The New ASL

That'd be "American Spin Language".

So last night I realized something. In a given day, every person has a quota for "things that can go right" and "things that can go wrong".  Yesterday, I apparently donated all of my "things that can go right" points to a friend who needed them (and I'm glad I did, because everything went as well as possible for her). However, that left me with a lot of "what??  THAT went wrong???" moments during the rest of the day.

I won't go into the little things (like how my iPod reset itself recently, so shaking it makes it shuffle the songs..which is super great mid-spin class), but the one major thing that left me shaking my head is worth sharing.

Last night I subbed for Alicia. I love the Thursday group - they're all regulars, and they were all there when I was first learning to teach a year ago. They're good sports. Last night, I was utterly exhausted after a day that started at 4 AM (which really means that Wednesday just never ended, since we all know that if you need to wake up at 4 AM you really wake up every hour before that, panicked that you forgot to wake up). I was already punchy. I walked around and helped some new members set up their bikes, which means I had the headset around my neck so I wasn't talking instructions on bike setup into the ears of everyone else. Oh, quick detour. This is what our spin room looks like:

 You see the wires coming down from the ceiling? Those go to headphone jacks because the room isn't enclosed - it's just a mezzanine overlooking the rest of the cardio area. Usually, I actually like this. It means the music (and my voice) is really inside everyone's head.

Here's where I live. That's a protein shake, not a milkshake, I promise. But you see that railing behind the bikes?  Behind that is this:

I call it The Void. Things go down there, they don't come back. For example, I lost a towel down there 6 months ago. The brown stuff, it turns out, is just insulation over ceiling tiles. Translation: step on it, you go through the ceiling of the children's play area.

So

Back to the story. I'm running around with the headset around my neck and get back up to adjust my bike. Lean over to move the seat and guess what I dropped down into The Void 5 minutes before class?

That would be the headset. The only headset.

I ran down to the front desk to get maintenance or someone with a stick, but no dice. Then I realized there was no class running in Studio A, so I grabbed that headset. Then realized that...duh...the headsets are wireless, which means they're not transferrable. Awesome.

So I spent the rest of the class playing charades and miming what the riders were supposed to do. The profile I'd planned involved a lot of verbal cues, so that was right out the window. I had to make it up as I went along, which was interesting. They were good sports, god love em, and laughed along with me. I told them it was a "do as I do" kind of class, so for the first time, everyone jumped in sync (which I don't usually like to do, because some people don't jump as fast as others) and we all got a kick out of Fred keeping his head down too long and missing the cue to sit. :-) Good times.

After class, an unnamed person decided to take it upon themselves to hop that fence, nearly fall through the floor/ceiling, and grab the headset (AND my towel!!) so all's well that ends well. I'm still shaking my head over that one.

So after all that, I finally made it home and wouldn't you know it there was one more thing waiting to go wrong.

Sir Derps Alot (aka Grisgris, aka Kitty Pants...I swear I've been calling him that for 2+ years and I nearly fell out of my chair when Rose said she called her cat that too) suddenly has a very bad limp and won't put any weight at all on his left front paw. It's really swollen too (you can kind of see it here) and he won't let me touch it. I don't blame him. So, off to the vet we go this afternoon. At least he's still purring, bless his heart.

God love him, Nick suggested we go out for dinner last night, so we did...we got home around 8:30 and by 9:15 I was passed out. Didn't wake up until 8 this morning. It. was. glorious.