My gym

I love my gym, downtown Oakland YMCA. Thing I love is the community there. The people are interesting and friendly. There's the locker room people: Phyllis, Mz West, that Latino woman with all the pharmaceutical drugs spilling out of her bag, the older woman from my neighborhood, the tall skinny black woman who has the locker across from mine. And there's the pool people: Faz, from Iran - he hurt his back, and there's no cure, so he swims every day; Chris - he's a poet and plays keyboard, knows some old songs I grew up with, Laura Nyro and Association; Mary, a sprightly 70-something woman with a friendly perky energy who used to be a runner and has had both her hips replaced. There's also the really fat, beautiful young black woman who talks the whole time she walks with other black water-walkers. They kind of bug me because they take up so much room and walk real slow, but I just go around them and we've gotten accustomed to smiling a greeting. The woman about my age who lost one leg from the knee down swims every day, and has a nice smile. I don't know how she keeps her attitude 'up.' I dislike the water aerobics classes. I just like to do my thing in the pool. That's why I don't much like the lifeguards. There is some rule a person cannot walk and swim in the same lane. And that makes the lifeguards evil in my book, enforcers. So I walk in the pool, because I can't play around and learn how to swim. But water-walking is a great stretch for my back and legs. I always feel better afterwards, though I frequently get really cold later in the day. Guess it lowers my body temp. The Y staff is also interesting, though I don't interact with them much, just to swipe my membership card, and say, "Good morning." The classes are generally fun. I used to love love love the yoga class, but downward facing dog and child's pose were killing me as my arthritic hip continued to degenerate. I had to stop. Too bad because I loved the teacher Carrie, and the other attendees were also interesting. Especially the group from Creative Growth, the center up the block for people with learning disabilities. The leader of the group in yoga class, Gina I think her name is, she even competes in Special Olympics and is pretty cool, very friendly and outspoken.

I tried to publish this yesterday, but blogger just wasn't functional then.