In the past four days, I have visited four different gyms and exercised in three of them. I have accomplished this using day passes and free gym trials, sustaining half-hour gym tours from overzealous fitness managers. Gold's Gym was disappointing, Bally Total Fitness (located in a shopping mall) was downright frightening, and L.A. Fitness proved to be an option I would gladly consider, had I the money. The only parking for L.A. Fitness is metered, the water fountains are filtered, a cleaning staff sanitizes the carpets every night... To make matters complicated, I am not allowed to use the gym at school until next week. I don't want to purchase a gym membership until I find out whether or not I will get the personal trainer job that I have hoped to snag for a month now. You may ask, why not just forget about the gym until then? Not this girl.
I have this whole week to become acquainted with Silver Spring and to find a job. I have my first job interview tomorrow afternoon and, if that doesn't work out, well I don't have any alternate plans. I am mostly bored, and my housemates are jealous that I have nothing to do. Believe me, I wish I could be making money and meeting new people. Instead, I spent the day getting a purple pedicure at the most ridiculous and palacial nail salon that could possibly be located in a shopping center, visited two grocery stores in search of blueberries (I got the last 4 oz. container at Safeway), and read a hefty chunk of The Assistant by Bernard Malamud.
I finally received my poster order from Allposters.com this morning, which was exciting until I opened the package to find an unwanted poster in place of one of the three that I ordered. I was very confused when I saw a 12x12 photograph of a blue fence with hearts in place of the Matisse that I purchased. I called their customer service hotline, prepared to be angry and demanding, but the friendly and helpful woman on the line inspired only calm. She apologized profusely for the mistake, told me I could keep my unwanted poster, and shipped my desired poster at 2nd day delivery. I didn't even need to get nasty with her. Allposters.com remains my poster website of choice. Businesses beware, I am the customer service critic extraordinaire.
Wish me luck on my job interview!
