Will Bargain for Cheap Cardio

“Um, ok.   If we can’t do Zumba, or Spinning what can we do here?” I asked the teenage girl with the giant bow in her hair.

“You can do Step Aerobics!” she replied cheerily.

“Ok, fine.  We’ll do that,” I conceded as I exhaled slowly.

After our fiasco with the YMCA, Kelly and I decided that we wanted to find another Zumba class at a cheaper gym.  Kelly used her detective skills and came up with the Greentree Community Center.  It was pretty close to where we lived and for residents of the city of Greentree it was only $50 per year.  We are not residents of Greentree so we would have to pay $200 a year, which is still cheaper than the YMCA (and let’s face it, the guest passes and our nerve had run out).  Kelly had found a schedule online and it had Zumba at 6 o’clock on Thursdays and at 6:30 there was spinning.  So after work one Thursday we headed over to the center to try to get in for Zumba.  We are not the most punctual people and we ended up heading over to Greentree at 5:45 and arrived there at 6:05.  Crap!

We walked in, again with our heads held high, and determined to get a good workout.  If they wouldn’t let us in for Zumba we would just do Spinning. No big deal, we like bike riding and we did need to train for our big bike ride coming up anyway.  Kelly took the lead with the gatekeeper this time.  She was a teenage girl with a giant, permanent, smile on her face, a giant bow in her hair, and a far off look in her eyes.  Immediately we could tell that she would be MUCH easier to deal with than then front doorman at the Y. 

“Hi, we want to go to the Zumba class, I know we’re a little late, but can we still go?” asked Kelly in a very sweet tone.

“Uh, no,” replied bow, “They started five minutes ago and you have to be here right as they start or you’re not allowed in.

Kelly and I exchanged glances.   We had expected this to happen since we were late, so we had a backup plan in place.  Kelly smiled and launched right into it better than we had rehearsed in the car.  “No problem, I saw online that you have a Spinning class that starts at 6:30 and if we can’t go to Zumba then I guess we will just do that instead.”

“Uh, no,” bow chirped with a smile.  “You have to sign up for Spinning at the beginning of the session.  Each session is six weeks long and this is the second week.  We only have 12 bikes and we have 10 people signed up this session.”

“Perfect!” I said.  “We could just sneak in the back and use the two bikes that aren’t being used and it won’t even matter.”

“Uh, no,” said bow.  “One of those bikes is used for the teacher and you really have to sign up at the beginning of the session.”

Recoiled, Kelly and I discussed our situation away from the desk.  We had not planned for this when we were going through the possible scenarios on the way to the center. 

In a whisper Kelly said, “What do we do now?!  We are here already, I made sure I had my $5 so that we could get in and now we don’t have a class to go to!”

I replied, “I know, this is crazy!  Plus, who the heck wears a bow that huge in their hair after they start dressing themselves!?  I mean, really?” (It is important to know that when a girl tells me no, I get catty.)

“Seriously!  It looks ridiculous!” Kelly snapped right back (apparently, she gets a little catty too), “and what is she in a cult or something because she is way too cheerful!?”

“I know!  She is like the kids that work at Chick-Fil-A, only worse, she has a bow!”

“Ha ha!  Ok, maybe we can just work out on their cardio equipment.  That way we can scope it out and see if we like it.  Maybe we can peek and see what the Zumba and Spinning looks like so we can sign up next session.”

“Good idea.”

Back at the desk, Kelly started talking with bow-girl again.  “Can we just go in and do a regular workout?  We won’t do a class, just work out.”

“Uh, no.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” I said while rolling my eyes.

“You have to be a member to work out, you can pay $5 and do a class, but only members with signed waivers can be on the equipment,” explained cheerful bow.

“Um, ok.   If we can’t do Zumba, or Spinning what can we do here?” I asked the teenage girl with the giant bow in her hair.

“You can do Step Aerobics!” she replied cheerily.

“Ok, fine.  We’ll do that,” I conceded.

To be continued…..