So way back in 2010, I blogged about my gym equipment, particularly the Tony’s Pizza Super Bowl bag that I used for over 20 years in gym-going and whatnot.
You know, I’d seen people with the big gym bags and thought it was something akin to a sports car in the gym. Look at how athletic I am! they screamed. I am so athletic that I need a BIG ATHLETIC BAG for all my ATHLETIC GEAR. And all I, unpretentious I, needed was a little bag for some sweats, a lock, and some weight gloves.
Well, life has changed.
It’s not that I am MORE ATHLETIC, LOOK AT MY BAG, CAN’T YOU TELL HOW HEALTHY I AM BY THE SIZE OF MY GYM BAG? Instead, as you might know, I go through phases where I dress more nicely than I have to. Hey, I work from home, so I could wear jeans and t-shirts all day–and I do some days–but when I go out, I like to have khakis, a nice shirt, and oxfords on. These phases often run counter to my going to the gym phases–that is, I dress nicely until I realize what a hassle it is to additionally port around a pair of gym shoes, gym socks, and whatnot. When going-to-the-gym phases became ascendent, dressing-nice phases became descendent. This cycle, though, I’ve held on, but the shoes stuffed the little bag.
And on Saturday, I went to the gym and the martial arts studio, and there was no way that the change of clothes and a gi were going to fit into the Tony’s bag (and, as it was Saturday, I was in jeans and a sweatshirt and not the full Grant).
So, also on Saturday, I bought a cavernous gym bag that can hold a couple changes of clothes, a couple of magazines, a pair of shoes, a couple of magazines, and a couple of snacks. And maybe a decorative little gym bag dog like a golden retriever.
Meanwhile, the Tony’s bag will hit the showers and become an inactive relic in the museum of things I keep to remind me of the old days. It’ll fall under a pile of bags in the closet (Look! here’s the bag I got from the company that had the funeral for my mother! Hey, this backpack had a GenCon patch on it twenty years ago!).
At least until I find that my Big Gym Bag does not easily fit into a locker at the YMCA. In which case it will return triumphantly from premature retirement, a little canvas Mario Lemieux.
But, for now, LOOK HOW ATHLETIC I AM!
