The Gym

So as many of you know, our home is located just a few blocks south of the University of Minnesota's west campus. This is ideal for us not only so that Jason is minutes away from the law building, but also because it's just a short 15 minute walk in order for us to get to the school's rec center. And that is what this entry is all about.

We've had an interesting experience with the gym so far. Our first experience going we needed to register me for a gym pass as well, so first thing when we got there we asked if we could do that. They told me they needed to see my marriage certificate. At a school gym. A school gym would not give me a pass without proof - No, not even proof, because I had my license which is proof - with a MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE. I seriously just need to fold up one of my marriage certificates and carry it around in my wallet. I'm going to need to show it for everything I do for the rest of my life. So as you can likely tell, I did not have my marriage certificate with me, but thankfully it was family day at the gym so I could get in for free. So we get inside, we get changed into our gym clothes, head up to the work-out room and get stopped as we walk inside. Both Jason and I were wearing shirts without sleeves which is against the dress code for the gym. So they gave us these hideous yellow polo shirts to wear "just this once".

The second time we go we decide we'll try taking the bus. It's good to know the bus routes and system since we're definitely not going to want to walk to the gym once winter comes. Unfortunately we missed the one that picks up by our house, or at least we stood there for a long time and it never showed up, so we walked further into the campus and picked up another one of the buses. It dropped us off about 3 blocks away from the gym, which was fine, we walked the ways and got inside, with marriage certificate in hand so that I can get my gym pass. If only we'd known that getting my gym pass was going to take 45 minutes. Once I had it and we were inside I went downstairs to get my locker which unfortunately took about another 15-20 minutes because I wasn't registered for a locker properly. So now an hour and twenty minutes to and hour and a half after we left for the gym, we finally get to work out, which we did for about 40 minutes.

At this point Jason is just sort of annoyed and is saying "I sure hope we can have a smooth experience at the gym one of these days" and I'm like shushing him, telling him not to worry about anything, these have just been silly bumps, we're just getting used to things, everything will be fine the next time we go.

The next time we go we decided we'd wake up at 7am and hop onto the bus by 7:25 get in a workout nice and early so Jason has plenty of time to get home and get ready for his classes that start at 11. And we decided we were going to take the same bus, but going the opposite direction because we know that there is a bus that comes up that way that drops off right in front of the rec center instead of us having to walk the three blocks (remember we're trying to get a system figured out for the winter). So the bus picks us up like 2 minutes late, no biggie, and we start going along. After about 5 minutes we're both like, "We're no where near the school... weird...". Another 10 minutes pass and Jason says, "There is no way, even in the coldest weather would I take the bus this way, it's totally unnecessary to add on this much time just to be dropped off in the front" and another 15 minutes pass... we're in Uptown, which is definitely in the opposite direction of where we're supposed to be and the bus driver stops the bus and tells us "This is the end of the line". It is now eight o'clock and we're in Uptown, Jason is upset because we wasted so much time and we won't be able to make it to the gym anymore because by the time we get back to where we should be it's going to be like nine o'clock. Luckily a bus drives up that I usually take to get home from school, so we hop onto that bus and it takes us right by my school and so from there I know my way and I know what we're doing. Then we ended up finding another bus that would take us straight to the University! It was about 8:15 and Jason was like, Lets go for it! So we ended up getting to the gym by 8:30, we got in a quick morning workout and when we were done we decided to WALK home.

We've been to the gym two more times since then and we've walked both ways each time. We figure a fifteen minute walk isn't so bad, haha. On Friday or Saturday when we get back to the gym again we'll attempt busing there and back - one of these days we WILL ride the bus to the gym and home and everything will go smoothly.