Day 6: Rotten Apples

Thank goodness it's Saturday! During breakfast today, they had a fruit parfait but I opted for cereal, some of my friends got weighed in. One lady lost 9 pounds this week and her husband lost 14 pounds! Amazing stuff. I don't think that's typical by the way. I don't think my weight loss will be nearly that good but I do feel stronger and that matters a lot to me. I've always wanted to be stronger and fit.

This morning after speaking with some people, I decided that I wasn't ready for Camelback and opted to do West Canyon since another van opened up. I'm not a fan of heights and my focus is to get a serious calorie burn, not a great view. I'd much rather be on safer, solid ground than somewhere struggling in fear. A good thing I did today too. My friend 'J,' the poor girl, got injured and sprained her foot badly on the hike. Since she refused medical transport, it took 4 hours to carry her down. she's a strong girl though and she finished the day with a smile in her improptu wheelchair, an office chair. Also, on my West Canyon hike, I managed to get about 10 minutes further than I did on my last hike so I was very happy about that.

After the hike, I opted for Circuit. I really feel like I'm starting to be able to handle more. I'm pushing myself bit by bit every day and it seems like it's starting to work. I'm nowhere near athletic yet but what I'm doing for me, is quite amazing. I took off my heart rate monitor after my circuit class today but just the hike and the circuit class burned 2043 calories!

This afternoon, I signed up to visit Coyote Gulch, a small artist's shopping center a few minutes from Fitness Ridge. Our van driver, Fletcher told us that he'd pick us up in 30 minutes and if anyone wanted to stay longer, he'd come back in an hour as well. When I heard we had 30 minutes, I was a bit dismayed. It meant that there wasn't too much to see and I was right. There were only about 5-6 shops and a cafe and while many of the items were beautiful one of a kind pieces, it was quite pricey. A lot of items were also glass or quite large and would be difficult and expensive to ship home if I had chosen to purchase anything. I wanted something small to remember the trip so I opted for a pair of earrings that were kinda cheap. They're hot pink and made of aluminum but they're unique!

After I returned from Coyote Gulch, I saw that there was a sign up sheet for a free wagon ride. Originally, the wagon ride was supposed to be $25 per person but since no one signed up, the wagon ride became free.. and nothing's better than a free ride, right? lol. So when I arrived at the wagon for my free wagon ride, I was dismayed to see my former '5 minute roomie, 'K' there. Thankfully, she's leaving this Sunday. Someone else was teasing her earlier about being rich. I guess she talks about her money a lot. (In fact, later at dinner, she was talking about Rodeo Drive in Cali)  Nice character trait. Anyhow. Sorry but I'm not in the best of moods today, you'll understand why in a bit.

The wagon ride was interesting, a bit hot and very bumpy. We were pulled along by two mules and I felt so sorry for those poor mules since they were pulling along a heavy load. During the wagon ride, we listened to some pre-recorded historical information about the area and how the Mormons came to settle it. It was educational but I was held aback when I heard the tape recorded person referring to Native Americans as 'Red Men.' Sheesh.

Well, during the wagon ride, one of the ladies, 'D,' brought up the fact that I snore after I mentioned that my nose was itchy. Of course at that point, I'm sitting across from my 5 minute roomie 'K' and it was a good thing that I had my sunglasses on because I was rolling my eyes. 'D' asked if anyone else had brought up the fact that I snore during this past week and I said no and she looked surprised and then snickered. Hmm. I guess some people were talking about that in the evenings? 'K' possibly or my roomie? What surprised me is that I've been nothing but nice to 'D,' and even 'K,' and you'd expect more mature behavior from women in their 50s.

Now, my former roomie, I don't mind. She's suffered through it. lol. So I can cut her some slack... esp. since she's the one who had encouraged me to socialize.. possibly so that I could do damage control after she had spread the word about my snoring but my 5 minute roomie? Nah. No cake. Being the polite person I am, I didn't say anything, since she's older than I am and you're supposed to respect your elders and all that. But I sure was thinking a hell of a lot of nasty things. Making fun of a person who snores is like making fun of a person because they're overweight or unhealthy or even because they have a different skin color; it's something that you can't help and is just petty. We're at an adult fat camp, people. People who are overweight tend to snore more BECAUSE of their weight. Why else do they sell ear plugs in the guest shop? (According to one of the employees here, they sell quite well too.)

Seriously, get a group of women together who have nothing but hunger in their stomachs and things get nasty. If you're one of those ladies that read my blog, come and talk to me about it in person, rather than behind my back. Be sure that I'll have plenty to say to you. I grew up in NY and live in NJ, you don't think I can defend myself if you have something to say to my face? I may be a nice person but even I don't take crap from others. My mom taught me well. Never take crap from others peeps. It just allows them to keep crapping all over you. So now you'll understand my bad mood.

So after the wagon ride, I went back to my now empty room to talk with 'N' about my day and how I was bothered by what that woman, 'D' said. He advised me to curse them off in a foreign language and walk away. lol. While it made me laugh, I decided instead that I will have a word with 'D' when I see her next time. I came here for a good experience and I don't need something like this to hang over me and make me upset. Being upset only allows others to 'win,' so to speak... and I'm not going to let a few gobby gossips ruin my
experience here.

When dinner rolled around, my dinner friend Wayne, waved me over to sit next to him. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with that but he was sitting next to 5 Minute 'K' and 'D.' Fun. I sat down and ate dinner and thankfully some of the nicer people that are here sat down next to me and dinner was pleasant.

Graduation festivities was the next event on our lineup today and they played a recap of videos and events and photos from the past week. It's a nice effort but wow, I look really horrible when I'm working out. We all get a copy of this disc to take home with us when we leave. If you stay for multiple weeks, you get multiple discs. They had a shot of me working out and 'D' and her cohorts laughed when it came up. Yup, they laughed. Now were they laughing because it was a bad picture or something else? This really bothered me and so when they began to pass around the mike for everyone to 'share' their experiences I left. I've made a few friends while I've been here but as I said earlier, it only takes a few sour apples to ruin the wonderful atmosphere here. You'd think that these stupid cliquish attitudes would stop as people enter their 50s but apparently not.Thankfully, most of the people here are better than that.

I got back to my room and spoke to 'N' and my friend 'P' and even my mom about it. All had varying opinions about how to deal with the situation. 'N' advised me that the next time they had this video recap to cackle as loudly as possible when 'D'and her cohorts pictures come up. Once again, it was funny, but I don't think I could do that. 'P' advised me to make friends with them no matter how difficult it was. My mom told me to curse them off. :) Varying opinions for sure. I still don't know what I'm going to do, if in fact I'm going to do anything at all but it's really disheartening when you're trying to have this wonderful life-changing experience and some people want to ruin it for you because they are sad and miserable and take pleasure in knocking others down.

So I signed up for bowling this evening but I found out that both 'D' & 'K' will be there which I'm not looking forward to. So I think I'm just going to clean my room for this evening. Tomorrow I have the entire day off so I'm going to get my laundry done. It's really piled up this week. You'd be surprised how many sets of clothes you'll go through while you're here. If you sweat a lot (which I don't), you may go through several sets in just one day. Since I barely sweat (honest) I change my clothes only once each day. However, I've heard some women here say they change their clothes 4-5 times each day. So once again, plan accordingly.