Ring a ding ding

The time for ringing in the New Year has passed-and like many American’s I rung it hard. Rather than face the high prices and packed crowds of the bar scenes, Hope Valentine and I headed up to a little town called Cedarburg to hang out at her sister’s house. There (along with Hope sisters and their fiancés/husbands) we feasted on a wonderful steak dinner, drank the bubbly and sang and danced (just me and Hope on that last one).

By four in the morning, the party came to a crashing halt when Hope and I fell asleep on our pre-designated couches; and there we remained until much later that day when Hope convinced her sister to make us a pancake breakfast….so THIS is what it is like to be the youngest child.

Per usual, I am back in the office and anticipating the weekend. The working days have (admittedly) flown by; however, I would be lying if I said that I haven’t been slightly unnerved by the general public’s new found need to work out.

Empowered with resolutions to lose weight and get healthy, these gym-newbies are taking up the good machines and ignoring usual gym decorum (i.e. wipe down your machine when you are through, don’t talk to me when I am exercising, and most importantly, don’t fart when you are working out on the machine directly in front of mine).

I guess it is also consoling to know that despite all of this New Year’s work out madness and change, there is still the one, unwavering constant at my gym, that being Kooky Kathy’s permanent reign over the T.V. in the stretching room.

From what I can tell, Kathy is also unnerved by the general public’s new-found urge to work out. Last night as I was doing my stretches I overheard “the Kookster” telling a friend that she was having a hard time adjusting to the heavy gym traffic- (well I should say the heavy stretching room traffic, because Kathy does not appear to have ever actually worked out or to have left the chair in the stretching room, for that matter).

Be that as it may, I listened as Kathy recounted her day in front of the stretching room T.V., and how despite her best efforts to strike up conversations, she felt that she was being largely ignored. She went on to give the example of how she had been “really ticked-off” earlier that day when an “Asian lady” had come into the stretching room and didn’t even bother to smile at her. At that point in our conversation, Kathy turned her attentions back to the television screen and began talking about her new-found love for the show “Dog the Bounty Hunter” on A & E.

(Artistic rendering of Kooky Kathy in her usual spot.)