me at the gym with other people

there's a gym at my job. i have access to it and the membership is free. i use the gym a lot. i usually use it 5 times a week, during my lunch break, which is an hour long.

in this hour's time i'll run on a treadmill for 40 minutes, take a quick shower, and head back up to my office and try to eat something light real quick (or heavy if someone has peer pressured me into ordering something heavy that day... and by peer pressuring i mean a co-worker saying, "hey josh, we're getting popeye's you want something?" to which i reply, "fuck yea i do!")

that's outside the point. this is about me in the gym and how i interact with other people.... which is rare and not often.

a lot of people don't use the gym when i go. i usually take a late lunch (2pm-3pm... but i also start at 10am... so it makes sense to me and doesn't seem late at all, but late in comparison to everyone else in the building). so most times i'm alone... completely alone... or i hope i'm completely alone.. cuz most days i'm usually singing in my tone def manner at a fairly loud volume.

but sometimes other people do come in. there's only 2 treadmills in the joint, so if i'm on one, usually whoever comes in takes the other... and usually they're a walker. usually they work in my office as well... and it's sorta awkward... it shouldn't be but in my head it is cuz they'll walk in during the middle of my run and i'm covered in sweat and breathing heavy and they pull up along side of me and go for a stroll. meanwhile i have my mp3s blasting and i'm focused on running... to the point where i try not to acknowledge anybody. me, mid run, breathing heavy, in tune with fast, heavy music is usually not a good time for me to make an attempt at conversation.

so there's that....

then just the other day another runner came in... from another office. i had no idea who she was. much like the walkers though, i kept my focus on the run and the music... didn't acknowledge her in any way. and that might be awkward too... sure we don't know each other.. but we're the only 2 people in the same place... i just hope that all other runners are like me and get the whole focus thing... where i don't wanna lose my focus and i'm all in on what i'm doing at the moment.

and though i didn't talk to her or acknowledge her existence, i sorta felt good that another runner was present. i didn't feel like the weird dude who always runs alone for lunch.

sometimes i get some weird responses when i tell people i run for lunch. the most typical response i get is, "i wouldn't wanna be all sweaty and then have to go back to work." whenever i get that response, i always assure them that i take a shower and i'm fresh all over again for the second half of my work day. but i've also been told it's "weird," "odd," or kinda condescendingly "good for me."

i don't understand what's so weird about me running for lunch though. the whole time i'm running, i have a view outside where the smokers go to smoke. why isn't that weird? i don't wanna get preachy here, but if we're trading my weird habit for the "accepted" habits of others around me, i hardly think my running should be seen as something crazier than smoking cigarettes. they're polar opposites in the whole, "is this good for you dept." no one gives them shit for it.

and if it's not smoking, i see coworkers wasting away in the break room eating junk while halfheartedly talking to coworkers. meanwhile the 2 tv's in the break room are blaring cnn and the food network in your ears. all we do is sit around all day for a profession.... sitting around is the last fucking thing i wanna do with my free time. running's weird? fuck that. sitting around as a break from the monotony of sitting around is fucking weird... no that's not fucking weird, that's fucking craaaaaazy.

but if you want weird, here's the prize winner:

the poopers.

yea poopers. i'm on to you. i'm blowing up your spot. there's a handful of employees that go to the gym during their lunches and breaks and use the gym bathroom to poop, shit, crap, take a dump... whatever you wanna call it. there's THREE other bathrooms with a supply of toilets along the way before you get to the gym... but they want the gym.. cuz for the most part it's private. so basically pooping in the gym is a way to not poop around other people....

except that sometimes you do poop around other people... like me! when i'm going in to change to run or going in to shower after a run. fucking poopers! go poop with the rest of the other poopers! stop being little bitches and go where you belong. the gym is no place for exclusive dump leaving. maybe after a good workout you earn the right to poop in the gym toilet... but otherwise, get lost!

and maybe i'm overreacting cuz i just don't like being in the gym locker room in the presence of poopers. but what the poopers are doing is morally wrong. the thing is there's only a limited number of free gym memberships at my job. otherwise you gotta put yourself on a list every month and hope your name gets drawn for the ten spots they give away. and if you get one of those ten spots, you lose it at the end of the month and have to enter the raffle again the following month. there were only so many free "permanent" gym memberships (i have one and so do some of the poopers)... if you don't have one of those, you have to put your name in the raffle every single month.

meanwhile there's poopers who are wasting perfectly good permanent memberships so they can use the gym as their personal shitter. that's totally not cool on SO many levels.

so tell me, who's the weirdo now??