Thanks for the encouragement Urlea! It's very helpful

I swam with more success today (I plan on getting into a 3 days a week, every other day off, schedule but I wanted to try again today this time for a better experience before taking the weekend off). Worked mainly on not tensing up like I was doomed to drowning (which incidentally dooms me to sinking, go figure) and that helped a lot.

I will try to get my hands on a copy of total immersion, either in DVD or book form, ASAP.
I also signed myself up for a Masters swim class starting in July, which if nothing else will force me to train.