CRAZY PEOPLE...AT THE GYM???
Ok. I know it's wrong to talk about people. Well, except for the sociopaths who plot your demise over a locker at the gym. That never happened to you? Well then you are in for a real treat.
So... I go to the gym every other day during lunch, instead of pigging out on Five Guys burgers and fries. I don't know...I think it makes me feel better about what I eat sometimes. I try to go at the same time but am sometimes a few minutes late. Well last Monday, I get there and someone I have never seen before is standing in front of the locker I normally use, reaching up and fiddling with a lock on the locker above it. Most of the ladies at the gym return to use the same locker over and over again so we chat with each other as we prepare for and after our workouts. Being a creature of habit, and knowing that most of the surrounding lockers are missing the shelf that holds small things like jewelry and cell phones inside, I decide to go for my regular locker. Now of course it dawns on me that this woman I have never seen before may have just finished using the locker, or perhaps she is about to, but you never know unless you ask, right? Besides, given that I am on my lunch hour, I need to be as quick as possible so I go for what I know, rather than search for o new one that's as good a fit for my valuables. "Excuse me, may I get to this locker?" I ask the woman. If looks could stop your heart and make you die a slow, torturous death, I would have. She glared at me, somewhat cross-eyed, and said in a heavy french accent, "Don't you see I am about to use this locker? Why are you trying to use the locker I am going to use? There's a locker right there and a locker right there!" She angrily slapped the lockers she was referring to, then she proceeded to slam her body against my hand that still pointing to the locker I inquired about with her mid-half, jamming my hand against the locker. My mouth dropped open. Did my question really call for such a disrespectful and threatening response? Time stood still for a few seconds as I tried not to react with aggression of my own.
Was this really happening? Instinctively, I wanted to punch her in the face with the same hand she had defouled, so I had to process this because I am all about peace and love. I slowly pulled my hand from between her and the locker. She could have just said, "I'm going to use it." and I would have known for sure she was arriving and not leaving and would have begun my search for a comparable place for my precious work clothes (which I hate wearing, by the way--ugh suits.) Or she could have said, "Oh! I'm not leaving, I just got here. I'm going to use it," and been friendly and warm. Yes. There are friendly and warm people in New York City. Stop thinking that way. People are people wherever you go. Knowing this, I flashed back to my days as a flight attendant and thought about the hundreds of thousands of people I had met on that gig who had all kinds of issues. I had promised myself, in the pursuit of peace and happiness, that I would not take on other people's issues no matter how they hurled them at me. It was time to practice this again.
Now I must admit, for an innocent bystander, it may have seemed ballsy for me to try to use the locker beneath the one someone was fidgeting with, however, in my defense, it would have saved time and more often than not, people will say, "I'm sorry, go ahead." because they had other intentions. And like I said, you never know if you don't ask. I was offended and angered by the tone and the attitude I received. I did not feel my question and actions warranted such a response from a complete stranger. However, she was just that a complete stranger. I moved away to another locker and proceeded to rush to undress and get to the treadmill.
This is where it gets worse. As I was lacing my sneakers (yes the same ones that tried to kill me a few stories ago...) some five minutes later, the woman comes to me and rudely blurts out, "Why did you want that locker anyway?" I ignored her. In my head I was saying "Om Mani Padme Hum...don't hit the bitch...Om Mani Padme Hum..." (I'm just being honest.) So she came around to face me and repeated herself. I looked her in her eyes and in a loud angry voice said, "Why are you talking to me? You had a chance to be concerned, and even considerate when I approached you the first time, and instead you were rude and nasty. You have the locker that you were going to war over so go and use it." She yelled back, "I just wanted to know and you are rude, and you wanted my locker and it's my space and blah, blah, blah..." Immediately I thought, this girl has lost her mind...or maybe she never had it...walk away. After all, it says in Proverbs that when you realize you are rationalizing with a fool, walk away or you become the fool too. I asked myself, did I really just allow myself to get pulled into an argument over a gym locker? I mean, there are soooo many more important things to spend my energy on and sort out in my mind. I told another gym goer--a friend--to have a great day and left.
When I returned to the gym on Wednesday, my friend pulled me aside and said she needed to talk to me. She grabbed my arm and pulled me into the shower room. We went into the suana, and as we sat there and sweated out every once of pollution New York had injected into our pores, my friend said, "You need to stay away form that french woman. She's crazy." You think? I listened as she told me that the woman is new to our gym and was in our area because she has the hots for my friend. She has been stalking her and asking to watch her work out. She even asked to see her naked and all kinds of other things that you don't say to strangers at the gym. My friend, who is happily married, is really freaked out. She said, "What normal person says those things to a stranger?" She told me that she decided to find a new area of the gym and suggested I do the same as soon as possible . It then made sense to me. This french woman must have figured me to be a threat to her "sociopathic relationship in the uninvited making" with my friend. She didn't know at first that we were friends, she just wanted a locker near her. How dare I unknowingly interrupt her plot to woo my friend and see her naked one more time?
So... I go to the gym every other day during lunch, instead of pigging out on Five Guys burgers and fries. I don't know...I think it makes me feel better about what I eat sometimes. I try to go at the same time but am sometimes a few minutes late. Well last Monday, I get there and someone I have never seen before is standing in front of the locker I normally use, reaching up and fiddling with a lock on the locker above it. Most of the ladies at the gym return to use the same locker over and over again so we chat with each other as we prepare for and after our workouts. Being a creature of habit, and knowing that most of the surrounding lockers are missing the shelf that holds small things like jewelry and cell phones inside, I decide to go for my regular locker. Now of course it dawns on me that this woman I have never seen before may have just finished using the locker, or perhaps she is about to, but you never know unless you ask, right? Besides, given that I am on my lunch hour, I need to be as quick as possible so I go for what I know, rather than search for o new one that's as good a fit for my valuables. "Excuse me, may I get to this locker?" I ask the woman. If looks could stop your heart and make you die a slow, torturous death, I would have. She glared at me, somewhat cross-eyed, and said in a heavy french accent, "Don't you see I am about to use this locker? Why are you trying to use the locker I am going to use? There's a locker right there and a locker right there!" She angrily slapped the lockers she was referring to, then she proceeded to slam her body against my hand that still pointing to the locker I inquired about with her mid-half, jamming my hand against the locker. My mouth dropped open. Did my question really call for such a disrespectful and threatening response? Time stood still for a few seconds as I tried not to react with aggression of my own.
Was this really happening? Instinctively, I wanted to punch her in the face with the same hand she had defouled, so I had to process this because I am all about peace and love. I slowly pulled my hand from between her and the locker. She could have just said, "I'm going to use it." and I would have known for sure she was arriving and not leaving and would have begun my search for a comparable place for my precious work clothes (which I hate wearing, by the way--ugh suits.) Or she could have said, "Oh! I'm not leaving, I just got here. I'm going to use it," and been friendly and warm. Yes. There are friendly and warm people in New York City. Stop thinking that way. People are people wherever you go. Knowing this, I flashed back to my days as a flight attendant and thought about the hundreds of thousands of people I had met on that gig who had all kinds of issues. I had promised myself, in the pursuit of peace and happiness, that I would not take on other people's issues no matter how they hurled them at me. It was time to practice this again.
Now I must admit, for an innocent bystander, it may have seemed ballsy for me to try to use the locker beneath the one someone was fidgeting with, however, in my defense, it would have saved time and more often than not, people will say, "I'm sorry, go ahead." because they had other intentions. And like I said, you never know if you don't ask. I was offended and angered by the tone and the attitude I received. I did not feel my question and actions warranted such a response from a complete stranger. However, she was just that a complete stranger. I moved away to another locker and proceeded to rush to undress and get to the treadmill.
This is where it gets worse. As I was lacing my sneakers (yes the same ones that tried to kill me a few stories ago...) some five minutes later, the woman comes to me and rudely blurts out, "Why did you want that locker anyway?" I ignored her. In my head I was saying "Om Mani Padme Hum...don't hit the bitch...Om Mani Padme Hum..." (I'm just being honest.) So she came around to face me and repeated herself. I looked her in her eyes and in a loud angry voice said, "Why are you talking to me? You had a chance to be concerned, and even considerate when I approached you the first time, and instead you were rude and nasty. You have the locker that you were going to war over so go and use it." She yelled back, "I just wanted to know and you are rude, and you wanted my locker and it's my space and blah, blah, blah..." Immediately I thought, this girl has lost her mind...or maybe she never had it...walk away. After all, it says in Proverbs that when you realize you are rationalizing with a fool, walk away or you become the fool too. I asked myself, did I really just allow myself to get pulled into an argument over a gym locker? I mean, there are soooo many more important things to spend my energy on and sort out in my mind. I told another gym goer--a friend--to have a great day and left.
When I returned to the gym on Wednesday, my friend pulled me aside and said she needed to talk to me. She grabbed my arm and pulled me into the shower room. We went into the suana, and as we sat there and sweated out every once of pollution New York had injected into our pores, my friend said, "You need to stay away form that french woman. She's crazy." You think? I listened as she told me that the woman is new to our gym and was in our area because she has the hots for my friend. She has been stalking her and asking to watch her work out. She even asked to see her naked and all kinds of other things that you don't say to strangers at the gym. My friend, who is happily married, is really freaked out. She said, "What normal person says those things to a stranger?" She told me that she decided to find a new area of the gym and suggested I do the same as soon as possible . It then made sense to me. This french woman must have figured me to be a threat to her "sociopathic relationship in the uninvited making" with my friend. She didn't know at first that we were friends, she just wanted a locker near her. How dare I unknowingly interrupt her plot to woo my friend and see her naked one more time?
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