I joined a gym last week.
I look forward to my workouts.

There are un-written rules at my gym:
Do not make eye contact.
Talk to no-one except the front desk person but only briefly to her/him.
If you must look at someone, use your peripheral vision.
Every one must wear ear-buds.
Ha!

In my gym, every one is in their own world.
I really like that!

The characters that work out in my gym are fascinating to watch
and to listen to.

I have never seen so many huge muscles nor have I ever heard that
much moaning and groaning. (and I'm not even looking or listening,
even with ear buds and side vision, I hear and see a lot)!

These are the oddest, most colorful people I've ever seen.
Weird, odd, colorful but very, very, serious about working out!

Serious workouts is a match for me. I know, I'm weird, odd and colorful
too but when it comes to working out, I just want to stay my focus
and not be blabbering!

I use 4 machines and then head directly for the aerobics room to do my
45 minute kata in the zone routine.

Today, I saw one of my neighbors using some equipment to my left.
I spotted him using my peripheral vision, of course.
I'm really good at noting how people move and identifying them through
their body movements.

He is an old retired gentleman, who walks his dog on our block.

Well, I just kept looking straight ahead and continued my reps
on the biceps curl machine.

I noticed that he was finishing as he grabbed his towel and
walked my way.

He stopped in front of me and said:
"Hello".

I couldn't believe it, someone was breaking the "rules"!

I continued watching him with my outside vision and said....
"I'm concentrating, just a minute".

Then I looked up and said:
"Hello".

He said:
"That's all, I just wanted to say, hello".

I smiled as he walked away and thought.
He just broke the rules and so did I.
Oh well!

Talk about not being present.

A friend of mine told me a story of an argument with himself and his girlfriend
because he didn't respond to her during an evening stroll...he said that she was angry because he wasn't present.
Ha!

That evening I had my own experience of not being present.
Here's what happened.

Once a week my husband and I make the same trip to the same parking lot and buy the same stuff.
This past weekend, I hopped in his truck anticipating the exact same experience.
This time however he pulled into another strip mall and I don't know where I
was, but I sure wasn't grounded in the now moment!
We got out of his truck and walked inside and I was shocked that we weren't in
the supermarket, we were in Home depot.
For a moment there I felt a little creepy.
"Where am I"?, I was thinking.
"I'm shocked that we are not in Publix's....this is Home depot....good god"!
It was the blast of the hot air that brought me back to reality. The supermarket
is always very, very cold.
What a jolt that was. hummmmmmmmm.............
Same ole, same ole....that's what happens when you let someone else do the driving.
Not realizing where I was....this was a first for me.
: )
My husband never flinched when I told him:
"I thought this was Publix"
Odd but true, the not flinching part and my not being present story.
Oh well..............just when you think you've seen it all and experienced it
all, you get snapped back into the now.