It's been a productive week, this first one in 2015. Joe and I both decided to eat less, with the hope of losing weight. I'm down three pound so far, which makes me happy.
I had two doctor appointments January 5, one a checkup with my regular MD, a pretty Southern young woman, a resident. I've noted in the past that she always wears makeup. I don't know why that surprises me. The second appointment was with the cardiologist, a charming, handsome, Italian-American with a drawl and a sense of humor. Lately, I see a technician and a nurse practitioner before I get to the real doctor. They always ask a bunch of questions, which elicit in me a sense of gratitude for my good life. "Are all your needs being met?" "Do you feel safe in your household?" The nurse was a young woman named Amalita, with an Italian accent. I didn't want to talk to her at first, but then I noticed she was wearing something lacy under her white lab coat. I asked if her mother was Amalia, and she told me she was named for an opera star her mother admired. She was charming and beautiful.
I finally admitted to Dr. Renzelli and Amalita that, yes, I did sometimes have chest pain, not like my heart attack nearly twelve years ago, but more a tightness, coupled with breathing hard. I noticed it riding my bicycle up some of the steeper hills in Morgantown. And sometimes, when I walk to the convenience store in the morning to buy newspapers, I stop walking back up the hill to our house, because I feel out of breath. I don't know that a totally in shape 65-year old can do better than I do.
They've been worried about me. I have a stent in my left anterior descending artery that was designed to last eight to ten years. February 9 will be twelve years since it was installed. So I'm going to do a stress test Friday next week to see if everything is working the way it's supposed to. If not, they have to go back into the artery and unclog it. I don't have any illusions at 65 about life expectancy and things that can go wrong, but if there is a blockage, and they can clear it, I'll be better off.
Tuesday Joe and I went out in snow and cold weather to run a bunch of errands. We bought Bubbie's Pickles at Mountain People's Co-op, sourdough at New Day Bakery, checked my post office box, picked up Joe's dry cleaning at Massullo's, bought groceries at Kroger, stopped at the bank and the gas station, and found me a new gym.
The gym is in the shopping center with Kroger. "Brad" greeted me at the door. He's a big blond hunk, maybe 25, wearing a three-inch long silver cross on a huge chain around his neck. He's a graduate of the program at the gym I just left, and spoke fondly of two of the faculty there, one of whom couldn't say "Hello" to me in the twenty-eight months I worked out there. I signed up for a year, with two months free. I asked about working out a few times with a trainer. Brad mentioned two graduates of The Human Performance Lab, probably my two favorite ex-grad students. I'm sorry they don't have better jobs, with their masters degree in Exercise Physiology. I'm meeting with Ariel, a thin, pretty, talkative native West Virginia woman tomorrow. We were actual friends at HPL.
Joe and I came home from more than two hours in cold weather, and I fell asleep for over an hour. We had been talking about going to a trivia night at a local restaurant that people in the congregation go to. I was exhausted and not feeling well, so I let Joe go alone.
Now we are in the grip of the Polar Vortex. I took the car yesterday to buy papers in the morning, and ran out to the street to pick up the mail in the afternoon. That was it for outdoors. It snowed on and off all day. Today, it's clear and pretty out, but in the three hours since sunrise the temperature has only gone from -1 to +1 F., and the wind chill is steady at -10. It's supposed to go up to 19 later this afternoon. Our intrepid cleaning woman is driving over the mountains from Garrett County, Maryland to be with us this afternoon, so I'll be heading to the mall to get out of her way. I may go to a swing dance class tonight at the University. It will be my first time there.
Both Joe and I are working on our health and our social life this year. We've taken steps in the last week. All that's keeping us from being out more socially and walking outside is the bitter cold weather.
Showing posts with label gyms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gyms. Show all posts
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Thursday, December 18, 2014
The Gym and The Holidays
Back in Baltimore, we lived in a segregated society. In the days of smaller businesses, we had our own doctors, pharmacists, dentists. If Jews exercised, it was at the Jewish Community Center. Most of our classmates at school were Jews. Despite that, there was always a Christmas pageant, Christmas carols, Easter, and in some classes, until Madelyn Murray, we had to say The Lord’s Prayer and read from a Christian Bible. In high school, we had our own Jewish youth groups. Fraternization with Christians was frowned upon.
In college, my friends were most likely to be Christian, at least in name. Those of us not from super wealthy families at the private university I attended tended to hang together. None of us were particularly religious, anyway.
In Los Angeles, most of the “white” people were Jewish. Everyone lived in their own ethnic ghetto, with Jews being the most powerful group in the city. We had two synagogues for gays and lesbians, among over a hundred synagogues in Los Angeles County. It was a good place to immerse oneself in Jewish culture and redefine it in a personal way. Public schools closed for Yom Kippur.
In West Virginia, the Jewish community is small, and probably shrinking. There is a bubble of liberal Judaism in the South Park neighborhood of Morgantown, but throughout the state, Jews are invisible by choice. In Morgantown, the local paper does feature articles about Chanuka and Rosh Hashana. This year West Virginia University’s homecoming parade and football game coincided with Yom Kippur. Morgantown High’s homecoming parade was on a Wednesday night, Rosh Hashana. A congregant told me that students and teachers were advised that they would not get an excused absence the next day for Rosh Hashana.
This brings me to the gym. I joined in the summer of 2012, right after we moved here. The gym is through WVU, designed for people over sixty and people with a heart condition. I was a perfect candidate. There are four people working in the office. Graduate and undergraduate students are out on the floor, chatting with the oldsters and taking our pulse and blood pressure periodically.
I think the regular workers were surprised that I was the husband of the new rabbi in town. The University has a non-discrimination policy for LGBT people in place, so there was no kickback. One of the men who works there, who rarely comes out of the office, has almost never spoken to me. The woman in charge, and the two other men who work there were friendly enough. They are all religious Christians, probably Evangelicals. I haven’t discussed their specific religious beliefs in great detail.. One of the men does discuss his faith with others at the gym, and when he is in charge, the radio music in the weight room mysteriously changes from classic rock to a Christian station. I wasn’t always comfortable with the talk of football and hunting among the students and workers, but I understood that this was a gym.
What changed was the court decision in the Fourth Circuit that led to the legality of same-gender marriage in West Virginia. I felt that the two men in the office who were moderately friendly avoided me after that decision.
The students are exercise physiology majors. Two of the grad students admitted to me that they hadn’t read a book all the way through since eighth grade. None of the ones I spoke to, either in 2012 or 2014 voted in the election. None of them read a newspaper. I told some of them about the marriage decision, and most were supportive. Only one actually lit up with a big smile and said “Congratulations!” The kids do know about both professional and WVU sports teams.
One of the old guys who works out regularly is a right-wing loudmouth. He comes in and pontificates loudly about his hatred of President Obama, and once called Hillary Clinton “a twit.” No one ever disagrees with him. I did once, and we got into a heated argument. Someone pulled us apart. We are too old to actually get into a fight; we are both heart patients. I felt like I was blamed for the altercation.
We have free speech and freedom of religion in this country. What people don’t get is that there are consequences. I don’t need to be in a place where I’m uncomfortable. Yesterday,I told the woman who runs the gym, who was rarely there when I was the last few weeks, that I wasn’t coming back in 2015. She was surprised when I gave her my reasons. She didn’t think I would mind hearing Christian radio, or that I would be snubbed, or find someone’s ongoing right-wing rants offensive.
I went in yesterday, the first day of Chanuka, and gave the staff members who were there and the two grad students (the undergrads are gone, finished for the semester) bags of chocolate coins from Israel. They just looked at me. The Christmas tree is up in the office, and one of the men asked me to attend the Christmas party Friday. Maybe I’m picking a fight where there doesn’t need to be one, but, no, I don’t want to be at your Christmas party.
Maybe the problem is just West Virginia. Christianity, particularly the anti-gay type, is the State religion. Maybe I should stay and continue to educate people. I’d rather keep looking for a more comfortable gym. We may move to South Park next year, close to the synagogue, and the one liberal neighborhood in the 250 mile stretch between Pittsburgh and Charleston.
In college, my friends were most likely to be Christian, at least in name. Those of us not from super wealthy families at the private university I attended tended to hang together. None of us were particularly religious, anyway.
In Los Angeles, most of the “white” people were Jewish. Everyone lived in their own ethnic ghetto, with Jews being the most powerful group in the city. We had two synagogues for gays and lesbians, among over a hundred synagogues in Los Angeles County. It was a good place to immerse oneself in Jewish culture and redefine it in a personal way. Public schools closed for Yom Kippur.
In West Virginia, the Jewish community is small, and probably shrinking. There is a bubble of liberal Judaism in the South Park neighborhood of Morgantown, but throughout the state, Jews are invisible by choice. In Morgantown, the local paper does feature articles about Chanuka and Rosh Hashana. This year West Virginia University’s homecoming parade and football game coincided with Yom Kippur. Morgantown High’s homecoming parade was on a Wednesday night, Rosh Hashana. A congregant told me that students and teachers were advised that they would not get an excused absence the next day for Rosh Hashana.
This brings me to the gym. I joined in the summer of 2012, right after we moved here. The gym is through WVU, designed for people over sixty and people with a heart condition. I was a perfect candidate. There are four people working in the office. Graduate and undergraduate students are out on the floor, chatting with the oldsters and taking our pulse and blood pressure periodically.
I think the regular workers were surprised that I was the husband of the new rabbi in town. The University has a non-discrimination policy for LGBT people in place, so there was no kickback. One of the men who works there, who rarely comes out of the office, has almost never spoken to me. The woman in charge, and the two other men who work there were friendly enough. They are all religious Christians, probably Evangelicals. I haven’t discussed their specific religious beliefs in great detail.. One of the men does discuss his faith with others at the gym, and when he is in charge, the radio music in the weight room mysteriously changes from classic rock to a Christian station. I wasn’t always comfortable with the talk of football and hunting among the students and workers, but I understood that this was a gym.
What changed was the court decision in the Fourth Circuit that led to the legality of same-gender marriage in West Virginia. I felt that the two men in the office who were moderately friendly avoided me after that decision.
The students are exercise physiology majors. Two of the grad students admitted to me that they hadn’t read a book all the way through since eighth grade. None of the ones I spoke to, either in 2012 or 2014 voted in the election. None of them read a newspaper. I told some of them about the marriage decision, and most were supportive. Only one actually lit up with a big smile and said “Congratulations!” The kids do know about both professional and WVU sports teams.
One of the old guys who works out regularly is a right-wing loudmouth. He comes in and pontificates loudly about his hatred of President Obama, and once called Hillary Clinton “a twit.” No one ever disagrees with him. I did once, and we got into a heated argument. Someone pulled us apart. We are too old to actually get into a fight; we are both heart patients. I felt like I was blamed for the altercation.
We have free speech and freedom of religion in this country. What people don’t get is that there are consequences. I don’t need to be in a place where I’m uncomfortable. Yesterday,I told the woman who runs the gym, who was rarely there when I was the last few weeks, that I wasn’t coming back in 2015. She was surprised when I gave her my reasons. She didn’t think I would mind hearing Christian radio, or that I would be snubbed, or find someone’s ongoing right-wing rants offensive.
I went in yesterday, the first day of Chanuka, and gave the staff members who were there and the two grad students (the undergrads are gone, finished for the semester) bags of chocolate coins from Israel. They just looked at me. The Christmas tree is up in the office, and one of the men asked me to attend the Christmas party Friday. Maybe I’m picking a fight where there doesn’t need to be one, but, no, I don’t want to be at your Christmas party.
Maybe the problem is just West Virginia. Christianity, particularly the anti-gay type, is the State religion. Maybe I should stay and continue to educate people. I’d rather keep looking for a more comfortable gym. We may move to South Park next year, close to the synagogue, and the one liberal neighborhood in the 250 mile stretch between Pittsburgh and Charleston.
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