Getting an education

We got a notification in the mail a week or so ago that we had been chosen to participate in a transportation survey. We were asked to write down every place we went today, starting at 3:00 a.m. and ending at 2:59 tomorrow morning. Ours was one of 3,000 households randomly selected from some 655,000 in the area, and then I understand that a certain number of those will be selected for further study, which involves placing a GPS device in your car.

Kind of interesting. Today was our survey day. Mine is pretty simple, but I imagine Bob will easily fill up his page and maybe run out of space--he does a lot of driving in one day. Mine is mostly going to work and then going home, although today I walked across the street to get a Diet Coke, and I wrote it down!

When I walked out the door to go get the Coke, a St. Patrick's Day float drove by, blaring Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl," and I almost got run over by a car that just drifted through the intersection without stopping. Well, I say "almost got run over," but I did, of course, look before crossing the street, and would have gotten run over if I hadn't noticed that the driver was paying absolutely no attention.

I imagine there's a lot of that going on today. The street was closed a block or so away from work this morning, and I had to go around another block to get there; the streets will still be closed when I leave--the parade was at 11:00, and then there's a "block party" going on until evening. Bob said, "So, I'll expect you around when, midnight?" And I said yeah, right, I'm going to be right out there in the thick of it, wearing Mardi Gras beads and drinking green beer.

Last night I went to the health club and it was so much more pleasant! When I got there at about 6:45, there weren't any classes going on at all. There were a few women on the machines, and I grabbed a treadmill and watched a bit of some kind of courtroom show--I have no idea what it was. I'm getting an interesting (to me) education on television there. I usually just watch whatever's on when I get there, and don't bother to change the channel, although I do remember one night when, being stuck between someone watching a music video show on BET on one side, and some really inane game show on the other, I really wished I'd grabbed a remote control when I came in.

I watched some of "Turner and Hootch" on Saturday, which was kind of fun, and last night, after the courtroom show, there was that "Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" sitcom, that I'd never seen. And which, frankly, I wouldn't voluntarily watch again . . .

The yoga class started at 7:00, so I was watching the sitcom via closed captioning, which is sort of weird. I'd much rather do that--and have everyone else watching that way, too, of course--than have all of the televisions' sound on at once. Most of the women seem aware that there are other people in the world than themselves, but some, like the woman last week who wanted to be able to hear the television over the aerobics class downstairs, aren't.

But it sort of looks like if I keep to Tuesdays and Thursdays, it won't be a problem. As long as they don't change the class schedule, of course.

After I walked on the treadmill and did the weight circuit, I sat in the whirlpool for awhile, then cooled off the in pool. Both the pool and the whirlpool were closed over the weekend--the pool for cleaning and the whirlpool for repair--and every time that happens I'm a little worried that they'll close off that part of the club for good.

When I was signing up, the manager told me that that was her biggest headache--the "wet" area in back. This particular location is the only one of this chain in the area that has a pool, and that's the reason I joined. But I guess there's no sense worrying about it. I'll just enjoy it as long as I can.