6:15am class today. I had the option of waking my man after my workout to use his shower before going to work, but I thought it wasn't fair to make him get up an hour earlier than he normally would. Also, that meant I'd have to drive the whole three minutes up to his place, then wait two minutes for the elevator to take the one minute ride up. Too much time. Showering at the gym seemed like the least time consuming choice.

I'm a pretty conservative person when it comes to the locker room. All through elementary school and high school I was one of those girls that would change underneath a shirt. I tried changing in the washroom stalls a few times, but that felt gross. I also wasn't nimble enough to stay balanced on the top of my shoes as I tried to change from my shorts to jeans. Too many times my foot got caught in the leg holes. There was always a recovery attempt where I'd hop frantically on the shoe trying to regain balance, but my foot (sometimes bare, without sock) would eventually touch the cold tiles. The cold tiles splattered with, if I was lucky, dried urine.

Back to the morning locker room. I was not happy to find that the showers didn't have hooks or a seating area to place my clothes within the stall. That meant I'd have to walk out with a towel into the common area. Ugh. Did I really need to shower? I mean, not many people are going to be at work today anyway. I could keep a good distance away from everyone. Bah! I sucked it up. Today was a first. Today, I walked out of the locker room shower to my locker in a towel. Look at me! Fearless! Too bad I walked out to an empty audience. That's also probably why it felt so easy. I didn't get too ambitious. I still changed with my towel on, but I was still very proud of myself for overcoming my prude-ness. I blow dried my hair while looking in the mirror, still proud and ready to face today's challenges. Just as I started picturing myself running in the Underwear Affair, in the mirror I spot an older woman naked and having an animated chat with her friend. And just like that, I remembered another reason why I choose to change in washroom stalls. I'm not only uncomfortable with exposing my body, but I'm also not cool with seeing naked people at the gym. And I don't discriminate against age or size. I hate all of it. It makes me want to drop everything I'm doing and start walking as far away from it as possible. Sure, if I don't like it then I don't have to look at it. I tried! This wasn't someone who undressed and went straight to the showers. This woman was busy and had stuff to do before she had to shower. Some of that stuff included grabbing some tissue and organizing her make-up case beside me.

And that is why.

What? Did you think I was going to post a photo from the locker room?!
Day 3 of Wild Rose and I want to jump through the office window for a sandwich
from across the street.