drama at the gym!

okay...so we all get annoyed over stuff, right? i'm just gonna vent here, cuz i need to. i went straight to the gym right after work. it's women's day in the pool area until 7 pm, so i'm thinking that's good - i'll go, get in a good hour long lap swim, and then leave before the men come out and take over the pool. first of all, it took me quite a long time to find a parking spot (i usually don't go so early -- i usually go at 8,9, or 10 pm because it's not busy then and i can get any machine i want). all that to say, i was already a little irritated.

i go in, and there's a water aerobics class going on, which i knew about. it was on one half of the pool. the other side has 3 lap lanes for people to use. so i jump in at the same time this other lady gets in. which is fine, because there are 3 lanes. well one lady in the water aerobics class glared at me after i jumped in. i'm sorry if i splashed her, but we're in the pool for crying out loud! that bugged me a little, but i got over it. i thought about it while swimming and later wondered if she glared at me because i took her kickboard. i didn't think it was hers, though, cuz it was outside the pool, and the water aerobics class never uses kickboards. anyways.

so i'm swimming along, and another lady jumps in and says to me "do you have a preference of which lane you want?" nice of her to ask! so i said "i'll take the middle lane if that's cool with you." she says "sure." so, i'm totally fine, swimming along. there are now 3 of us in the pool.

then another woman is waiting at the other end of the pool. when i get to the end she says to me "i'm going to get in, so can we circle swim?" if you don't know, a circle swim means you go in a circle and use the middle lane for passing so that more people than just 3 can swim. i don't really like circle swim because it's crowded and some people go slow and some fast and it messes up my workout. but, i want to be a nice and good person and do what Jesus would do, so i say "sure, that's fine." and so the lady says "okay, i'll go tell the others." so she goes down to tell 2 of them and is waiting for the third lady who is focused and intent on swimming back and forth in her lane without paying attention to any of us. we tried to tell her but she wouldn't acknowledge any of us. so we decided to do a circle swim with only 2 lanes. how crazy is that! there are now 3 of us sharing 2 lanes while one lady gets her own lane because she won't listen to us. so, there are a total of 4 of us in the pool at this point.

needless to say, it was crazy. but, i'm figuring, okay i'll just buck up and get over it. so i just keep swimming. then, i hadn't even done a full lap yet when--i'm not kidding - 2 other women jump in. there are now 6 of us in the pool. one woman was insistent that this was not fair that the one woman wouldn't agree to a circle swim. so she stands right in her lane until the woman literally runs into her. so she now has no choice but to face her. the lady says "we're all doing circle swim now, so you need to go in a circle with us." the lady tells her "i have my own routine, i don't want to do circle swim." and the other lady says "well that's what we're doing, so you need to do it." and she says "no, the rules say everyone must agree to a circle swim, and i don't want to."

i am not making this up! can you sense the built up frustration we all must be experiencing at this point??!?!

the lady then just continues to keep swimming in her "own lane." the new rules do state that everyone must agree to a circle swim if that's what's going to happen.

so now 6 of us are all worried about getting head injuries because we seriously are almost running into each other. 5 people are sharing 2 lanes and it wasn't pretty. so the one lady who was really ticked started swimming in the lady's lane who wouldn't share, and she seriously pushed her in the water and told her to get out of the pool! the lady didn't care and after she was pushed just went around her and kept swimming. oh we were all so mad! i can't even tell you how annoyed i was.

one lady said to me "have you ever encountered her before?" and i said "no." and she said "she does this every time. she never shares." they were all talking trash on her and you know what...i didn't feel sorry for her. we're all trying to work together here and she is not cooperating! no one else likes circle swim either, but it allows more people to swim who want to swim. we all pay to use this gym here! ugh!

we probably swam for 30 minutes with 6 of us crammed in there, in this ugly situation where people were almost running into each other. i was in there for an hour. anyway, i thought after 10-15 minutes surely people would get sick of it and get out. but they didn't. i don't blame them...we all want to get our workouts in and make plans for it. we have lives, things to do, we can't just sit and wait around while people finish.

after people did get out (they all said they were going to complain to the front desk) i was still swimming and there were 3 of us. the lady who wouldn't move, me, and the other lady who pushed her. the lady who pushed her told me "look at her, she's so out of breath she can't even swim the length of the pool." she was struggling, you could tell...but there's no way she was going to get out after causing such a fuss! she then proceeded to call her a "stubborn brat." it was out of control!!

i've experienced a similar situation in the pool before, but it was a man who wouldn't share and wouldn't acknowledge any of us women trying to get his attention that we were going to circle swim. even when someone grabbed his arm, he kept swimming and ignored us.

people these days!!! i know i am not supposed to let the sun go down on my anger which is why i needed to get this all out before i go to bed so that i can calm down and forget about it. haha.

if i wasn't concerned about being nice and being a good person and trying to do what Jesus would do, i would have probably went up to the lady and said "seriously, what's the deal? can you just do a circle swim and get over it?" but that wouldn't have been nice, so i didn't. i digress now.