It’s funny how I have so many lofty and ambitious dreams and goals, but my legs aren’t up to hunting them down.
It is incredibly hot outside lately, and all I want to do is be useful.
My head is always stuck in the future, and I’m losing sight of what’s in front of my feet.
Check out all of those compound sentences.
A few days ago–I’ve utterly lost track of the flow of time–I went to Walmart with a friend to buy a pair of dumbbells. Because I’m too cheap to pay $25 a month to join a gym, I’m taking advantage of Walmart’s 90-day return policy to stay fit over the summer.
Pushing the cart to my car, a twenty-something black man hollers from a solid fifteen feet away, “tryna get buff?” and flashes a few teeth. I gave an upward nod and pretended to chuckle without breaking stride. Keep in mind that this guy was in absolutely no position to be able to see the weights in my cart, so I’m not sure why he felt the need to see what I was buying. For what it’s worth, he had just bought ten quarts of motor oil, half synthetic and half 5W-30.
Okay, so awkward… We make it another twenty feet across the main driveway, and now the mysterious man has totally altered his path to come talk to us. Unwelcome, unwelcome, go away. From close up he was about the same height as me but with a build that wouldn’t let him wear a loose t-shirt. The muscles were copious. His shirt announces that he is a personal trainer, and apparently he feels the need to advertise his services via myspace. I really wish I remembered the URL.
Mr. Trainer then gave us a solid five minute intro on getting fit. Granted I’ve been exercising regularly for over a year now, but I recognize I’m hardly qualified to be a trainer so I gave him those few minutes. This was awkward. It was uncomfortable. I still don’t understand how he had that much that he felt was necessary to tell us in the parking lot of a superstore. Lean muscle, body building, cardio routines, different pull up grips. He absolutely drove home the benefits of a pull up bar. And that you can get one at ROSS for $5 cheaper than at Marshalls. Okay, good to know.
Through all of this, even his wonderful demonstration of a burpee, he never once tried to tell us what gym he worked at or about his myspace. I guess he expected us to read his shirt, but it was just too distorted with muscle bulge. And that you get a pull up bar at ROSS for cheaps. And I’m sort of tempted to pick one up now…
Warm weather always makes things better. It’s pretty accurate to say that holing me up in winter for too many months freezes up some bitterness within me, and it takes a good few days of sunshine to let it all out.
I guess sometimes you just can’t be too picky and have to take things as they come. I’m not too disappointed about next year’s housing assignment anymore (even though the fifth floor will be my death), I’ve finally registered for summer courses and almost all of my fall classes, I got myself a campus job for the fall semester doing something fun, I’m six days away from summer, pollen isn’t too bad anymore, and I’m waiting on a Hawaiian pizza. Why waste time complaining when there’s so much life to live?