And People Say Californians Are Snobs

Let me preface this entry by saying that I've shared this story with a few of you already. If you're not interested in reliving it I won't be offended (nor will I even know, for that matter) if you log off and check back another day.

I know stay-at-home-moms get a bad rap sometimes, usually from the male persuasion, as being women who sit at home all day in their pajamas eating Bon Bons, watching T.V., and surfing the internet. I may be guilty of surfing the internet throughout the day, but unfortunately, I have plenty of things to do around here and staying in my pajamas all day isn't an option. I guess it would be if I didn't have to take the kids to school, but around here, you don't dare venture out in your "jammies". Not for fear that people might see you, but for fear that you may lose control of your car on the snow slicked road, end up in a ditch and have to be rescued!

Eating Bon Bons all day would be far better than cleaning house and doing laundry, but I'm trying my best to keep my girlish figure. Instead, when I don't feel like cleaning, I either head out to the mall or the gym. As far as my pocketbook is concerned, the gym would be the better option when I head out, but after my first experience at the gym here, I often opt for the mall instead.

My blood pressure still goes up when I think about that first day...

As far as gyms go, there aren't many options in this neck of the woods. There is no LA Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness or Ballys. If you want a similar atmosphere, there is only one gym to choose. They charge more than the aforementioned gyms and they're not nearly as cutting edge, but they're clean, they have decent equipment, they have several different facilities, and offer a plethora of classes. We bit the bullet and signed up for a membership! Eric received a "deal" through work and had been to the gym once before, I on the other hand, had never even seen the inside of the facility.

I was actually kind of excited to be going to the gym as I left my house. The kid working at the front desk knew I was new to the gym because I didn't have a membership card yet and he had to check me in. There is a specific room for cardio, so I went straight in and made a b-line for the treadmills. There are roughly 24 treadmills in the room and most of them were vacant. I randomly selected one of the available treadmills, put on my ipod and started bipping along. As I was working out I was visually scanning the room. My eyes landed on a wall that was lined with sheets of paper (most of them white, some of them blue). I didn't think much of it until I saw, written in bold "sign up for marathon times on blue sheets only" on one of the papers. At that point, for a brief moment, I thought that maybe I was suppossed to have signed up to use the treadmill. The thought quickly passed because my common sense told me that there were vacant treadmills, so signing up for a machine wouldn't be an issue at this moment. How wrong I was!!!!

I continued bipping along and on my shoulder I felt a tap. I turned around, took off my headphones and was confronted by a not-so-nice woman asking if I was almost through with my workout. I had completely forgotten about the papers by this point and I think I looked at her like she had two heads! She informed me that she had signed up to use this particular treadmill (mind you there was nothing special about this machine) at 9:30 and that the time was currently 9:30. I apologized and politely explained that I was new to the gym and this was my first time working out there. She was unapologetic and impatiently waited for me to turn the machine off and move on. I contiunued my workout on one of the nearby vacant machines. I WAS TICKED!!!!!!!!

I promptly went to the kid at the front desk, explained what had happened and gave him a piece of my mind for not explaining gym protocol to new members. I'm still baffled by their sign-up policy! My experience in California had always been that if a machine was available anyone could use it and if there weren't any available machines you waited for one on a "first come first served basis". What makes Alaskans so special that they don't have to wait to use a piece of exercise equipment? I can't get over the fact that these people can go workout somewhere else in the gym and at a specified time have a piece of equipment just waiting for them.

The best part to the whole story is that Eric and I (and several of his co-workers) are big suckers! The gym owners knew exactly what they were doing by making stupid rules. They have a more "upscale" spa-like facility associated with the gym that you can join for an extra $60 a month. In that gym they have fancy locker rooms with spa products for you to use and every piece of equipment has it's own individual television (you can watch whatever you want), and imagine this...........you don't have to sign up for the equipment!!!!! Needless to say, they are now getting us for that extra 60 bucks a month!

Can you believe it??????????? WE'RE FOOLS, but at least we're fools who don't have to sign-up to use the gym equipment!

Who said Californians are snobs????????