Corner of Bourbon & Division

So I'm at the gym today for a session with my trainer, when a guy in a fluorescent yellow t-shirt goes by as I'm working on my bench press. I've seen this guy once before, shared the bench with him so we could both get our training in. I don't think we exchanged more than three words.

Today, the guy is obviously spitting mad. G, my trainer, sees that he's in a bad mood, and asks what's up. YellowShirt!Guy is banging the free weights about, looks up, glares and says something to the effect that someone at the front of the gym was rude to him and told him to "shut up." He added that he wasn't accustomed to being talked to that way in a gym.

I was surprised, because the staff at the gym are usually super nice and super polite. I couldn't imagine anyone telling this guy to shut up. When G asked him who it was, he continued banging his weights about and said angrily: "I'm not telling you." He repeated this even when G took him aside to try to calm him down.

Nothing to do except shrug and move on. So we did, except that the guy was taking up a lot of space with his anger management problem. Eventually G asked him again who it was who'd been rude to him as he was walking by, and he turned, pointed right at me, and said: "It's HER!"

O_O

My jaw dropped. You could seriously have knocked me over with a feather, and the same went for G. I have NO idea where this guy got that idea. I hadn't seen him at all that day, let alone spoken to him (in fact, I don't think I ever spoke to him directly), but here he was convinced that I had been inexcusably rude to him.

So G left me to do some pull-ups and took the guy aside again to set him straight (since G knew perfectly well where I'd been the entire time), which resulted in YellowShirt!Guy storming off and leaving the gym after kicking up another fuss at the front desk.

No fewer than four people, three of them staff members (and one the gym manager) came to see what the hell was up after that, and they were all equally as perplexed. I'm pretty well-known at the gym now, and since I'm always friendly and unfailingly polite, they all came to the conclusion that the guy was obviously mistaken and might well be either crazy or high on some sort of substance. YellowShirt!Guy is known for doing really intensive weight training, and a lot of the trainers think he might be taking something (I'm guessing steroids) that make him act really crazy.

Nonetheless, I was unsettled. If G hadn't intervened, it seemed a lot of them were concerned the guy was actually going to go off on me and commit some sort of random act of violence.

Appointment at the gym this afternoon. Am now a temporary resident of the Land of Owie™.

Writing has been a slog. With luck, that will improve.

It's weird to be off again after only two days of work. I think I'm going to enjoy this new schedule. :)

( Depressing stuff that's not all that interesting )

Okay, what the hell?

I am practically bouncing off the walls, and yet I can't quite focus enough to do the online training I could be doing.

I blame the gym, and Aaron in particular. I haven't worked so hard during a workout in quite a while. There was a LOT of cardio. There was the elliptical, then running, then freaking running up the stairs, then suicide runs, and then more on the elliptical (all of this interspersed with various strength excersises).

I expected to be tired after that (and I was), but I appear to have gotten a second wind about forty minutes ago, and I'm still going strong. Colour me perplexed.

luvenditti, I did mention your play to him (and mentioned that you and he had bonded over Robot Chicken back in the day), but he said he likely won't be able to attend as dress rehearsals for and/or the actual performance of Cobra: The Musical will be taking place the same nights.

Okay. Must try to focus. I am currently attempting to learn proper interviewing techniques. I'm going back in.

So one of my trainers at the gym, Aaron, is a theatre guy. I didn't know this until yesterday. He acts and directs in the Montreal Shakespeare Theatre Company which does adaptations of Shakespeare for elementary and high schools.

More importantly, he and his other troupe are performing this year in Cobra: The Musical during the Montreal Fringe Festival. I'm definitely going to see this, even if I'm planning on giving the G.I. Joe movie a miss because it looks dreadful. Aaron plays Cobra Commander. :D

The dates are June 12, 14, 16, 20 and 21st (that one's a matinee). luvenditti's play is on June 12, so that's a no-go, but is anyone interested in any of the other days to go with me? Tickets are $11.00.


:::ETA:::

It's a small world! Bruce, the guy who played the Lion part of my Chimera at Capricornucopia, is also in Cobra: The Musical. I just saw him on the cast page.