Tests

After spending time with Manhattan strippers last night, I really wanted to go to the gym. Unfortunately (and predictably), I was late leaving work. So I rushed like a mad woman to get to my favorite gym class in time. I arrived a few minutes late, and it was packed full of January-gym-goers. January is the worst time to go to the gym. It is a place filled with unhappy people. People are either regular gym-goers filled with rage against the new people who have just joined and are crowding what the regulars think of as 'their space,' or new members who are miserable working out, and shocked at the horrendous attitudes of everyone around them. January gym always makes me think of the scene in Ghostbusters where the negative energy of New York City is glowing ectoplasm running in rivers in the sewers and speeding the end of the world.

On top of jumping into this volatile environment, I was running late so I was pissy. The class was packed, but I found a place to squeeze in a step. Then the horrendous AARP, black, still-fat-even-though-she's-a-regular, woman in front of me told me I was too close. I scooted the step the few inches of give I had. She shook her head with attitude that had the force of a nuclear bomb. I said: 'I'm not trying to ruin your day.' She said, 'you did.'

I put my step away and left. Part of me was mad that I would make any concession for her, but the other half of me knew that if I stayed I would be livid, not say anything, and perhaps give myself an evil-eye aneurism. I took a moment to cry in the bathroom feeling angry, helpless, and like I was drowning in the Ghostbuster's ectoplasm. Then I left and took a slow leisurely walk over to the Butter Cream Bake Shop on the East Side. I bought myself one of my favorite cupcakes, then strolled over to the Barnes and Noble on 3rd and 53rd. I read some Emily Dickinson and thought about how much she loved things like grass and could describe dew-drops as the most precious pearls. Then weaved my way back to my apartment off Ninth Ave.

That was my day.