...So, since you guys know that I joined a new gym, I decided to give you the run-down of what I've been seeing in this new year. After all, people always join a gym at the beginning of a new year or start going back because they have a brand-spanking new resolution to get in better shape or to lose weight.

There have been some entertaining slices of... I'd say life, but in a couple of them they're slices of people's own reality...

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So I'm working away on one of the treadmills, with my headphones turned up, and all of a sudden I hear this guy yelling at the woman he was with (I couldn't tell if she was girlfriend, daughter, or something else): "WELL, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WANTED TO COME HERE!". I heard this *over* the headphones, over the machines, and I wasn't the only one who turned to stare.

She was the one in better shape as far as I could tell.

They walked out shortly after.

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So I'm sitting on an exercise bike and pedaling away with my headphones in place when I feel someone tap my shoulder. I pull the thingies out of my ears and apologize to the person that was tapping my shoulder that I was listening to music. She nods and asks me what I weigh. Taken slightly aback, I respond "Excuse me?"

She explains that we're about the same height, and she figures we're about the same weight, and she wants to know what I weigh. I don't know why I didn't tell her to use the scale near the back of the gym that I've seen from time to time, but it didn't cross my mind. Anyway I tell her that I weigh 135 pouds and she nods and punches in 128 into the treadmill, puts it on a hill program level 9 (there are 20 levels, and I regularly do level 6 and ask DH to shoot me when I get home) and says that will do it. I plug my headphones back in and shake my head.

This woman is probably about my height (I couldn't tell for sure, I was sitting down) but she had at least 30 pounds on me. About 10 minutes later I open my eyes (because I usually sit back, close my eyes and pedal to the music when I do the bike) and notice that she's just finished saying something and is looking at me expectantly. I pull out an earbud and say "Sorry, did you say something? I had the music on." She looks annoyed because apparently she's been talking to me for the last 5 minutes. And looked like she was on the verge of a heart attack she was so red and sweaty.

How do you not notice a bright white iPod and headphones clipped to the bottom of a bright red shirt and the black pants that I was wearing. She knew I was plugged in because I had removed my headphones at the start of the exchange to tell her my weight.

Must be a nice universe she lives in.

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The MacWorld/iPhone discussion was interesting... imagine about a dozen people working on various machines with one earphone in place and the other dangling free, all tuned into the same audio channel and commenting on Steve Jobs' interviews, analyst comments, and shooting our own opinions around the gym.

That was fun, except for the one woman that kept looking at me funny, and I realized she was familiar and I couldn't place it. I realized about 6 hours later that I lived with her in college. We were in a suite, and she was one of the roommates on the other side of the bathroom. I still can't remember her name, or which year I lived with her though.

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Where else but in a gym could you be plugged into one of the television monitors watching Paula Dean wrap scallops in bell pepper strips on Food Network and then suddenly have the channel change suddenly to pictures of food digesting in the stomach and intestines.

Yes, they changed the channel from before you eat the food to what happens after you swallow. No, it wasn't the Discovery Channel. It was the Oprah episode with the "poop doctor".

I wasn't really very hungry that night.

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One day I'm working away on the elliptical, and I look around to see what's going on around me and notice this one guy working away on the treadmill. He's been running, a hill program, a high level, and for about 2 miles.

He's older, not in great shape and sweating like a pig. I figure him for a newbie. He's also wearing a weight belt around his lower back.

The thing that got me was the 6 inch tall immobilizing neck brace he was wearing. When he finished his program he got off the treadmill and left the gym, got in his car, and drove away. Still wearing the neck brace and unable to turn his head.

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I was on the situp machine one day, and realized I was matching this one guy situp for situp. He was in the pretty good shape so either I was working too hard, or he was taking it easy. Anyway, I turned my feet to do oblique situps, and he mirror imaged me at the exact same time. And mirrored when I changed to do the other side. When I finally got up (and realized that my tummy was going to ache) I noticed him pull out his earbuds. I pulled out mine and he said that it was impressive that I matched him stride for stride (I admitted that I didn't do it on purpose) and that I did it while smiling the whole time.

I looked at him and said "No, that was me gritting my teeth. This is a smile." And I smiled. He laughed, and we went our separate ways, me to torture my arms some, and he to do even more situps.

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So, that's what I've seen on the inside of my gym during the new year.