I have become one of "those people", one of those people who wear workout attire all around town, one of those people who say "I could probably get together in the afternoon, I go to the gym in the morning." I also like to use the ever-popular gym rat phrase, "I've been working out." as if that is all the explanation anybody could need. You can use "I've been working out." for pretty much anything, "Wow, you're really strong!" "I've been working out." ... "Is it healthy to eat that much pasta in one sitting?" "I've been working out." ... "Why are you so mean?" "I've bee... ok, so maybe there are a few instances where it can't be used but for most questions in life, once you are a gym rat, that particular answer can be used.
I never realized how many interesting characters attend the gym on a regular basis. There is the middle aged latin man who believes that he is Don Juan, he stands around most of the time watching all the ladies walk past in their spandex pants, he does a few reps of bicep curls (I suspect he is trying to impress all the ladies and maybe break a sweat) and then walks to the water fountain slowly while slowly scanning for anything female he may have missed.
There is the very old man who is in strangely good shape, at least his muscles are, his skin is not. His skin hangs on his lean legs and arms (of course he wears shorts and tank tops) he walks in very slow motion, I do believe that he may be a very early model of the terminator underneath that hanging skin.
There is the middle aged man that has recently lost 150 lbs and tells anybody and everybody that will listen, even as they are walking away, how he does it and how great he is.
There is the older divorced woman who is looking for a new start, she like the middle aged men that have recently lost large amounts of weight and are in good shape. She stops to talk to them and ask them questions about how they lost all of their weight and feigns interest in their droning speech about how they could do anything, meanwhile she is eyeing up his newly gained muscles... the list could go on and on.
I wonder what "tag" I fit into? I wonder if anyone notices the soccer mom that wears her workout pants too tight and sweats like a sprinkler watering the lawn in the middle of August, I wonder if they notice me watching them and playing over their stories in my head and imagining their entire life story? I guess that's what you get for being a gym rat. Hopefully one day I will fit into the "Daaaaaang, that girl does not look like she has had kids, I want to look just like that!!" tag, until then I will keep watching all the other creatures in the gym and distract myself so that I can actually stop thinking about my workouts...
