All the Horrible Girliness

Meat Market

Mr. Aran and I have belonged to many gyms over the years. We are super active people. At the moment we belong to one gym and one kickboxing studio. We have belonged to Bally's, Bodies In Motion, the Y, OC Kickboxing, Integrated Martial Arts, Punch Out Fitness, and now 24 Hour Fitness.

After Bally's, we weren't really into the meat market. We liked the old people at the Y, the sweaty, dirty people at the fighting gyms. I was so over the Bally's women with their fake tits and full face of makeup going one mile an hour on the treadmill while chatting it up with their personal trainers. When I go to the gym, I get fugly.

So it was with great trepidation that I signed up at 24 Hour. I didn't want to leave the Y, but the weight room is about 2 feet x 2 feet. There is one of each type of equipment, and you can't do a squat without sexually harassing someone. With my work discount, 24 Hour was the same price. We signed the papers, I put away my glasses, and we worked out.

I stepped on the treadmill for my warmup, and noticed it. Them. Boys. College boys. Cute, dark, Asian college boys, all at least a foot shorter than me but absolutely edible. Sweat pouring over muscle. That tight, strained look on their faces belying childhoods chock-full of angry, overbearing, immigrant parents. Every one of them looking like what they needed was to be strapped down to the bed and abused by the Samus. Every one of them slightly fuzzy from my lack of glasses. I walked a little faster.

I saw him, then. Doing chinups, his muscular legs crossed at the ankle, the chin set with determination. A brunette girl in the situps corner had stopped to watch. Three little Chinese girls in track pants huddled together and pointed. The boy on the treadmill next to me almost tripped. I walked a little faster.

Then he waved. At me. He grinned. And I realized I had been gawking at my husband.

posted by Samus @ 8:38 PM