I've been heard!

Sound carries, especially across a locker room full of gossip mongers. Of course I was listening when the big black lady told Cookie she'd lost her goggles but that they weren't in the Lost 'n Found. So I just said I was eavesdropping when I suggested she check the pool office for them. Might as well be honest.

When I swim I wear ear plugs, sticky white things that keep the water out and also any kind of conversation that's not at an elevated pitch. Half the time I don't hear what people are saying - I nod alot and smile, but most can't hear me either, since they are also wearing ear plugs. When Evil Lifeguard tries to bump me from a lane THEN I REALLY make like I can't hear her. Kind of fun and totally obnoxious at the same time.

Upstairs in the Fitness Center (they tried a couple of years ago to rename it the "Wellness Center" but I think they gave up - sounds like Rehab if you ask me, which, in some ways, it truly is) I wear my shuffle, the volume way up. This is partly to give me ooomph, and partly to block out conversation. It's just that most often I don't care for the chit chat and there are Talkers that don't know how to shut up.

Conversations start out as "WHAT? Sorry - the volume is really loud". SteveArino was trying to say something a few months back and I shouted back at him "Two-hundred dollars?" He went beet red. Maybe you remember the joke about the guy in the bar that tried to talk to the pretty lady a few seats over that dissed him, and on leaving thought to apologize, she gets so tired of being hit on, and "$200" was his response. We're still buds but the embarrassment factor didn't exactly win me any brownie points.

They bought new mats for outside the door to the Fitness Center about a month ago and they were really squishy - no support - they sucked. Why couldn't they replace at least one of the two mats with one that wasn't so squishy, I asked? We complained, of course, among ourselves, and I was told that whoever is in charge said they couldn't do this because "they wouldn't match". So I went to fill out a Suggestion Box form last week, recounting this conversation, saying Isn't That Stupid only to find out that one of the ladies behind the desk was responsible. No brownie points there again, I assure you.

Today I discovered they had switched out one of the mats. I know change is good but choice it better. I've been heard! Jeez Marie this has to be a first.

Listening in on other people's conversations is often amusing, sometimes really irrating (especially if they are really loud), and though the "what factor" of earplugs or a shuffle can be a Godsend, there are those times when we talk and we laugh and we really love and listen closely to the events and the issues that we share. Thanks for listening to me when I need you. I hope that I'm not always so wrapped up inside my own stupid head that I listen and tell you, too, that I care.