Wait Training at the Gym
On a normal day, I can usually score a parking spot at the health club within four spots of the door. But the week after New Year's I will usually arrive at the gym and find the lot so completely full, I'll be forced to park in Suburbia Siberia.
"I got my workout just walking from the car to the club," I whined to the gym employee at the front desk last year after I hoofed it from the nearby supermarket parking lot.
"You think that's bad? Wait until you see in there," she said, nodding her head toward the gym down the hall.
"Crowded?" I asked.
She nodded her head.
"What are all these people doing here?" I said. "Are you giving away free Power Bars?"
"Nope. They're New Year's Resolutioners," she said matter-of-factly.
I heard a din from behind the doors and I cringed. My normally quiet, unassuming health club had been overtaken by the guilt-ridden victims of holiday overindulgence. The "too-many Christmas cookie-ers," "too-much party platter-ers" and the "too busy to exercise-ers" were all running amok in my gym, desperate to shed their holiday pounds. They all made a New Year's resolution to get in shape and, from the looks of it, they all decided to do it at my health club that day.
Of course, I should be clear that it's not my health club. I don't own it. I merely have a membership like all these other people. But as a "regular," not a "resolutioner," I felt that I should be able to park where I wanted without having to leave my car at the long-term parking lot at the airport and catch a shuttle to my gym. Plus, all these new people meant that there was going to be competition for the bikes in the spin class, the 10-pound weights in the sculpting class and the good ellipticals that don't squeak. No, I wasn't a happy health-club camper. I was miffed. I was annoyed. I had a bad case of health-righteous indignation.
"All those New Year's Resolutioners have taken over my health club," I complained to my husband.
...continued
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