May You Work Out In Interesting Times.

My gym is never boring. Sure, sometimes I get bored with the elliptical or a certain class but that's not what I mean. The members, residents, hotel guests and staff are always interesting. And by interesting, I generally mean crazy.

There are a pair of resident sisters who you never want to shower after because its sounds like a man is in there with all the phleghm being coughed up and spit out. There is a member who wears a wetsuit to swim in the rather warm water pool and then leaves the sauna open to dry the wetsuit out. There is a 28 year old instructor engaged to a 48 year old man, who is currently on a four year anniversary trip in Monaco. There is the woman with ever changing wig colors who's bucket list included joining a nice gym despite apparently never having been to a gym before, judging by the need to be shown what a push up was.

This morning, M and I finished our workouts and walked into the locker room to hear some banging and yelling. My first thought was that it was waaaaaaaaay too early for dealing with loud kids. But, it turned out to be a woman who was locked in a shower. Each time she told the story, the amount of time got longer. At first, it was 20 minutes, then 40, then over an hour. Seeing as how she didn't have a watch on, her guess is as good as mine (although it definitely wasn't an hour because that meant she was trapped when I got to the gym and I guarantee we would have heard her). M and I tried to help her out, explaining which way to turn it. We were hampered by English not being her first language and the fact that the lock was really broken.

We went to the front to get some help. One of my favorites was working this morning. She called maintenance and while we were waiting tried to jimmy the lock open with a safety pin and a gift card. That sucker was really stuck. It ended up taking three maintenance guys ten minutes to free her. She put on a bit of a show of outrage and dismay -- I wouldn't be surprised if she got a lot of free stuff as a result. But, once everyone official was gone, her outrage seemed to disappear. Rather than getting the hell out of there and just going back to her room, she went to the sauna, tried all of the various products and then TOOK ANOTHER SHOWER!

It wasn't funny. It was hilarious.

Forecasting.

For the past six months or so, my knees have been acting like brats. Every time a weather front moved through the area, I could tell you within about six hours of when the precipitation would begin. Tom Skilling had nothing on me. That's the plus side. On the minus side, that forecasting ability meant that my RA medicine was no longer working properly. It wasn't a huge surprise to me that I could build up a tolerance to it after five years on it. When I saw my rheumatologist last month, he told me that I could try switching injections but if that didn't work I would have to go on a medicine that would only allow me to have at most one drink per week. Or, in a nutshell, I would have to choose between walking and drinking.

I am pleased to report that I am cautiously optimistic that I will not have to make the choice. It seems that changing up my injection is working. Its only been two weeks but my forecasting ability appears to be fading a bit. A rain front is on its way here and my knees did not warn me. I will happily take getting wet because I didn't know to bring an umbrella over the alternative. In fact, no umbrella leaves me two hands to hold the drinks that I can still drink!

All Quiet on the Western Front.

I spent last weekend in Colorado. It was my mom's 55th birthday, which was reason enough to go back. But, it was also a week before she has spinal surgery on her neck and almost a year since I was last there. So long that my dog (former dog, definitely more my parents than mine at this point) refused to even give me a wag of the tail for about 12 hours to teach me a lesson. I usually try to go back a couple times a year but the last nine months or so my parents have been out to the midwest three times. I swear, I'm not that bad of a daughter.

It was nice to see the family. My mom is not up for much right now so it was a pretty quiet weekend. We went out to a birthday dinner on Saturday night at what I'd consider the best restaurant north of Denver, Frasca. It was three couples (my parents, my brother and his partner, my cousin and her boyfriend) and me. What's up seventh wheel? Otherwise, did some cleaning, some cooking, mowed the lawn, played with the dog, ran some errands. Generally, just tried to be helpful to make up for my long absence in what has been a stressful past few months.

The weather was lovely while I was there. To take advantage of that as well as get some exercise, I borrowed my mom's cruiser. Its an actual New Belgium Fat Tire, of the beer fame. It rides really upright, has no gears and you have to pedal backward to brake. It is awesome. What is not awesome: a strong headwind and flatland lungs. My attempt at a bike ride had my lungs and legs burning in under twenty minutes.