” being the first and last straw for approval, “especially in a pandemic.” We were even considering changing Group V to “Group Roman Number Five (V)” to clear things up.

All I see here is a clear message to persevere. Our next meeting will discuss a new proposal, and I’m thinking we’ll want to go for a minimum of 200 pages on this one. Please note our meeting time has been changed to 2 am on Friday nights (that means 2 am on Saturday mornings for those of you uneducated in late nights) to accommodate even further shifting sleep schedules and parents’ concerns that it’s “unethical to have an incredibly long club meeting on a school night at midnight.” Not sure what’s up with that. Extra points and a free pool pass if you show up in scuba gear, a wetsuit, or a dry suit!

It’s a shame that we weren’t able to get HELP through, too, since I checked in on the pool earlier today and it seems the heater is mysteriously working well. Let’s try to work through this next proposal before it breaks again.

In other news, I’ve heard rumors that we will potentially have a few sports starting their seasons! Track, cross country, tennis, golf, and swimming are the five on the table. We welcome the swimming team to practice at the pool (make sure to buy a pass from your favorite senior!) if we can get this proposal through, and all the others are free to cool off with a quick dip after finding their way up two flights of stairs. First dip’s on us.

Otherwise, it’s a new year, and although we’re not off to the best start politically, you could personally be off to a great start in any number of ways including, but not limited to, feeling that warm feeling of giving when you buy your best friend a pool pass, attending the weekly pool meetings, or simply finishing off this year well: relaxed in the hot tub with wonderful Sonoma County views (and hopefully not too much Soboncomsind). We’re somehow more than halfway through the year, so let’s finish strong.

Hold in there tigers! Until next time.