I've been told

I hate being told what to do. I have always hated being told what to do. I think I get it from my father, he also hates being told what to do, especially by my mother. I often remember him telling my mother once when I was a teenager, "stop running my train".

That makes me laugh now when I think about that, and sometimes I think that same statement when someone is telling me what to do, like I thought yesterday when I was at the gym.

The gym I attend has recently instituted this new policy requiring not only to sign in at the front desk, but also when you enter the weight machine area. Although the weight machine area is itself it's own room within the gym, it has 2 entrances. In front of one of the entrances the gym staff has instantiated this table to sign in at as you come in. The first time I saw the table I was a "good citizen" and signed in. Fine whatever.

I think the gym itself must have had an incident earlier in the week of someone getting hurt and no one being able to identify the person in the gym. So apparently the solution is this whole sign in procedure, so you know the staff can know who's in the room. After I signed in the first time I found it all alittle ridiculous, for the following reasons:

1) Almost all gyms in America have no system to identify a person once they've entered the gym. It's not like any of us who workout in a gym carry around our driver's license on us, or any type of identification for that matter. That all gets left in the car or the locker room or at home.

2) This particular gym has 2 entrances, so if you happen to sneak through the stretching room (which I'm considering) you could totally bypass the table never sign in and no one know the wiser.

3) What does signing in do anyway? Let's say I'm in the gym like I was on Saturday and there are 5 other women in there (as there were) with me. If I pass out on the elliptical machine (which I was also considering), how long is it going to take to really identify me? Will it even be possible with so many people constantly in and out of the room that although sign in never sign out? You could have up to 20 to 40 names on a sign in sheet all while you're trying to figure out who I am and who's in or out of the room itself. Somewhat ridiculous don't you think?

Yes it is, this doesn't prevent, however, (the next time I walked into the weight room, and bypassed the sign in table without even a glance and walked right up on the treadmill), me getting told to do it anyway. I was just about to start the treadmill when this short pimple (yes pimple on my ass) of a man walked up to me and asked me to sign in. I lamely began to argue that I had already signed in at the front desk, but it was no use to argue with this pimple. This pimple was a RULE pimple, follow the RULES because they are THERE, and they should be FOLLOWED pimple. The pimples who like to run other people's trains! Even if it is stupid in principle as well as practice. So I was told.

Man, I hate getting told what to do...especially by pimples.