I am iPodless, now. Phoneless, too, actually. Technology is never on my side.
The recent failure of my phone is not exactly relevant to my blog. My iPod's unwillingness to cooperate, however, is. This has happened to me quite a few times, so I'm very familiar with the sad-faced animation of an iPod that appears on the screen, as well as the squealing and clicking sounds that come from within, indicating the hardware is having some sore of seizure.
When I first started running, I never brought my iPod. I thought that it would be more irritating to keep the earbuds in and the cord out of my way than to listen to the clip-clapping sound of my tennis shoes and the sounds of the city at night. When it got too cold to run outside, though, I started bringing it to the gym. I made special playlists and grew accustomed to having it with me.
Today, my first day at the gym without it, was unenjoyable. It was like the day I was working out without an effective sports bra; odd feeling, uncomfortable, unpleasant, and very short. First of all, I never realized how loud gyms are. Everyone is making some sort of irritating sound: the girl to my left who was actually stomping as she ran, the treadmill behind me that seemed to have sand stuck in it, the slurpers at the fountain, the too-loud headphones, the chatters by the door, and many, many more. The sound didn't bother me so much as the four plasma screen TV's with volume off and captions on that can only be seen if you're in the first of the four rows of machines. What's the point of having them at all? They're just teasing 75% of us!
I was only there for 20 minutes today. My workout wasn't that short by choice; I went between an important meeting and a class. Although it didn't last long, it was enjoyable. I was on an elliptical and those things are really growing on me! I'm looking forward to going tomorrow, assuming I don't get more sick than I already am (I have a cold).
If I wake up even more sick tomorrow, maybe I'll take a page from my iPod's book, draw a sadface on my forehead and remain unresponsive and uncooperative all day. It would be nice to just shut down.
5 weeks ago
