strange workout phenomena

This evening, I happened to be in downtown Seattle when I finished up at my last client’s site, and since my gym bag was already in the car and my membership allows me to go to all branches, I thought I’d give the downtown Seattle branch a shot. Wow. It’s huuuuuuge. It’s 3 stories, I only saw 2. I’m pretty sure it’s only stationary bikes & group exercise classes on the third floor, neither of which interest me. Couple of weird things I noticed:

(1) This gym had way more mirrors than my usual branch. And I think I’ve figured out why no one ever talks to me at the gym. I kept catching glances of myself in the mirror, and I looked thoroughly pissed off. I wasn’t, but apparently that’s my concentrating-on-the-task-at-hand face. I once caught myself in the reflection of a window with the exact same look on my face when I was changing planes at the airport. And as much as I try to focus on relaxing my face muscles so I don’t look so angry, I can’t do it. My face relaxes when the workout is over, and not a moment sooner.

(2) What the hell is up with middle-aged women who think it’s perfectly acceptable to stand around naked in the ladies’ locker room? THIS IS NOT OK!!! I don’t care how great your body is, for your age or just in general. I don’t need to see your “woo” (to use my sister’s term), so cover it up! Last week when I was at the gym, a woman stood in the locker room, blow-drying her hair & reapplying her make-up, the whole time wearing her sweater (& I assume a bra under it), shoes, and NOTHING ELSE!! She was like that when I first got there, and she was still like that 10 minutes later after I had changed into my gym clothes (in the private dressing room, thank you very much), put my hair up, and had gotten my walkman & water bottle ready. How on earth can someone be completely exposed from the waist down (except for her feet), and be comfortable like that? I just don’t get it. And it’s never women my age that do this, it seems to be exclusively limited to the 45-and-older crowd.

In a totally unrelated topic, I’ve gotten 8 responses to the online personal ad in the past 24 hours. One guy actually called me a “hottie”. Awww yeah. I also got one from a guy who’s stationed down at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, but right now he’s in Baghdad. That one made me a little sad. He said he’ll be back in April, and even though he’s probably not the type of guy that I would date, I really hope that he is. I wrote him back & told him to get home safely.