Gyms.

My college has a gym that is free for students. We swipe our IDs when we enter, then we can exchange our ID temporarily for a key to a locker, or for equipment for different things in the gym. Usually, I get a locker and then go to the ellipticals, or maybe the track.

My brother drove up to visit me this weekend. This is because my dorm forced me to buy a meal plan and I have alot of extra meals and money that can only be used on campus before the end of the semester, and I need help using it up. So he drove up. Unfortunately the county was under a tornado and flood watch the whole time, but we still had fun. One thing I wanted to do while he was here was play racquetball. I have never played, but I know that Dustin does, and I know that the gym has courts. So I called and reserved a court for Friday evening.

First of all, when I get there, it costs ten dollars to get a guest pass on the day they arrive. I voiced my opinion that such a thing was ridiculous. Why didn't I get any free tickets? At Dustin's school, guests were free. Ten dollars? Oh well, we give in. We go and claim the court, but the desk doesn't have any extra rackets. They say wait until the hour, when people usually exchange racquets. We walk around, we look in all 7 courts at the racquets, and we watch people as they leave. Most people have their own racquets, and we calculate that if the school owns any racquets, it must be the two bright yellow ones belonging to the people on court 1, leaving us to conclude that for six courts, the gym owns two racquets. Ridiculous. So, 15 minutes into our reservation, the yellow racquets are returned, and we go play racquetball.

Racquetball is like tennis, only not on an open court. Tennis involves only a court. Racquetball has four walls and a ceiling. It's very echo-y and difficult to hear, but very fun. Dustin, of course, beat me easily, but I was still learning and getting the hang of how to hit the ball, the rules, and certain things like when to run forward, when to let it bounce, when to use the back wall, etc. I did better as time passed.

Now, the next day, we wanted to play again, and with Judy since she had expressed interest in the game. I considered buying a racquet at Walmart with Dustin earlier that day, but we decided to save money and continued on our adventures in the dark, cloudy day. We went to little shopping stores, looked around, and just killed time. We called to reserve a court at four, but they were full, so we reserved one at five. At five we walked to the gym. This time, Dustin brought his own racket. The weather was still dark, cloudy, and windy. As we go to enter, I say that Dustin has a guest pass, because I was under the opinion they lasted a week, which was the only way I could jsutify in my mind having to pay ten dollars. No, I had to pay another ten dollars to get Dustin inside the gym. We decided to wait and be certain we could even get rackets first. Judy asked. They had none. We waited a few minutes, and saw two people returning the yellow rackets. Judy went, but not fast enough; two other girls claimed the yellow rackets.

Dustin and I were fairly positive that they only had two rackets, but I asked, where the woman assured me that I should wait, they owned at least ten rackets. I returned to my friends. Ten minutes later, I went back and asked. She asked the other girl at the desk, who said they only had two. I rolled my eyes. She apologized. I cancelled my reservation, frustrated, and exited the gym.

As we walked out, the rain began to fall, but lightly enough that it was bearable. I had brought an umbrella, but nobody else had, though Dustin and Judy decided to brave the weather. Ten feet into the rain, it began to pour, and they jumped back under the overhang. We waited, then began to walk again, only to have it pour again halfway through the journey. Dustin and Judy were soaked.

Back at my dorm, Dustin laughingly brought up something he said once over the summer, when work had gone terribly because the pool had been shut down, residents were acting up, the weather had gone bad, and basically Murphy's law had played out in full effect: "Today is a terrible, terrible day." As he had said it, we had burst into laughter at how so many things could go wrong in one day. When he said it again after the walk back from the gym, we laughed again.

Though I am still disappointed in the gym, I am glad that at least Dustin helped me to laugh it off. And I'm going to buy my own racket.