Annmarie Kearney-Wood was still dry behind the ears when she first came to swim with the West Neck Pod in the Summer of 2010, having been dragooned into exploring the open water by her friend and fellow lawyer Gae Polisner, who was herself still a newcomer to the Pod. Now, two years later, both are seasoned -- and insatiable -- open-water veterans who share the distinction of having pioneered year-round swimming in the 2011-2012 season with the rest of the West Neck "Polar Pod." So it was no surprise when Annmarie announced, back in December or January, that she wanted to celebrate her upcoming fiftieth birthday with an open-water swim, and was looking for other Pod members to join her in the Salt on May 14th. Of course we never expected that, with this incredibly mild Winter and summer-like Spring, we'd already have begun a regular weekend open-water swimming schedule in April so that a mid-May swim would seem somewhat anticlimactic, but nevertheless a small cadre of Pod-sisters assembled at West Neck Beach late this afternoon to help Annmarie realize her vision of an open-water swim to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her birth. 
Gae and I were the first arrivals, under a cloudy and threatening sky, and, when Annmarie -- a commercial real estate lawyer -- texted us that she was stuck at a closing and didn't know when she'd be able to get out, we suited up and headed into the water, hoping that Annmarie would arrive shortly and join us before the predicted rain began. Having sustained third-degree wetsuit burns (or so it seemed) in my first "Sailboat Swim" on Saturday wearing a full wetsuit, I was swimming sleeveless for the first time since last season, but found the now-up-to-56-degree water not only tolerable but exhilarating as Gae and I swam back and forth and back and forth between the dock and the end of the Town beach (so that we'd be visible to Annmarie when she finally arrived). Nearly an hour later, with Gae and I humming the tune to "Happy Birthday to You" in harmony on our exhaled breaths as we swam, she did, and, miraculously, so did the sun, which burned a hole in the clouds to welcome a bathing-suited Annmarie in a baptism into a new over-fifty life... 
Afterwards, Carole Wickham joined us in the parking lot to sing "Happy Birthday" and share a delicious birthday carrot cake (procured by Gae from "A Rise Above Bakery" in Huntington) sumptuously served from the back of my CRV, then we all drove off into the sunset...
Wishing Annmarie another fifty years of open-water-swimming....See you in the Salt! 
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