TheBanyanTree: Space Issues

[Margaret R. Kramer]

At 4:15 am, the fitness club isn’t very busy.  It’s populated by a small
group of people who have the amazing discipline to get up very early morning
after morning and exercise before going to work.  It’s a stable group and
this group doesn’t seem to have the seasonal shifts of growth and decline
like the afternoon exercisers do.

We don’t have to fight over parking spaces or wait patiently for a treadmill
to become available.  We can set up weight lifting circuits and not have to
worry about some innocent person who might begin working on one of “our”
machines and blowing the circuit.  The pool’s lap lanes are always open.

And in spite of having so many choices of what to do, most of us are locked
into a routine of doing everything the same way morning after morning.

We park in the same spot.  We use the same locker.  We stretch out on the
same mat.  We use the same treadmill or cross trainer or stair climber.

What happens if someone busts the routine?

When I first changed my work out from the afternoon to the morning, I picked
out a locker in the center of the locker room and on the end of a row.  I
packed my stuff in there and went to work out.  After work out, when I went
back, there was a woman who picked the locker right next to mine, and there
we were, smushed together like sardines in an empty locker room.  She wasn’t
going to move.

It took me about two weeks to figure out that I had begun using “her”
locker.  I got there earlier than she did, so I had my pick, but I picked
“hers.”  But we finished working out at the same time, so she used the
“crowding out” method to let me know I was in “her” space.  And she needs a
lot of space.  She uses every cosmetic known to woman.  She lines up her
bottles of lotions, make up, curling iron, combs, and brushes on the shelf
at the end of the row of lockers.  She’s a petite woman who’s very pretty,
but, my goodness, the amount of junk she puts on her face amazes me.

I finally got the point and moved to a different locker.  Then another woman
who gets to the club earlier than I do started using “my” locker, so I moved
again.  I ended up picking a row where everyone congregated and I felt
crowded.  Gosh, this never happened to me in the evening.  I just used
whatever locker was not being used.

OK, I thought, I’m going to use a locker in the back of the locker room.
Not many people go back there, so I won’t be in anyone’s way and it shouldn’
t be crowded.

“My” locker worked great for a week.  I had room to roam and I wasn’t
barging in on anyone else’s locker.

One recent morning, I was done with my shower and I almost finished getting
dressed, when an older woman who had just finished swimming came and wanted
to get in her locker.  The lockers are in two rows – one row of lockers is
on the top, which I use, and another row is on the bottom.  This woman was
using the locker right below mine.

I moved out of her way, but since I was almost ready to go, I didn’t move
the few things I had out of my locker.  The woman kind of used her butt to
push me out of the way and then began arranging her substantial amount of
cosmetics on the bench around my gym bag so I almost couldn’t get to it.

There was no one else in our row – she had plenty of room to spread out, but
she decided because I was in “her” space, she was going to make me
miserable.

I finally was ready to go and was walking towards the door, when she said,
“You forgot your towels.”  Oh, darn, I never do that, I always pick up my
towels, but she had all her stuff surrounding them, so I forgot about them.
She had a smug look on her face like, “Yeah, I know you’re one of the pigs
who always leave their towels on the floor.”

I wanted to say something more than “thank you,” but I thought, is this a
battle worth fighting?  Is it worth it at 6 am in the morning to fight with
someone who was so obviously irritated that I was in “her” space that wasn’t
really “hers?”

No, it wasn’t.  I picked up my towels (I’m surprised she allowed me the room
to do that) and left.

Now I think I finally found a locker I can consistently use.  It’s in the
back of the locker room, but on the end of the row.  No one seems to use it
or the lockers next to it.  For now, anyway, it’s “my” locker.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at earthlink.net

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