So I’m normally a pretty friendly person- ask most of my friends how we met & they’ll tell you that I walked right up to them & said hello. I’ll introduce myself with a smile & a happy attitude & we’ll become friends. However, ask my college classmates & my fellow gym goers if I’m a friendly person & you’ll get mixed answers. Main reason for this change? When I’m out having fun, I’m having fun, but when I’m somewhere to work, I’m there to work. My entire demeanor changes, I’m not interested in making friends-I’m interested in taking my notes or getting my workout in.
Unfortunately, apparently my facial expression & my body language does not seem to be getting across to these people… well, men. I’m probably the youngest person who uses the pool at the times I regularly go. I’m also one of the few women who swim… so needless to say, the dating scene is slim pickin’- unfortunately that makes me one of the most eligible people there. The rest of the people are mainly older men- anywhere between 30-64 years of age. I know this because the 64 year old told me his age & still expected I’d be jumping at the chance to date him. Some people have too much self esteem.
When I work out, I work out for the full 35 minutes non-stop. Non stop means no breaks. No breaks as in I don’t sit at the edge of the pool. As in I don’t want to stop at the end of the pool & chat it up with anyone. I know so far it just sounds like I’m complaining, but it’s my blog… so I can complain if I want to… & now you’ll understand why I complain. Here are the different things that I have had people do to try to talk to me. I figure I’ll put them in list form. Bear in mind the reason why these are annoying is because they’re stopping me from my non stop work out since I have to stop, & be just polite enough to answer them. Also, I essentially touch the side of the pool only long enough to push off & keep swimming, so when they try to talk to me, I have to stop, come back to the pool wall, & respond to them. It’s actually kind of rude of them to even try to talk- it’s just poorly timed. & for me, if a man doesn’t show enough consideration to see I’m busy and keep from interrupting, they aren’t someone I’d be interested in dating because that tells me he doesn’t pay enough attention to care about my priorities. So here we go:
I swim up to the edge of the pool. As I do, men have done any of these things:
Trying to talk to be by saying:
- “Excuse me, what time is it?” I’m in a pool… no watch! & there’s a clock up on the wall that you don’t need glasses to see!!! You saw me wearing glasses dummy!!! How can I see it if they’re off?
- “So how long have you been swimming?” He was in the pool BEFORE I got in it, so he should know.
- “You float really well.”
- “Do you come here often?”
- “Hi. I’m-” To which I reply a terse ‘hi’ before I keep going.
- “Where did you learn to swim?”
- “Are you dating anyone?”
- “How many boyfriends do you have?”
- “So what do you do for a living?”
- “Do you ever stop?”
- “Why don’t you take a break?”
- “How you doin’ tonight?”
- “Maybe I can take you out to dinner sometime.” I don’t know you! You could be a rapist for all I know! What woman goes out to dinner with someone they met 5 minutes ago- he didn’t even tell me his name!
So those are the things that I’ve been asked, so now here are the actions that they’ve done whenever I come to their side of the pool that they’re just sitting at, taking up space (that’s another annoyance of mine- it’s a 3 lane pool that’s been cut down the middle by a dividing buoy, so there are 2 regular sized lanes, & two smaller lanes from the third lane that was cut down the middle. Not much space in the pool- & they’re just sitting there taking up the entire lane to sit there & try to look cool!). Most of these aren’t so annoying as them trying to talk to me, but they’re annoying because they’re still taking up space that others are waiting for to work out in.
- They try to make eye contact (not so bad, just stupid, since they’ve seen me with glasses on- so it’s not like I can see their eyes- duh)
- They just sit there & flex- literally flex like a hee-man pose- every time I come over
- They do flips- flips!- in the deeper end of the pool. Problem is they’re not very graceful & create lots of waves that actually make it harder for me to do my laps. They’re doing it for attention- & they’re gonna get said attention too- when I slap them!
- They swim into my lane nearly running into me- over & over & over & over again! & they can swim in a straight line! I know they can because I saw them do it when I was waiting for a lane! Swimming next to a man, never once did they almost run into the man in the next lane.
- They race me- without me racing back! They’ll sit there at the edge of the pool, wait for me to swim back, & then race to the other end, beating me there. Then they just stare at me & wait for me to come back to that side. The annoying this is that they splash so much when they try to beat me to the other side that I get thrown by their waves into the edge of the pool!
- They splash around when I come over to the side they’re sitting at.
All I want to do is swim & loose weight- not get heckled & hassled at the gym! Now that I’ve vented, I feel better. Anyway, I think that’s enough.
Sincerely & much calmer,
Kim
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