A Great Day Almost Ruined...

Yesterday was a very good day. I was productive at work. I had a mental list of things to do when I got home which included: cleaning the kitchen, doing some laundry, practicing some music, and working out. With the first three items out of the way, I headed to the gym to complete the cycle.

The Cubs were even handling their business against the San Diego Padres (I was listening to the game via iPhone)- a feat they had yet to accomplish this week. I was feeling good about myself. And then, disaster struck. I promised not to talk about this douche bag again, but he's HAUNTING MY LIFE! That's right, the steroid guy was back, and he didn't waste any time ruining my workout.

As I walked in the door, he was stomping out (yes, he was stomping out the IN door.) He yelled to the guy at the front counter, "I'll be right back!" The guy heard him and semi-acknowledged, but had other things to do (like scan me in.) This wasn't good enough for Body By Jake. He yelled again, this time in a more angry tone, "I'LL BE RIGHT BACK!!!" Damn dude, chill out. Your temper is worse than Roger Clemens' temper when he threw the piece of shattered bat at Mike Piazza.

I only wanted about a half-hour run on the treadmill, do some ab work and then I was out of there. I figured, "I probably won't see him for the rest of the night, just forget about this A-hole." Oh, how wrong I was.

While on the treadmill, there was a girl doing cardio in the row of machines in front of me. She was in good shape, but she wasn't some over the top hot girl that you might occasionally see at the gym. Five minutes in to my run, the steroid dude walks by her and recognizes her. Now, I had my headphones on initially (listening to Ron Santo talk about how yesterday was the 40th anniversary of his only home run off of Phil Niekro) so I have no idea how they know each other. Could be from work, could be from the gym, could be because he raped one of her friends. All totally possible scenarios.

He continued to talk to her about weird subjects (over conversation about working out, things that make him angry, and his tendency to eat live rats... ok, that last one didn't come up.) This continued for the duration of my run.

Now she was humoring him for awhile, but the conversation dipped at a certain point. She was giving him a social cue that he clearly did not pick up on. She was saying, "Please go away and let me watch 'America's Got Talent' while I finish my cardio." He intern was saying with his social cues, "When are you going to get off the damn eliptical machine so I can sexually assault you!"

I was sick of thinking about such things, so I removed myself to the aerobics room. After stretching and doing some crunches I was ready to be on my merry way. I had to get my stuff from the lockroom which is past the cardio equipment. As I went past, guess who was still just standing in front of the eliptical machine? You guessed it!

By my count, this guy had been chatting up a girl for 45 minutes (at least) while she was on the eliptical machine. For a guy so concerned about his work outs on previous days, this girl certainly was distracting him from his fitness goals. I could see him realize how much time he's wasted in the gym and turn into the Incredible Hulk and start smashing things (and taking the girl into his private Hulk den.)

The girl seemed like she was indefinitely stuck on the cardio machine. There was no way she was getting off until steroid boy left her alone. I can see her three days from now, emaciated and dying, but still trying to turn the gears of the machine, while this guy was still talking in his perversely animated way.

I did refuse to let this guy ruin my day, but there was a point where I debated breaking up the conversation. I figured, if he got mad enough and physically assaulted me, he'd probably get banned from the gym. I ultimately stayed out of the way, and left the gym as to salvage my day without incident.

I don't know why this guy gets under my skin the way he does, but feel free to rant if there's someone (or some type of person) that gets under yours. Overly polite people? Fake people? Bloggers who talk about the same annoying person in three or more posts? Take your pick.