I joined a new gym recently, and I now think perhaps I should have asked for a more thorough tour before joining.
I saw most of it--the six racquetball courts, the indoor and outdoor pools, the basketball court, the quarter-mile track, the free weights, the cardio machines, the bar. I even saw the lockers and sinks. I just should have taken three or four more steps.
Around the corner from the sinks with the complimentary shampoo, just past the sauna, overlooking the men's jacuzzi, are eight shower heads, put to regular use by lots of naked men.
Now I'm all for community--I think I've established that--but I'm not comfortable with communal showers, especially communal showers that overlook the jacuzzi--and that the jacuzzi consequently overlooks. This doesn't feel like a locker room so much as it does a Roman bathhouse. Ick.
Ick.
I don't know where to look; I don't know how thoroughly I should wash myself. When I round the corner the octegenarians invite me to take their place because they're done and the other available showerheads have poor water pressure. I feel naked there because I am naked there.
I'm sorry. There are some moments that are meant to be private. You shouldn't even blog about them, probably.
Oh, wait . . .
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Both Inspiration and Cautionary Tale: Excerpts from Middling
What follows is an excerpt from the Winter 2021 edition of Middling, my quarterly newsletter on music, books, work, and getting older. I...
-
I've recently begun reading the collected novels and short stories of Sherlock Holmes as written by Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm a trend-... -
I've been moving slowly through How Music Works, the colossal tome by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, over the past few months. My ...
6 comments:
Totally similar experience. I opted for a raquetball game with some friends from church in the early a.m. prior to going to work. I thought it would be pretty cool to just shower there and then jet in; and it was, at least the communal aspect of being around a ton of guys who were doing similar.
Great, until I got into the shower and was like eww. and a flood of memories from high school came back. :)
I feel your pain...
--pete
Sorry, I have to say it - "Soap on a rope"
Now that's out of the way... it's almost the same as applying the correct urinal etiquette -- whether there is a nice divider as in most corporate offices or flying in the open whilst standing in front of the troughs found in some athletic complex restrooms. Eyes straight ahead, etc, etc.
I think this post illustrates exactly why I went to a girls' school... :)
Totally.... as a girl, I too, feel a little uncomfortable with the locker room situation with strangers.
dude. I'm so feeling your icky pain.
It's not my bathing suit so much as everybody else's birthday suit that's making me uncomfortable. Add to that the social ostracism I would feel wearing a bathing suit: "Get naked! Everybody's doing it!"
Post a Comment