Is your towel scented?

I forgot that I had this blog until I had an interesting thing happen to me at the gym today.

When I started this blog I was living in Illinois. I have since moved to Massachusetts, so today's blogpost is from one of the new gyms I workout at. This gym is pretty old and has a tiny pool. In fact their pool is only 20 yards long. They have to schedule Adult lap swim and it is usually for only an hour, so it can get crowded.

Today I headed to the gym to get a swim in. I had a towel with me and I was walking to put it on the bench and get into the pool. As I was walking to the shallow end the lifeguard called me back and asked, "Is your towel scented?" I said, "I'm sorry, what?" "Is your towel scented?" "Um, I did wash it yesterday, but it doesn't really smell. Why?" "Someone complained about your towel, do you mind if I put it in the closet here?" "Um, sure, but I use unscented fabric softner sheets, so I'm not sure what she is smelling." From the pool rudely, "Sorry, but I have a very sensitive nose and it's bothering me." I didn't want to cause any trouble, so I allowed the lifeguard to put my smelly towel in the closet.

After I was done swimming I decided to go in the hot tub. I got out and asked if I could use my towel real quick before heading into the hot tub. The lifeguard got it for me and warned me that the lady with the sensitive nose was in the hot tub. I told her I hope I smelled ok because I had washed my bathing suit the same way as my towel. At this point lap swimming was done and water aerobics had started with some oldies, but goodies playing from the boom box. I get into the hot tub and this is what I see:

The whole time I was in the hot tub she had her eyes closed, ears plugged and looked ticked off at the world. Then she got out of the hot tub, never unplugging her ears, never opening her water, bumped into the wall, leaned against the wall for about two minutes all while plugging her ears and keeping her eyes closed. I got the lifeguards attention in case something was wrong. Then her eyes popped open, she unplugged her ears, smiled at me and said, "Have a great evening." Talk about Bizarre.

GYM ETIQUETTE TIP FOR THE DAY #1- If you are sensitive to smell, you might not want to swim in a pool full of strong chemicals that I can smell when I walk in the door of the gym. Think it might have been the chlorine and not my towel? Just sayin'

GYM ETIQUETTE TIP FOR THE DAY #2- If you are sensitive to sound, you might not want to stay in the pool area during water aerobics and spend a couple bucks and invest in ear plugs, you won't look so silly.

With all this said I did feel bad for the lady and while in the hot tub looking at her, I did pray for her and all her sensitivities.

Please send me all your gym pet peeves, horror stories and they might be featured on this blog. Please email me at gymetiquette@gmail.com You can send me pet peeves from the gym, races, working out outside. If it has to do with working out, send me your stories. Let's educate the clueless here.

I found some old emails with more gym horror stories and running pet peeves. Stay tuned.