adventure in hearing damage

I made it to the gym, because it was a beautiful day outside, and my hangover finally passed. I took a step class that was very crowded, so I set up my step in the back. It was a good class except for the fact that the instructor wouldn't stop screaming into her microphone which then amplified over the thumping step music into the most painful simulation of a poorly executed rock concert by a band that sucks. It was really awful. All I wanted were some baby Apple headphones.

30 minutes into class (and 30 to go), I made my way to the front of the room and politely asked the instructor to turn down her volume a little bit. She looked at me like I was out my damn mind. Then she said, 'you want it turned up or down?' into the microphone and I said down, and she repeated, 'down?' with a distinct but unspoken 'bitch, you did not just say down to me.'

Then some step-happy-crazed-cut-high-kicking-gay man screamed, 'Turn up the volume, turn up the volume" in time with the music because the stepping never stopped. This was not a drama moment (on my part). Seriously, it took seconds. I retreated back to my step and finished the class. She never turned her volume down. I was however determined to get my work out, and I wasn't about to be the white girl that left class cause it was too loud for my WASPy-silence-loving tiny ass.

I used to teach step in college. I know a few things. I know that one should not scream into the microphone, that one should not confuse themselves with Bono at Madison Square Gardens. I also know that the final lunges we did were not even. So there.