No Pain, No Gain? Music is the Answer!

I can't move my legs. Yesterday I seemed to have done a very effective lower body workout and it hurts to move. This will negatively impact my cardio workout today.

And, I still have yet to add Bon Jovi onto my iPod! I swear, it takes me forever to get around to handling technology. Still, at one point Debra suggested we share our playlists, which I think is brilliant so that I can find more good music to add to my "machine."

Here's the bizarro mix I listen to:
The Animals - House of the Rising Sun
Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way (I need to get rid of this)
Beatles - various songs from various albums
Beyonce - Crazzy Right Now
B-52s - Love Shack
Christina Aguillera - You are Beautiful (seriously, I love this song)
Deelite - Grooze is the in Heart
Dido - her first album + White Flag (I so love Dido)
Fastball - The Way
Fugees - Killing me Softly and Fugee-La (I suspect that is not the title)
Led Zepplin - tons of random songs (LOVE Zepplin! Yeah!)
Madonna - Music and Ray of Light albums (Ray of Light is amazing)
Prince - When Doves Cry and Purple Rain
Queen - We Will Rock You (I need to add the second part of the song)
?Mark and the Mysterians - 96 Tears (great oldie!)
Sugar Ray - I Just Want to Fly (a song that makes me want to sing very loudly)

I think I have more stuff on it, but the playlist is not in front of me. (I'm impressed that I remembered this much.) But it is clear that Bon Jovi is needed badly, and that I must finally gett rid of that damn Backstreet Boys song. On the other hand, I do like their song "Everybody," so perhaps I'll swap it out... I could also use some older Madonna, like "Like a Prayer."

Some tips for the chick that went straight into the toilet-stall to change, instead of in the actual locker room

1. This is a locker room. In a gym. It was built specifically for the purpose of changing one's clothes.

2. If you needed affirmation about #1, I was in there, and I was half-nekkid myself.

3. Don't try to pretend that you went in there to pee, by flushing the toilet when you were done. Since it was just me & you in there, I did not hear any peeing. Plus I saw you take your gym bag in there and emerge wearing different clothes and shoes.

4. If you must ignore #s 1-3 above, at least go into the big stall, you dolt!

She Came for A Workout... but What Kind??

There was some question what her intent was coming to the gym. Her outfit left some doubt.

Shoes: White. Athletic in design. Even laced and tied.

Pants: Cotton and Lycra blend. Black. Mid-calf length. Form fitting. Still rather typical gym fare.

Top: Nylon with polyester lace trim. Leopard print. Baby-doll shaped. Thin straps paired with bra's black straps. Low cut in front. The keyhole opening in the back bisected by her black bra band. Definitely more of a "let's just roll into bed" message.

Hair: Tussled.

I spotted her first on the stationary bikes, then later by the weight machines. I expected to see some interesting action by the bench press bench...but never did.

newspaper guy

I can understand not wanting to watch tv while you ride the bike at the gym (even though at MY gym, all the cardio equipment has their own built-in tv). Some people bring magazines. Not a problem. The guy next to me last night brought the NY Times. Understandable.

The thing that was not understandable is that he brought the whole paper. And it was not folded neatly in a readable way. There were pages stuffed into the drink holder, wrapped around the handle bars, crumpled in his lap, and just everywhere you could think to stuff a newspaper page.

For how messy it was, he was very relaxed. He was not exerting himself while on the machine, but he was moving a bit. I guess something is better than nothing. Makes me wonder what would happen if he didn’t have the crumpled newspaper with him to “read.”

press "end call" ...just for a minute

While I'm changing in the locker room, a girl walks in on her phone. "Blah, blah blah. Jenny called you? Did you tell her we were interested?" Then she proceeds into a bathroom stall, still talking. The other women and I are all wondering WTF is up with this phone girl. It's very quiet. Then Phone Girl begins whispering. "I'm kind of in the bathroom at the gym, and everyone can hear me."

I don't know if she meant that everyone could hear her conversation, or could hear her peeing. Because it was both. I think the person on the other end of the line could hear both as well. I'm just saying, there's a time and a place...

Hot Tub Hollering

A few nights ago I went to the Y to swim as usual. However, also as usual the schedule in no way reflected how the pool was actually being used. Thus, I needed to wait for a spot to open up in the sole lap swim lane. To pass the time I decided to sit in the hot tub despite the apparent risk of getting a STD (yes, I'm kidding about being concerned, but according to Oprah it could happen.) Maybe it was just because it was pretty cold out, but the water seemed unusually hot. Let's not reflect on that one too much. Anyhow, it was fairly crowded and everyone had a dazed and relaxed look on their face. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a young girl, maybe 11 or 12, and her younger brother who looked about 8, each wearing goggles and swim bubbles, carrying a kickboard stretched out under both arms. Just as the girl was about to take a flying leap into the very hot water, her mother let forth an ear piercing lecture. It was in another language, so while I don't really know what she said, I think it was something along the lines of "Get the fuck out of here now or you'll never be allowed to watch TV again!!!!!!!" Those two kids not only went scurrying out of the hot tub area but they flew into the lockeroom. A few minutes later the mom followed them. The other hot tub patrons and I were very shocked that

1. Our serene reverie had been broken by ear piercing yelling
2. Someone actually disciplined their child at the Y.

Miracles do happen.

A Lesson from Driving to the Gym

One of the many reasons that Husband and I continue to pay exorbitant fees for our gym now that our main location is a hole in the wall is because we can still access other locations that are not holes or dank basements. This includes gyms in Los Angeles, a place I never go; San Francisco, a city I used to visit frequently when I was a gainfully employed member of society; and Chicago, where my parents live. There are four locations in Chicago, all in ridiculously upscale areas, the closest being in a suburb about 15 minutes up the higway from my family compound.

Thus I found myself in the funny situation of driving to my workout. I know that for every other American who does not live in NYC, this is not funny at all, but completely normal. In fact, during summers when I lived with my parents while I was home from college, I used to drive to the community center abut 3/4 mile from their house so I could walk on a treadmill. Still, these days, I generally walk to my gym. No matter where I've lived in NYC, I've always gone to a gym within 5 or 6 blocks from my apartment. Part of the warm-up and cool down was the walk to and from the gym. Now that my gym is a dank basement, Husband and I even sometimes walk 3/4 mile to work out at a nicer branch of our gym, although now that it is freezing out, we love the dank hole.

Anyway, my point is that I discovered something important while driving to the gym on Sat. The radio was on in the car, and Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi came on just as I turned into the parking lot. I sat in the car for a few minutes so that I could car dance to at least the first chorus refrain, and that's when it struck me: my iPod had no Bon Jovi on it! This must be fixed. What have I been thinking? And just think, had I not driven to the gym, this error of my ways might have continued undiscovered!