The 5k Playlist + Gym Woes

Good morning. Welcome to working from home, part 702. February's final "F*** you" has arrived in the form of heavy, wet snow. Another 12 inches expected on the shore. The scary part of it is how the storm moved: it was expected to graze the shore and move north east (but stay north of shore counties. Instead it kinda swung down, positioned itself directly over Jersey, then moved northward. And don't say global warming doesn't exist. We've completely changed the way storms move now. But maybe the worst implication of global warming is the creation of the word "snow-icane." Next up: snowquakes, snow-namis and snow-fires. It's true.

So, I'm working on the final playlist for my 5K. This will be simple, since I listen to the same 12 songs to begin with. I'm going to post the list next time: would love to hear feedback or your favorite "kickass" running songs.

Onto my gym woes. I'm a member of Retro Fitness. I chose the gym for the no-frill approach (it's $20 a month, which fits my broke-ass budget nicely) and I knew I needed a gym to stay healthy (and not gain any weight) during my very, very sedentary months. And it's worked. I haven't lost a ton of weight per se, but this is the first winter I can remember not gaining weight, and I'm happy with that. Thus, Retro Fitness is serving its purpose.

On most days I go to "my" gym located in Kingston, which is about 5 minutes from work, which makes it perfect for my routine. Every now and then I'll go home after work then go to the gym: the closest one is in Brick.

My roommate recently became a Retro Fitness member. Her words describe the scene perfectly: "I walked into the gym and I was alarmed."

"Alarmed" is the perfect word for it. This is not Average Joe's gym. This is not even Fitness Lovers' gym. This gym is dominated by meatheads and fashionistas. The former are in admirably great shape, but thrash around rudely on the weights and don't have ANY sense of etiquette: wipe down the machine when you're done - it's disgusting!! The entire gym smells like sweat the second you're in the door.

While I can at least respect the He-Mans and She-ras because they're in such good shape, I think I hate the fashionistas the very most. Girls who don't even tie their hair up when the work out, who are there for show. They're wearing coordinated outfits...or sometimes just a sports bra and shorts. I'm wearing my ratty t-shirt from high school, and these bitches match earrings with shoelaces. And on a personal note, it's just uncomfortable for me to be the biggest person at the gym, and I'm not even morbidly obese.

Bear in mind: this is Brick's location exclusively. I love, love, love the gym in Kingston; CK's mom works at Retro in DE and she describes it as "pristine and gorgeous." Which points me to something I have always said: There's something a little "funny" about people who live in Bricktown.