{"id":601,"date":"2009-09-10T12:02:02","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T19:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=601"},"modified":"2025-11-07T10:27:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:27:53","slug":"at-the-gym-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=601","title":{"rendered":"At the gym today"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think about a lot of different things while I’m at the gym.\u00a0 On the elliptical machine I don’t think at all, I read.\u00a0 I’m currently reading Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy.\u00a0 Sufficiently dry NOT to demand I continue reading once I’m off the machine, but interesting enough to keep my mind off the time passing.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I think when I get to the weight room.\u00a0 I notice things.\u00a0 I notice that the skinniest, oldest trainer has really fat clients.\u00a0 I hear them whine about why they can’t lose weight or about their job or about other things in their life.\u00a0 This trainer is upbeat, as they all must be, but it never bothered me until she asked if the book I was reading was the Bible.\u00a0 GOD, no!\u00a0 Best book ever, she claims.\u00a0 I mumble something blasphemous to her retreating back.\u00a0 She’s forever pegged in my mind now as a person who probably has few interests extending beyond church, pets and health.\u00a0 Not bad interests but SO not mine.\u00a0 Of course she’s so skinny and skin saggy that she looks 70 and may be that too!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I notice the guy obsessively trying to get more guys into the Basketball court so he\/they can play a game.\u00a0 He’ll work a machine idly and then walk about looking for the arrival of the other regulars that sometimes play.\u00a0 He only does this when not enough people show up.\u00a0\u00a0 He reminds me of a wiry haired eager dog, ’cause his hair’s a bit scraggy and he’s old looking.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a lot of elder guys and young arrogant Armenian guys… young and old.\u00a0 There’s even 1 couple who comes.\u00a0 She works with the trainer although HE’S the one who needs it!\u00a0 (Men with big guts should have to wear a band around their middle with a rod sticking straight up to their noses so they can SEE it!)\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyway, different regulars come and go on different days and some come every day.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week I beat a guy to the drinking fountain with a fun smile and a few quick steps.\u00a0 He said something I barely caught but smiled at my implied joke.\u00a0 He wore a blue hat and I spent some time on a machine wondering why you would work out at the gym and wear a blue baseball hat.\u00a0 Are the fluorescent lights that bright?\u00a0 (What, you’re\u00a0a vampire?)\u00a0 Need it to keep the hair out of your eyes?\u00a0 (It looks short to me.)\u00a0 Are you balding and embarrassed?\u00a0 (Have you seen the people here?)\u00a0 I toyed with the idea of asking and played out the fun of the conversation in my imagination just to pass the time.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today I was working an arm machine and as I sat down I noticed Blue Hat was working the machine directly facing me.\u00a0 And it was a machine where he was facing me, not facing the mirror like all the others in that row.\u00a0 No problem, he was concentrating and his eyes were hidden by his hat.\u00a0\u00a0 I was concentrating on my own workout.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then he finished his set and moved to the space between his machine and the next one.\u00a0 He dropped to the floor and did push-ups.\u00a0 And everything in my body lit up.\u00a0 My buried Cat was mentally bouncing in her seat purring at the sight.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

You see, arms and chests are my big switch.\u00a0 Blue Hat was very nicely muscled and his baggy workout pants and shirt don’t show much.\u00a0 Not like the tight white t-shirts of the young Armenian boys.\u00a0 Or the 1970’s gym outfit of the “I wish Disco would come back” old guy who thinks he’s a player.\u00a0\u00a0 But to have a nicely built, not bad looking, man drop to the floor practically at my feet and do push-ups for me left me speechless.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was deer-in-the-headlights riveted on him.\u00a0 For the first time at the gym I had to seriously look away and close my eyes for a work out.\u00a0 I wasn’t embarrassed, there was no room in my mind for THAT emotion.\u00a0 And I don’t really care if other people saw me staring at a guy while I work out because I do that ALL the time.\u00a0 But I didn’t want him to see the naked lust in my eyes if he looked up.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I finished my set and when I opened my eyes he had his back to me stretching his arms.\u00a0 He stretches A LOT.\u00a0 I’ve seen him work the quadriceps machine then step off, plant his feet flat on the ground and bend over to lay his palms on the floor in front of him.\u00a0 “Wow, is he limber,” I remember thinking when I first saw him do that.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Oooooo… he doesn’t wear a wedding band.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think about a lot of different things while I’m at the gym.\u00a0 On the elliptical machine I don’t think at all, I read.\u00a0 I’m currently reading Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy.\u00a0 Sufficiently dry NOT to demand I continue reading once I’m … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4422,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions\/4422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}