Vacation Days!

I had 4 days off from work. Yay! On Thursday at lunchtime, I got over to the gym. I went to a spiritual Christian crusade at the Boston Garden that night, so I wanted to make sure I got in a good workout early. By the time I parked my car at the gym, I was already pretty sweaty. Luckily the air conditioning was right up to speed inside - what a relief!

My focus was chest and the dreaded (to most people, and used to be for me) gauntlet. The gauntlet is the nickname for the revolving stairs - not the cute little stairmaster where you pump your legs up and down - No, we are climbing actual stairs at whichever speed you choose. This is a picture of the actual model I use.



Most of the benches were already taken by the lunch time crew from CMC, which is across the street, so I moseyed over to the Smith machines to really push myself on incline bench. An example of what that looks like is below.



For the uninitiated, the Smith is basically a squat rack with safeties, so if you can't handle the weight, you can theoretically drop it and remain uninjured. The Smith has also caused injury to some, in that it prohibits most people from moving within a natural range of motion - you have to move how the bar moves.

As I adjusted my bench, I felt someone glancing at me. It's not entirely unusual at the gym, since I don't lift or work out like most women, so men, and sometimes women, watch to see what I'm doing.

I didn't pay any attention, and went about my chest workout. I noticed Glancer was squatting some very decent weight on the Smith next to me. He came over to ask to borrow a 45 lb plate. I had to yank my ear buds out to hear him, but as soon as I looked up, I smiled, as he was just my type. I didn't really think I have a type, but maybe I do, because Glancer fit it. Almost bald, goatee, nice eyes - and this one had an extra plus- very developed pectorals. I told him he could have just one, because I wasn't going that heavy today (a little gym humor).

You know when you feel like you're staring, but you don't realize it until it almost feels too late, then you ask yourself, "How long have I been staring at this man's pecs?" Yeah.

I went back to my workout, and he to his. I got over to the stepmill and did 20 minutes. I planned on 30 minutes, but I wanted to make some more contact with Glancer. I noticed him glancing around, maybe to see where I went?

I decided to work calves (completely unnecessary, but extra calf work for some extra body work later would be well worth it), which was in the area of his impressive leg workout. He glanced over again. I had the feeling he wanted to talk, but had no idea what to say. Here's where I come in.

Glancer finished a set of barbell presses and kind of walked around. I caught his eye and said, "Legs and delts day?" He said yeah, and I told him he had an impressive leg workout. He had a couple open patella knee braces on, the same exact ones I used to have to wear. I asked him what was up with the knees, and we talked overuse injuries for a few minutes. He introduced himself as Gary. I introduced myself, and he excused himself to perform his next set.

So I'm sitting on a machine, thinking, "Okay, I really shouldn't do more than one more set of these, and I can't really hang around much longer without looking awkward, so WTF?"

I finished as he was finishing his set, but he clearly had many more to go. I told him I was taking off, and we discussed our workout schedules. He's a lunch timer, and I'm usually at work then, so I told him we would probably never see each other again - HINT: ASK ME FOR MY NUMBER NOW, BECAUSE THIS IS IT!

Well, he didn't. So I turned and left. And thought, well, I held up my end of the friendly convo, and he didn't close the deal. So he has a girlfriend or is a lonely gym guy. I got in my car and thought back to his blue eyes, his attractive face, and the PECS. Then said, Fuck it, went home and got ready for my religious experience in Boston. Yes, I do think "fuck it" and "religious experience" fit fine in the same thought.

Thinking I would never see Glancer Gary again, I put him out of mind and got on with my weekend, which included the drive to the TD Banknorth Garden (or the Boston Garden as we all still call it), the spiritual experience, an early morning run the next day, a trip to my sister's and her family's NEW HOUSE in Bedford, some light work in the house to prep for painting, playing with my nephews in their new pool and generally celebrating their new home.

Tonight, Sunday, I had about 90 minutes before the gym closed. I put my hair up, changed my shirt and headed over. Back and biceps needed to be done.

I noticed a lot of fine young men in the gym tonight. No one really stood out, but they were nice to look at and it was nice to get some glances.

As I stood bent over at the waist in front of the mirror, doing dumbbell bent over rows, I glanced up and saw Gary Glancer walking back from the water fountain. Well, well.

I decided to basically ignore him, since he made no move to close the last time I saw him. If he got home Thursday and kicked himself for not asking for my number, here was his chance to make good and get my digits. Of course, I needed to make sure he saw me. I was, after all, bent over with my weights.

Now, I really DID have to go over to his area to finish my back workout. The lat pulldowns were taken earlier, so I got biceps done first, and now I needed to head over to Gary Glancer's area. He was at a Smith machine again, this time with a spotter. I cracked my own joke in my head about not needing a spotter on a Smith, then got to work on further developing my latissimus dorsi.

The fine young men were still in that area, and were still glancing every now and then, so I knew Gary would take notice eventually. I purposely positioned myself where he would have to come out from the squat rack to see me. He came over during my second set and said, "Hi Becky". I looked up, and I'm pretty sure I accurately conveyed a look of surprise. He was even better looking than I remembered. I said, "Hi. Looks like we DID see each other again - and on a Sunday night!" He explained how he was behind on his workouts that week, and I made extra sure not to stare. I nodded, not wanting to seem excited or enthusiastic (I find this sometimes makes the other person start to act enthusiastically, sort of to fill in the void - try it, it works on a lot of people). He said something to the effect of, "well, see ya", and I went back to lifting. He got a sip of water, and as he walked back, I was up spraying cleaner on a paper towel to wipe down my bench. I watched him watch me walk back to my bench, and I could have sworn I heard him kicking himself right then. Or maybe it was my ego kicking around thoughts of unfulfilled "workouts" with Gary.

But no matter. He clearly has a girlfriend, as the convo has only been about workouts. Although I don't find too many men talk to women about workouts unless they're using it as an opening line. But fuck it. I know dude has the sack to ask me for my number, and I'd rather he didn't if he is currently involved. My thought is he might be on his way out of a relationship and is being friendly to anyone who looks interesting, just in case. No harm in that. Never hurts to have a few pots simmering on the back burners in case your main entree in the oven burns.


So I've gone back to supermarket flirting, even since the marinated meats failure. The supermarket is such an innocent place. A cute cashier with braces flirted with me this morning, and even though he was clearly under age, he had the quickness and wit to match me quip for quip. Not many people can do that, and enjoy it. He'll be a fine player in the game when he grows some facial hair.

I ended up at a different supermarket again tonight, after the gym. Not much is going to keep me away from Hood New England Creamery light mint chocolate chip ice cream at $1.49 with a $1 off coupon. That's $0.49 for a half gallon for all you math wizards.


This particular supermarket isn't in the best neighborhood, and I caught a few men doing more than a little glancing. One was a redhead, in the cracker aisle. Now what was I doing in the cracker aisle? A lot of you know me not to eat such things, but I wanted to maybe make a really low calorie cheesecake-like tasting concoction. I got some sugar/fat free cheesecake flavored instant pudding mix, some Calorie Countdown skim milk, then I was considering crumbling a few low fat graham crackers over it, to resemble a crust. Yes, I can get creative when it comes to satisfying a craving without going off the deep end.

So I was comparing two boxes of graham crackers when I felt a glance. Ah, a redhead. Never had a redhead, I thought to myself. Yes, a dirty thought, but it's summer, I'm single, and craving something sweet, so give me a break!

I decided against the crackers, because I knew I could do all I could to crumble a few on top of the pudding, but then I'd have the rest of the box to contend with, and they were too high in calories to have just sitting around my apartment waiting for me to have a nibble attack.

I walked away and into produce. Nothing caught my eye, so as I rounded the corner, there was redhead, totally pretending to be interested in some strawberries or something, but had clearly followed me. At this point I got a little cocky and walked to the other end of the store, thinking, "yeah, follow me now, bitch". Ha ha! Okay, I didn't say or think "bitch" at the time, but it seems funny now. He didn't follow me, so after a bit of hassle in the self scan "express" lane, I went home to try out the ice cream. To rate it, if I had four thumbs to put up, they'd be up. But neither Gary Glancer nor Redhead followed through enough to be the other two thumbs with mine, spooning mint ice cream in air conditioned condo splendor.
Maybe next weekend.