g is for

Gym

And so it resumes. Finally.

I like the gym. This is a rather odd statement considering how much I despised gym class while in junior high and high school. Then again, I was scrawny and artistic then.

But once I got to college, I got involved in ballroom. Not that I started going to the gym then. Well, kind of. I had really good friends on the team who really wanted to be able to heft girls over their heads. I couldn't even help a girl increase her jump, so I wasn't all that worried. However, I started to perhaps maybe see some merits in working out.

My last summer on the team, they opened a gym a block away from my apartment. Okay, they opened it the year before, and I signed up for a membership then but didn't ever go during that first year. Anyway, I started working out. I had a trainer. As I recall, he was a former drill instructor. But this is when I got sold on the whole gym thing--I could compete without getting tired. That was nice. I still couldn't heft girls over my head, but I could support my partner better.

Once I left the team, I suddenly had room in my schedule that I could go to the gym. So I did. I'm still pretty scrawny, but the gym is now a mild obsession.

I go four times a week. Three of those days are weight training. This was, for a while, a carpool activity in that we would all go together during our lunch break. Until Iguana Sam let it become his Lamp Project. The fourth gym day each week is dedicated to two hours (or one if I get up late) of pilates.

It's a nice thing to have a body that is mildly in shape, even if I still hate it most of the time.

It's probably also a good thing to enjoy the gym. The Momma owns a gym in Park City. Sometime about a year ago, she made a passing reference to the fact that when my parents go to The Great Beyond my brother and sister are going to inherit the ker-ching ker-ching business dealing in minerals and I'm going to inherit the gym. Which I'm fine with, because I like the gym. It makes me happy.

In fact, I like it so much that I'm going to make a career shift at the beginning of next month and start working for the Momma. Right now I'll be doing a lot of bookkeeping for the two businesses, but eventually I'll move into greater management of the gym. There's also a good chance I'm going to certify as a personal trainer and pilates instructor.

Benefits of this are that I'm going to have more available time to actually enjoy reading and kicking Fobby's butt in the Look How Many Books I Can Read contest. I'll get to move into a freelance role with my editing, which will mean I won't have to deal with certain authors anymore. I might even actually start writing. And maybe I'll get buff.

Of course, the major drawback is that there will be no more Coworker stories such as this and this and this and this and this and this. I know that we all weep over that.

This post has been brought to you by Gwen Stefani and the Brothers Grimm. I don't exactly know why I dig Gwen so. I guess she just rocks.

And the Brothers Grimm also rock. Talk about folklorists making it big. Prolific and everyone reads them. They even got made into a movie, which I appear to be the only person in the world to actually like.

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