Exercise & Mesmerize

We are members of this big gym called the Omni, which is right next door to our church. What a convenient location... a one stop shop to exercise the body and the soul. What wholistic ministry.

The Omni has been making some major renovations- it looks amazing inside. It's huge, and they've just gotten all new weights, weight machines, and cardio machines. They are now equipped with the cardio machines that each have a TV on them. They're called CARDIO THEATER. You can now watch any show on cable as you treadmill, ellipticize, stair-step, or bike. Wow, that's pretty crazy. I first saw those kinds of machines back when I was a personal trainer in P-Town. We got all kinds of catalogues and went to fitness shows where different companies displayed those machines.

While they are nice, you've got to say that they definitely cut down on the community in a gym. Yeah, you're being entertained while you're torturing yourself on your machine of choice, but where's the comraderie with fellow sufferers? Where's the casual chatting with a person next to you? I guess a lot of this kind of atmosphere ended with the invention of the personal tape player, the CD player, the ipod... but I still have a rosy conception of exercise as a community event. I guess you really need to go to an aerobics or spinning class to find that sort of thing. Now your comraderie is to be found with your TV. I feel like this is the gym of the future. Welcome to the Jetsons.

Josh and I are heading to Covenant this weekend for graduation!! Can't wait!! I'm hoping that Camille Halstrom is still reading names... anyone who was present at my graduation in 2005 will understand what I mean. I am positive that the drama present in the pronounciation of "BETSY-- ANN-- HALUSKA" has never been topped. I felt like I had just been awarded the Nobel Prize for how she pronounced my name. My first instinct was to leap across the stage and do a ballerina-like twirl. I felt like my walk across the stage to meet Niel Nielson's outstretched hand needed a little something extra to merit that drama. Thank you, Camille. You gave that tedious name reading that oomph it needed to be entertaining, which as we know is no small thing.

Happy Thursday, friends and family!!