More Fitness Center Fun

This just happened to me a few hours ago and I might as well throw it in my blog now, along with a parting thought.

A few weeks ago I had some problems at my old fitness center. I wrote a blog entry about it. The trouble caused me to change fitness centers. Well, I guess problems follow me when I go to my workout facilities. Today I had a little more trouble, although nothing like the incident a few weeks ago.

Anyhow, the fitness center was pretty crowded today. All the machines were in use. I guess not everyone has abandoned their New Year's resolutions yet. I was on my normal piece of workout apparatus; an elliptical. I had been pedaling for about five minutes when the guy on the elliptical to my left stopped and began wiping off his machine. Then I heard the voice of some other guy standing behind me asking if the first guy was done using the machine. There was a head nod whereupon the guy behind me said something like, “Good, I can begin my torture.”

The guy wiping off the machine then muttered something like, “If you don't like working-out, why don’t you just go home?” It was not a friendly voice.

I have been going to various fitness centers for a few years now and it is my opinion that generally speaking, such facilities are not populated with friendly, personable people. That is not to say that there are not outgoing, engaging people at fitness centers, it’s just that there seems to be a tendency towards folks who are not blessed with an abundance of congeniality. I have various theories concerning why but they're for another blog entry.

Anyway, when this other guy got aboard his elliptical, I think I said to him, “You just have to ignore jerks.” He smiled, nodded, and began pedaling.

About twenty minutes later I climbed off my elliptical, grabbed my towel, water bottle, and headed for my coat. A minute later, just as I was about to head for the door, the guy who I had earlier talked to appeared before me. He looked kind of nervous and I braced myself for the worst. He smiled and I think he muttered, “If you would like to go out for a drink or coffee sometime, I wouldn't complain.”

Well, I put up a hand and said that I had heard the other guy get surly and I thought the sympathetic words I spoke earlier needed to be said, but it was not a come-on of any kind. I then stated that he seemed like a nice guy but I hoped my attempt to say something comforting was not a mistake on my part.

My point got through. His nervous smile actually widened a little. He then shook his head and said that he really did appreciate my earlier sentiment and that he was sorry to impose. He then wished me a good evening.

It is ironic that there is no one cooler than the guy who handles rejection well.