G walks into the gym, face scrunched up in a combination of giggles and discomfort.
"What's wrong with YOU?" I ask, puzzled...
"I forgot my sneakers again." I looked down at her feet.. they were clearly IN sneakers. She started laughing. "These are from the lost and found. And they are too small!"
"How did you manage that?"
"I asked the girl at the desk. She asked me what they looked like. I told her to just give me any matching pair. Because I need to train."
Never mind that G's house is a stone's throw from the gym - ok maybe 7 minutes.. plus 30 seconds to run in and grab them, another 7 minutes back... that's almost 15 minutes she would have made me wait. What a good training partner!
We begin the workout. Our gym rat buddies know to expect us to drag the equipment around by now... in all sorts of funny configurations. Today we had the bosu ball by the Smith machine.. mostly so I would have something to hold onto and stabilize myself with should I need it. (Do you have any idea how hard it is to get on one of those and STAY on it when your right leg is strapped into a knee-high, rigid plastic shell?) I do my bit on the bosu, G does hers on the incline bench, we switch, repeat (sounds like a shampoo ad doesn't it) and stop to get our requisite rest. As we turn our backs to grab a drink, "weird bag-lady" sidles up to the bosu, grabs it and makes like she's going to carry it off. We are stunned at this horrendous breach of gym etiquette!
"Umm... excuse me!" G says, "We are using that."
"I only need it for a few minutes," says WB-L, and carries it off to the other side of the room, where she proceeds to place it by the double-arm cable machine thing and begins doing some odd-looking contortions.
[A little background. "WB-L' is a plumpish, medium-height woman in her late twenties or early thirties, who carries a very large duffle bag around with her in the weight room. I have often tried to imagine what she has in there that has to be carried around. My mind goes all James-Bond-handcuffed-to-the-briefcase sort of thing. She doesn't let it out of her sight, but carries it around, is dressed in many layers (long thick pants, long sleeves and a sweatshirt) and goes from bench to bench with odd combinations of weights, barbells and medicine balls. And the bag of course. The more we learn about exercises and technique, the more we shake our head in wonder at what this woman is trying to accomplish. But since she never responds to a smile or hello, so we just let her be. Well, all that changed today...]
As soon as we recover our senses, we both started talking at once.
"What the hell is that? What is she thinking? What the $*%(! Is that rude? Yeah that's rude! What should we do... " We stop and ponder. We're both fighting our impulses to march right after her and take her down. Figuratively of course.
"I'm gonna go say something." G is REALLY struggling to keep her fire down. I can see the crazy-latina look in her eyes just itching, burning. "Can I go say something?"
"Yeah, go." My permission granted [hahahaha] G stomps over and, with incredible self-control waits for WB-L to finish her "set"of whatever-the-hell-it-is. As soon as she spots an opening she starts talking at the woman. I can't hear what's being said but judging from the looks on both their faces it's not all that friendly. G bends over, picks up the bosu, and makes her way back over to me, a subtle but definitively triumphant bend to her smile.
"I did not do my Puerto-Rican thing. I was very mature," she says proudly.
WB-L on the other hand is not feeling so happy. She stomps off to the next piece of equipment in her circuit muttering the whole time. A whole minute later she was still muttering and glaring balefully at us.
"Excuse me, are you still using that bench," asks a quiet, respectful voice behind us. We turn around, to see one of the other regulars, a petite woman a little younger than us. She'd obviously seen the whole debacle.
"We have 2 more sets,"says G, "but we can alternate with you."
"Oh no, no, I can wait."
"It's ok, we can share. We go, you go, we go, you go."
"I can just find something else to do while you finish."
"No no, we really don't mind. That woman was just so rude."
We all smile and quietly agree. And go on with the business of training.
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