I am a Regular

Once again, I am spending 2 days sitting around the house waiting for town inspectors, plumbers and propane tanks. I have been assured by the plumber that I will be cooking on my new gas range this evening! I'll believe it when I smell the pizza. Yesterday I was very cranky. The inspector came but left without telling me whether or not the gas line "passed." I only have one electric skillet but dinner required 2 skillets, so I had to cook sequentially instead of simultaneously. And the boys are doing some computer realignment (son #2 gets basement computer, son #1 gets son #2's computer, and laptop floats between basement and other locations) and there was this constant low level bickering all evening. Plus the schools were closed-- snow day, so the 3 of us were in the house all day. That's not a big deal-- I barely saw them except when I offered to make waffles (another electric appliance that does not require stovetop or oven). I didn't get to the gym. My trainer cancelled our morning appt. because of the bad weather (she travels from fairly far north). I could have gone to the gym early and gotten home before the snow became an obstacle, but it was so warm in bed! DH will be home on the early side today and I am hopeful we will both workout this evening. Then I can come home and cook on my new gas range!! Yippee!!

Which brings me to the point of this post-- I am a regular. My trainer told me that the gym has about 2400 members. Now, those members are pretty spread out-- there are the tennis people, the racquetball people, the swimmers, the "group exercise" mothers of small children, the spinners, and the weight lifters. Of course there is some overlap, usually there's a primary activity plus weight lifting. You would think most of the membership comes through the fitness center-- weight lifting plus all the treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, etc. But most of the time, I see the same people, at least the same "core" group in the fitness center. I call them the regulars. I don't know their names, but I can describe them to my DH and he usually knows who I am referring to ("she always wears Yankees clothes and she dances on the treamill"). I had the realization, that I am one of these people! If they ever think about it, then I am one of the people that they see regularly in the fitness center. If I had to take a guess, I would say there's about 100 of these people. I am an "after work" regular. There are "before work" regulars, morning regulars (the aforementioned mothers with small children), and the afternoon retired regulars. At most that probably adds up to 1000 people. That means there are 1400 irregular members who are not getting the most out of their gym memberships. I guess that's how gyms make it work. Sign up lots of people and hope at least half of them don't show up so the regular members don't complain. Even though I use the gym at probably its busiest times (evenings and weekend mornings), I never feel it's too crowded. I rarely wait for a piece of euqipment or a shower. And I like seeing the same people, somehow it is comforting and reassuring. Some of them are even my friends! So I am a regular and proud of it! Do they have a Life is Good T-shirt for us Regular Gym People?