GTBKI: Noyes Recreation Center

In these weeks of insanity, I like to reminisce on simpler times. For instance, in Ithaca, before classes began, life was simple. It was in those days that I thought it would be a good investment to purchase a pass to the Cornell fitness centers. After all, there is a newly constructed fitness center about half a mile from my apartment called Noyes Recreation Center.

This was before I knew that to survive, I would have to sacrifice at least twelve hours a day to architecture.

Anyways, yesterday was Saturday and I had some free time so I thought I would go and throw some weights around. I had been to Noyes a couple times before and the first thing I always notice is its size. It is small. Brand new equipment in a tiny space.

The second thing is that it is crowded. Every time I go I chose a different time and arrive to find the same situation. The half that contains the treadmills, elliptical machines, etc. is packed with sorority girls and the half with the free weights and machines is full of steroid-popping undergrads who are all about 5'10 and weigh just as much as me. I call these guys the Muscles.

Muscles are fairly easily identified. For instance, a Muscle cannot work out without adequate access to a mirror. They say it is to watch their form, which would be true if they didn't mean it as the motion of the barbells. Most of the Muscles have cut-off t-shirts with acronyms that are meaningless to me (UFC, WWF, NFL, etc) and the rest have on Underarmor. Muscles come in pairs. At any given point one of the pair is screaming encouragement at the other. Muscles generally smell pretty bad. They think the smell is their testosterone, I think it is a deficient application of deodorant.

I am going to just have to keep trying different times and hope one works out. The thing is that my schedule is pretty limited right now and there are only so many options.