Yes, You're Gorgeous But Stop Talking To Me!!

I miss the days when I could go to the gym and know that it was MY time. I could go without worrying about putting on any makeup or brushing my hair and I could walk out a sweaty mess and feel great. Now, I'm spending half my time at the gym thinking of ways to avoid talking to people and skirting eye contact. It all starts with a wave or a nod, then that develops into a "hey, how you doin?", which quickly evolves into a conversation, if they don't jump straight from the nod to conversation. I'm not a bitch or anything, I just don't like to hassle with being friendly while I'm trying to torture myself. Even Gorilla, my arch enemy, has been trying to get me to talk. She'll act like she's out of breath, panting under a fan, and I'll laugh, knowing it's only all that plastic weighing her down. But I won't say anything!!! Half the time I choose not to talk it's only because I can't think of anything nice to say. The one person I try to avoid the most is Loafers. I never see him do the least bit of exercise except for pacing around the gym talking to everybody.This morning I made the mistake of looking at him and he immediately twisted around to face me so I pretended I was trying to look at the clock behind him. There's a fairly new threat now, though. I can't give him a nickname because he already introduced himself. I'm going to call him Dick. He looks like a gorgeous black statue: his muscles are enormous, every shirt fits tight over his broad, chiseled chest and washboard abs. He knows he's handsome and I hate it. He's actually really nice, but I caught him giving a couple people advice on technique which is a huge No-No in my book. So, earlier this week I was working on my abs, doing crunches with an additional 10 lbs resistance. I had already been at the gym a little over an hour, and he walks over when I was finished and says, "You're a hard working Sister, that's great!" He doesn't know it, but he started something awful just by saying that to me. Not even 10 minutes later, another guy who I NEVER spoke a single word to before, asked me if I was waiting to use the machine he was on. I was no where near his machine! I was a whole continent away from his machine. I was using the free weights, I don't need his stupid machine! Then, the next morning, Hogan walks over, all huge and ripped and in everybody's way, and asks why I was here so early in the morning torturing myself. It's usually rare to have one person say 'Hi' to me, then I have all these regulars wanting to chat? Get away from me! Let me do my thang in piece! I don't wear these earbuds to listen to music, they are to make you think I can't hear you! This morning when I walked in Dick was standing beside the lockers and he said "Well, good mornin' Ms. Cara, how are you today?" I always keep moving and keep my responses short, never asking questions or if I have to, never asking open ended questions. I'm so nervous now when I'm walking across the floor to the next station that somebody will intercept me and waste my 30 secs of cool down with chatter: I keep my head down, my eyes on the next station, and NEVER make eye contact with anybody. I still don't wear make up or fix my hair at all. I'm not trying to look pretty like the mom's club over there on the treadmills, chattering away. My workouts have evolved a lot, though. They are twice as long, sometimes 2 hours, and I've started jogging again after learning how to strengthen my shins. If a person enters the gym after me and leaves before me, I've kicked their ass. Alright, that's enough from me.I had to vent.