YMCA.2

3. Today's gym trip had a different theme: women. I tried to make eye contact with a thin young woman in the weight room. My timing was off and sometimes when this happens I start to worry they think I'm kind of crazy. "Why does that sweaty woman with the giant head keep SMILING at me?!" So the thin woman started to do leg lifts on a machine. She wrapped a padded cuff around her ankle, hooked it to a lower weight pully and began extending it out behind her. An older man comes in and after being in the weight room for a few moments, goes to the pully directly in her leg's path. There is an ENTIRE weight room full of empty machines and he goes right to where he will encumber her workout. I just sort of stare at him and I can see she's not sure what to do. Finally our eyes meet, I smile, give her a "come on guy" look. I get a silent laugh back.

I've never seen a man's spot get taken like that. Oh weight room. Oh oblivious older men.

4. On my way out I pass through the basketball gym brimming with children. Children everywhere. I have to almost step over a group of three. A boy has a girl pinned down on her back and is tickling her with his left hand. His right hand is placed directly down on her chest where if she had any, her boobs would be. She's laughing like crazy. Another boy leans over. These kids can't be more than 6? (I'm terrible at ages.) I can feel my brain clinking through my reactions. Something about the scene is both joyful but also uneasy. I start to wonder why the boy has pinned her? Is it out of pure childhood play or something he's seen on television?

I decide I won't come to any conclusions and leave the thought and the children behind.