Fit to Print Volume 24 Issue 1 March 2015 | Page 14
M e m b e r Pe r s p e c t i v e
By Christine Jelley
How Gym Buddies Roll
Sympathy, Support & Brutal Honesty (as Needed)
return to my home.
After this one showing, I noticed that
my son had taken rubber, life-like
carpenter ants and carefully placed
them, infestation-style, outside his
bedroom door. I gathered them and
told him he couldn't do that while we
were trying to sell the house. He said
he didn't want anyone to buy it.
Suddenly, an inevitable occurred to
me, “Oh God, where's the dog?” I ran
downstairs and opened the closet door
where she was teetering
uncomfortably on a pile of shoes. I
asked her why she hadn't barked.
M
y gym buddy is the real estate
agent who sold my house during
my divorce. June is my neighbor's
friend, and when I needed to sell my
house she suggested that I call her. It
was a bad time for the family - the kids
were ages six and three and didn't
understand that divorce meant leaving
things we loved behind, like the house,
the familiar school and the dock to fish
off of in the summer.
A few times I'd gotten calls from June
saying that someone wanted to see the
house in thirty minutes. I happened to
have my college roommate down for a
visit when I got one of these calls. She
saw me run through the house, tossing
toys into bins, pushing tricycles, a
Batmobile, roller skates and a Big Wheels
with my feet into the corners of the den.
I made beds and fluffed pillows. I opened
a hallway door and called for the dog to
come sit in the coat closet while
potential buyers were in the house, a
command she'd become accustomed to. I
mashed brown bananas and threw a
Bisquick Banana Bread into the oven to
infuse the house with a, “We'd be crazy
not to buy this” aroma. When I finished,
my college pal said, “I've never seen
anything like that in my life.”
Sometimes I'd hear prospects complain
about my dining room wall paper with
the blue fruit or the fact that we'd
moved the laundry room upstairs. They'd
said,”Um, that will go” and, “That
makes no sense”. I'd feel defensive, then
sad. I tried to be away as much as
possible during the visits, running to
exotic locations like CVS to look at my
watch to see when it would be safe to
14
Your gym buddy will also
tell you that your new green
yoga pants are a mistake.
It will go something like this:
“Never wear those
green pants again.”
“I also have them in turquoise.”
“Don't wear those either.”
In due time, an engaged couple bought
the house and we rented it back from
them until they were ready to take
possession in August. They promptly
removed the blue fruit wallpaper. On
the wall behind it I had written a note
to my husband: “I love the man who
put up this wallpaper”. A few months
later I packed up the house, tossed an
empty fishbowl (the kids' Betta fish had
died. A stroke of luck, really, not
having to transport him) and we
started our new lives in Babylon. I
joined Fitness Incentive on Main St.,
Babylon, went sporadically and June
and I stayed in touch. She came over
with new trucks for the boys at
Christmastime. My older son
commented, “June's not only our real
estate agent. She's our friend.” She
told me that it would be a good time
to join her at the newly-relocated
Fitness Incentive on Deer Park Avenue
for something called Spin class.
Spin class. I had no idea what that
Spring 2015 FIT to Print
meant. It wasn't aerobics class, it wasn't
“Sweating to the Oldies”. It was this
crazy stationary bicycle thing done in the
dark, to music, with guidance and
motivation by an absurdly high-energy
gal named Carmella. We were hooked. If
we didn't go at least three times a week,
we were bums. On alternate days, we
did the circuit. I added Stretch class at
the suggestion of another gym buddy,
Wendy.
So, if this is all so great, why the need
for a gym buddy? Because there are
snowy mornings when bed sounds a lot
better than, “TURN UP THE RESISTANCE
AND RUN UP THAT HILL.” But you know
that your gym buddy is counting on you
to be there, so you go. Once in a while,
however, you enable. February phone
call:
“Chrissy, it's June. It's too cold, I'm not
going.”
“Ok, but we have to go tomorrow. 8:15”.
And we'd go.
A gym buddy understands that twisted
ankles, knee surgery, hurricanes and
family emergencies are going to take
precedence over the gym, but she helps
you get on track after an absence and
vice versa.
Texts like these happen:
“Pipes broke, house flooded, ceiling
came down. Need the gym bad!”
“OMG - let's do light gym and coffee.
8:15 EFX or treadmill?”
“Either… I am eating hot cross buns.”
<<>>
“EFX. I am getting fatter by the second,
my clothes hate me.”
Your gym buddy will also tell you that
your new green yoga pants are a
mistake. After a workout, it will go
something like this:
“Never wear those green pants again.”
“I also have them in turquoise.”
“Don't wear those either.”
After a too-long absence from the gym,
my buddy and I are making our
triumphant return on Monday. We will
not let each other back out, because
there's no house to sell, no kids with
colds. A