The Intimidating Influence of a Health Fair

I went for my very first time in a long while to go work out at the wellness center at work. Considering I don't work Mondays, it's a big sacrifice to go to that place on my day off.

I was dressed up in my gym clothes all ready to go, and then I saw the gaudy theatre lights someone had put up at the entrance of the wellness center. They were doing some "red carpet" gimmick where you were supposed to feel like a star as you entered into the atrium and got bombarded with people promoting exercise equipment, medications, books, and various other products. I pushed through all these people crowding my way until I made it to the main workout areas.

As I've described this place, it may make it seem like a large, open facility with tons of extra room to allow some privacy to people who with to exercise without being bothered, but it really isn't that big. There is a comfortable amount of space where there are only about 10-15 people there, so that's why I chose to workout around 9:30 when most people would be working. Few people were exercising, and even more red tables with storyboards and salespeople congested the entire open floor where it was ideal to use a medicine ball and any other exercises that require space. Because probably half my workout uses the medicine ball, I wasn't able to do much of it. In fact, I only exercised for like 15 minutes because I was completely bothered by the men dressed up as sailors or the Phantom of the Opera (again keeping the "movie star, red carpet" theme...?) walking around the weight machines. And I didn't want these strangers to sit around and stare at me.

So I left.