The other voices in my head

Earlier this summer, my mp3 player took a dive. This was very annoying because I had just gotten a new stereo for my car that had an auxillary jack. The new stereo turned out to be a pain in the butt when it came to whether or not it would eject a cd. The saving grace was the auxillary jack. At least it was until my mp3 player died. Well, those of you who have read some of my other summer postings know that my car subsequently died, taking the persnickety cd player with it.

Recently, I started using an eliptical trainer at the YMCA. When I ride the stationary bike at home, I read. The mechanics of the trainer are not conducive to reading. So, I tried to revive the dead mp3 player on more time. No luck.

While I really didn't have $100 in my budget to splurge on a new mp3 player, I crunched some numbers and figured I could do it. Besides, it is 'workout incentive'. I can a Sandisk m250. It's got 2gb of space, an fm radio, and a voice recorder

This morning I preloaded it with several hours of audio programs from Audible.com. I used to be a huge utilizer of the service years ago, but got away from it when my life just got crazier and crazier. Tonight while I tortured myself on the trainer I listened to an interview from NPR with Robin Williams. I had forgotten how much fun it was to put the ear buds in and enter your own little world. Plus, Robin Williams is so hysterically funny I would forget that no one else could hear the jokes, and I'd laugh out loud. It probably looked pretty funny to other people: this woman using the eliptical trainer periodically laughing out loud.

I'm enjoying getting back into the exercise routine stuff. I go to the gym at work several times a week for muscle fitness. A couple of times a week I use the eliptical trainer, and some other equipment as a full blown excuse to use the hot tub, at the YMCA. I also ride the stationary bike at home almost every morning of the week. What I dislike most about going to the gym is the other people. The gym at work is usually not very crowded by the mid afternoon slot I choose to visit it. However, the YMCA always has a fair number of people hanging around.

This evening, I was trying to get past a wicked headache after my workout. I was drying off from the hot tub when these two teenage girls came into the aisle bringing their innane babble with them. I was literally physically in the middle of their conversation about what junk they were going to take on their school field trip with them. Pardon me while I growl.

Over the weekend, I was trying to relax in the hot tub. Unfortunately, the tub is on the same deck as the swimming pool, and weekends are chock full of children's swimming lessons. It's very difficult to unwind with the sound of three year old joyous shreeking. Then, when I went to change in the locker room, I had to deal with similar sweet sounds along with dodging the obstacle course of running toddlers.

Too bad I can't set ear buds permanently lodged into my ear canals so that I don't have to worry about taking them out for pools and showers. I would much rather listen to voices in my head than the voices outside of my head.