A new year starts every day

Never Done: I did a polar bear plunge
Never Done: I went to Brooklyn Banya

You might remember that I wanted to do a polar bear plunge on the Near Year, and then again on my birthday, as a way to wash away the old year and shock myself into the new year. I couldn't find anyone to go with me on the other occasions, but learned that Mickey and Nina are veteran plungers, and had gone in the water at Coney Island at New Years. Nina wrote me a whole check list in case I made it one day without them.

Bring a towel to stand on. The sand can be really cold.
Water shoes.
Warm clothes to wrap up in after.
A nip of whiskey to build up courage.
Maybe a hot drink for after.
Don't go alone or with one other person who is also plunging.
We usually end up at a diner after because after the cold there is usually a hunger.

A month went by, and Nina and Mickey and Mich (and some other friends) and I all bought Groupons to Brooklyn Banya (Russian baths) in Kensington. We set the date for March 5, and went on with our winters. March felt very far away. And then suddenly it was upon us. I had the idea that it could be perfect to do the polar bear plunge on the same day as the Banya. Normally it would be more common to get hot in the shvitz and then plunge into the icy water, but we planned the opposite. We would drive to Coney Island, where Mickey and I would take the plunge, and then we would spend all day sweating in steam rooms and saunas. And then, I feel I should tell you, because you're going to find out soon enough, Mickey and I would go to the airport and fly to Florida to go to Spring Training for the first time.

So I woke up and packed three bags - one for the beach, one for the baths, and one for the trip. I went to the gym to run and had the luck to find Rimma, just about to run as well. So we ran a mile together, gabbing the whole time, and when she peeled off after a mile, I stuck with it and ran another mile and a half, for a total of 2.5 miles in 30 minutes.

I went home, feeling great, and had some lunch before Nina and Mickey came by, and then we drove to the beach. I was afraid I was going to chicken out. I was afraid it would just be too cold for me, and I would freeze, so to speak. But the whole way there, I thought about Anders Bohlin, a dear friend from Sweden who recently passed away, who used to say about getting into frigid Nordic waters, "I have only to make my strong mind overcome my weak body." (It might go without saying that Anders' weak body was Herculean by most people's standards.) When we got out of the car near the beach, the wind whipped at us, and I started to voice my fears that I would wimp out. But Nina -- wise Nina -- reminded me that this was about washing away the challenges of the past year, and starting fresh. When I told her I had been thinking about that the night before, and was having a hard time making it relevant because it was neither the Jewish nor the secular New Year, nor was it my birthday, she said, "A new year starts every day." and in that moment I knew I would go through with it.

So we walked to the ocean's edge, and I set out everything I would want afterwards - my towel, my hat, my thermos, and my stroke of brilliance: the felted slippers Carol made me. And then we peeled off our clothes, and ran in. I got up to my thighs, and stopped running -- it wasn't going to get much deeper unless We would go in much further. I was going to have to dunk right there. My lungs gripped, and my heart slowed, and I told Mickey I had to do it or I never would, and he looked eerily calm and said OK. So I did it. I dunked under. I didn't get my head, so I dunked again til my hair was wet. I looked and saw that Mickey was in, and I stood up and ran out of there.

I felt exhilarated and cold and in that moment I knew that I had truly let go of something and was making a clean start. And then I realized how cold my feet were, because the water shoes had trapped cold water. As soon as I peeled them off and slipped on my felted slippers though, I was fine. I put all my warm clothes on, and we walked back to the car (amazingly, Mickey stayed in his wet clothes,) and off we drove to the shvitz.

The Russian baths in Brooklyn are better than the Russian baths in Manhattan. There, I said it. You get to spend all day wandering in and out of hot steam, dry sauna, wet sauna, hot tub, and cold plunge -- and all the while you can eat smoked fish, or liver kebabs, or borsht, or pickled vegetables, and drink hot tea, or beer, or kompot (homemade fruit punch) on plastic tables right in the bathing area. It's unbelievably relaxing and friendly - and also wonderfully Russian, and inter-culturally welcoming. And on a day when I left the old year behind by shocking my system closed, it seemed perfect to warm it back open, sweat out the remains of the past, soak and steam and eat and talk with Nina, Mickey, and Mich -- and emerge, shiny, depleted, and renewed, into the new year.