A short rant...
Last week, I decided to go take a dip in the hot tub at my gym after a run. I retrieved my suit from my locker, pulled it on, and headed for the showers to rinse any sweat or other random grime from my skin. I also grabbed the things I would need for the shower after my hot tub so that I wouldn't need to come back to my locker again and drip all over the shared dressing space.
I don't know about you, and maybe I'm just spoiled or something, but I don't like having to change clothes in a puddle of cold water. Especially in "pants" weather... I somehow always drag a leg of my jeans through the puddle on my way to pulling them on, and then -- voila! -- I have a wet leg for the next 2 hours. Since I don't like it, I do my best to keep the floor dry for other people, too.
I went to the hot tub and commandeered the strongest jet to massage my lower back and legs, which were tight. I did some stretches in the warm water, taking care not to overdo it but still getting some good extension. After a short while, I got out of the hot tub, toweled off, and made my way to the showers. I took some extra time under the spray to get all the chlorine off and relax as much as I could before going back to work. I turned off the water, squeezed out my suit on the shower floor, and toweled myself dry, wrapping a towel around my hair to keep from dripping all over the place.
One of my favorite machines in the entire gym is not a piece of exercise equipment, but the swimsuit dryer, the little spinning contraption that dries your suit in 10 seconds without heat. On this day, as I approached the dryer, I was disappointed to see a piece of paper taped to the lid, declaring that the machine was out of order. I grumbled a little to myself and then went over to the hand dryers. Not as quick, but at least I would get to stand by the warm air while I dried my suit.
It took longer than I expected to dry the suit with the hand dryers. I tried to make the most of it by putting my feet in the flow of hot air, but still, I was feeling impatient and wanted to get dressed. Finally, the suit was dry enough to take back to the locker/changing area. I went back, hurrying now.
When I got to the small cul-de-sac housing my locker, I was dismayed to see that there was water all over the floor. The puddle was biggest right in front of my locker. I looked around, but there was nobody there and I couldn't figure out why the floor was so wet, or who was responsible. I opened my locker and grabbed my pants and walked to a different area to pull them on. As I rolled up my pant legs so I could wade back to my locker and collect the rest of my clothes, a fully dressed, short, brown-haired 19 or 20 year old girl padded up to the locker directly adjacent to mine and opened it. In her right hand was a soaking wet swimsuit, dripping on the ground. The ground directly in front of my locker. To my horror, she stood there, while I backed away again from my locker (and her puddle) to don my shirt, and started to wring her swimsuit out onto the floor.
I couldn't believe my eyes. I was so surprised I didn't even say anything -- it just seemed like such a wrong thing to do. I was irritated to the point where I just wanted to laugh, it was that ridiculous. I passive-aggressively walked back to my locker to grab my socks and shoes, loudly splashing in the puddle so she would have to be aware that she had made this watery mess where someone else was trying to get dressed. She didn't seem to notice. I was dumbfounded. I sat on the bench, watching this undergrad make a huge mess, seemingly unaware that the space was shared, apparently unable to consider that other people might not appreciate watery barriers to their possessions.
Next, she flipped her swimsuit over the top of her locker door (and I'm not kidding when I say that she did it so suddenly, drips flew into my face behind her), closed it, and walked away. That is probably going to drip all over whatever is in the locker beneath hers, I thought.
I pulled on my socks one by one, watching the drips fall from the suit straps and make tiny ripples in the growing puddle on the floor. I started to think I needed to loosen up, but I just couldn't believe how inconsiderate that whole scene had been. Then, as if to confirm my thoughts about how little this girl was thinking about the consequences of her actions, she came back, gave the top half of suit another squeeze for good measure, spilling more water onto the floor (really, the suit must have been very absorbent). She spun the dial on her combination lock, opened her locker, then grabbed her jacket that was hanging inside, and that had pressed against the half of the suit inside the locker door.
The girl, seeing that her jacket was totally soaked on one side, started to curse at the suit. "Ahhh! Stupid suit!" she said as she pulled the jacket on. Ha! Like it was the wet suit's bright idea to hang itself on the door of an overstuffed locker!
My shoes on, I gingerly stepped through the puddle one last time to close my locker, turned and followed wet-swimsuit-girl out of the locker room. I couldn't help but smile as I followed her, watching a single drip fall from the hem of her jacket. Karma's a bitch.
I don't know about you, and maybe I'm just spoiled or something, but I don't like having to change clothes in a puddle of cold water. Especially in "pants" weather... I somehow always drag a leg of my jeans through the puddle on my way to pulling them on, and then -- voila! -- I have a wet leg for the next 2 hours. Since I don't like it, I do my best to keep the floor dry for other people, too.
I went to the hot tub and commandeered the strongest jet to massage my lower back and legs, which were tight. I did some stretches in the warm water, taking care not to overdo it but still getting some good extension. After a short while, I got out of the hot tub, toweled off, and made my way to the showers. I took some extra time under the spray to get all the chlorine off and relax as much as I could before going back to work. I turned off the water, squeezed out my suit on the shower floor, and toweled myself dry, wrapping a towel around my hair to keep from dripping all over the place.
One of my favorite machines in the entire gym is not a piece of exercise equipment, but the swimsuit dryer, the little spinning contraption that dries your suit in 10 seconds without heat. On this day, as I approached the dryer, I was disappointed to see a piece of paper taped to the lid, declaring that the machine was out of order. I grumbled a little to myself and then went over to the hand dryers. Not as quick, but at least I would get to stand by the warm air while I dried my suit.
It took longer than I expected to dry the suit with the hand dryers. I tried to make the most of it by putting my feet in the flow of hot air, but still, I was feeling impatient and wanted to get dressed. Finally, the suit was dry enough to take back to the locker/changing area. I went back, hurrying now.
When I got to the small cul-de-sac housing my locker, I was dismayed to see that there was water all over the floor. The puddle was biggest right in front of my locker. I looked around, but there was nobody there and I couldn't figure out why the floor was so wet, or who was responsible. I opened my locker and grabbed my pants and walked to a different area to pull them on. As I rolled up my pant legs so I could wade back to my locker and collect the rest of my clothes, a fully dressed, short, brown-haired 19 or 20 year old girl padded up to the locker directly adjacent to mine and opened it. In her right hand was a soaking wet swimsuit, dripping on the ground. The ground directly in front of my locker. To my horror, she stood there, while I backed away again from my locker (and her puddle) to don my shirt, and started to wring her swimsuit out onto the floor.
I couldn't believe my eyes. I was so surprised I didn't even say anything -- it just seemed like such a wrong thing to do. I was irritated to the point where I just wanted to laugh, it was that ridiculous. I passive-aggressively walked back to my locker to grab my socks and shoes, loudly splashing in the puddle so she would have to be aware that she had made this watery mess where someone else was trying to get dressed. She didn't seem to notice. I was dumbfounded. I sat on the bench, watching this undergrad make a huge mess, seemingly unaware that the space was shared, apparently unable to consider that other people might not appreciate watery barriers to their possessions.
Next, she flipped her swimsuit over the top of her locker door (and I'm not kidding when I say that she did it so suddenly, drips flew into my face behind her), closed it, and walked away. That is probably going to drip all over whatever is in the locker beneath hers, I thought.
I pulled on my socks one by one, watching the drips fall from the suit straps and make tiny ripples in the growing puddle on the floor. I started to think I needed to loosen up, but I just couldn't believe how inconsiderate that whole scene had been. Then, as if to confirm my thoughts about how little this girl was thinking about the consequences of her actions, she came back, gave the top half of suit another squeeze for good measure, spilling more water onto the floor (really, the suit must have been very absorbent). She spun the dial on her combination lock, opened her locker, then grabbed her jacket that was hanging inside, and that had pressed against the half of the suit inside the locker door.
The girl, seeing that her jacket was totally soaked on one side, started to curse at the suit. "Ahhh! Stupid suit!" she said as she pulled the jacket on. Ha! Like it was the wet suit's bright idea to hang itself on the door of an overstuffed locker!
My shoes on, I gingerly stepped through the puddle one last time to close my locker, turned and followed wet-swimsuit-girl out of the locker room. I couldn't help but smile as I followed her, watching a single drip fall from the hem of her jacket. Karma's a bitch.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment