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.
I woke up Monday and decided to spend a couple of hours at the gym since I had the day off and could finally take my time on the machines. I spent about 2.5 hours at the gym and felt great... until I got back home and started the first load of laundry. I bent down to pick up some clothes and an incredible stabbing pain shot down my back and down my legs. I spent the next three hours laying in pain on the couch. I knew Buck would be home soon after 12 as he had his own back problems and was going to the chiropracter then taking the rest of the day off. When he came home I was feeling alittle better except my lower back was throbbing and I couldn't bend forward even a little bit. Some ibuprofen helped while we went out to visit his friend in the hospital but I was begging him to get me back home after we left the hospital. I spent the rest of my day off lying in bed, taking ibuprofen, and using ice packs on my back. It sucked. That night when I went to take a shower, Buck said my lower back was extremely swollen and discolored. I STILL don't know what I did! I think it was that first load of laundry because I didn't do anything real strange at the gym. For the rest of the week I took it real easy at the gym, Tuesday I didn't go at all and took it easy while at work. On Thursday, I was itching to get out before going to work that afternoon, so I decided to go walking in Bear Creek. Buck and I have been cycling through the trails of Bear Creek and the Addicks Reservoir on the days that I have the evening off. The trail extends from hwy 6 to Groetchkyblahblah Park on Fry Road ( I don't know how to spell it or pronounce it but it is a large park). I wanted to walk the entire trail and back (6.5 miles) if my back wasn't hurting real bad. At this point the swelling had gone down a bit and it was no longer discolored and only hurt like hell if I tried to bend over. I walked only 1 mile and then something in the brush and tall grass beside the trail startled me. When I turned to look, I didn't see anything at first, then this big cat's head popped out of the tall grass, just starring at me. It was so close: I could have spit and hit it's nose. I think I stopped walking for just a split second and then turned and started again, this time just a tad bit faster. I was trying to tell myself it was just a large house cat that got loose, but there was no mistaking those ears and that build. It was was too large for a house cat and it had a very wild looking coat. I knew immediately that it was a bob cat. As I was walking away I kept looking back to see if it was following me. I stopped a cyclist and told her that I had seen a wild cat beside the trail...and this bitch told me there was another one just up the trail and THEN said "It'll probably be crossing the road by the time you get there," and just got back up on her bike and road away, all safe and shit. I paced back and forth for like...5 minutes. If I walked back to my car, I'd lose my work out that day AND get mauled. If I continued,I'd get mauled but would be able to get a little bit more sun and work my calves a bit more. I decided to keep going. I never did see the other cat, but every squirrel leaping through the trees was a bobcat staging an ambush. I had noticed, though, that I couldn't feel my back aching, so I guess all the endorphins helped with that. 2 and a half hours later I made it back to my car all sweaty and hot and feeling sooo much better. When I got home from work that night, Buck had put this as the background to my computer
And that's exactly what it looked like, except so less cute. Of course, now Buck wants to go to the trails tonight.
