The Gym

One of my favorite places on earth is the gym. Its a place I can go and get away and feel good when I leave because I did something good for my health. Running on a treadmill or elliptical allows me to listen to my iPod, weightlifting gives me the feeling of being ripped, and playing basketball is plain fun exercise, provided I'm playing well. Some of my best afternoons were spent in gyms, clearing my heard or beating friends at one-on-one. Of course, some harder times have occurred in them too...the blowup between me and you-know-who comes to mind. But alas the gym has always been a fundemental part of my routine.

And its taken on many variations in my life. During my teens starting out, it was Perimeter in Atlanta where the assholes there didn't like me playing basketball. Signature in Dallas was OK, until they sold it to LA Fitness and thus ruined it. Then came probably the most memorable which was the Cardiovascual Rehab Center in which I was the youngest memeber-- by about 50 years. It was all old people because it was actually owned by a hospital and ws primarily there to help old people rehab...you can imagine the horrendous sight in the locker room. Yuck! Oh, and when I'd shoot baskets, the old people watching on their little excercise machines around the court would stop and give me standing ovations upon made baskets. Made me feel like Kobe Bryant. Good times.

Then came SMU (you wouldn't believe the co-eds...), and of course the Premier club (you wouldn't believe the co-eds...and the assholes who'd be there hitting on them).

And of course, now I work out splitting my time between Michigan's CCRB and IM Building...of which I prefer playing basketball at the IM Building but like working out at CCRB better.


So, a few things have struck me in the CCRB this last week. First, a dude in the men's locker room was drying off using the handblower things. I'm not kidding, stark naked in the middle of the sink area with 3 blowers point at his nude body. Yeah, disgusting.

The other thing that always strikes me about the gym is how great a girl-meetng opportunity it is, yet nothing ever comes from it. Take the treadmill for instance. You're running in place next to people you don't know for like 30 minutes. You're next to the same person for half an hour, why can I never take advantage of this!? I was on a treadmill next to a GORGEOUS girl today, but I didn't make a move, I didn't know what in the world to say. It's a travesty. I never know if hitting on a girl on a treadmill is wanted: I feel like they're too much of a captive audience. Plus, apparently Men's Health, my personal bible, says girls at the gym are self-conscious because they're so dressed down and sweaty. What's my move here? I always feel like a loser for not being able to make something out of these seemingly ample opportunities that present themselves daily.

This to go along with such sticky situations such as picking up girls in class, on public transportation, in the dining hall...etc. Being a guy sucks.