A Moment in My Life – Thursday, August 26, 2021
Jeannie Yee Davis
I met my friend, Awesome Dan, on the treadmill back when we frequented Bayhill Gym in San Bruno. He was retired from the post office, and I was on sabbatical from work. I preferred Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings as that was the best time to get on my favorite machines. I had a routine planned out alternating between cardio and toning, and if everything worked out, I would be in and out of the gym in 45-minutes, tops, but that rarely happened. Most days, two hours was more like it, and occasionally, even three.
Based on the amount of time I spent at the gym, I should look like Miss Fitness USA, but only if I spent that time working out. I tried, and I got pretty fit in the process between my routine and talking about everything under the sun with Awesome Dan. Later, Rose, another retiree strolling on the treadmill to my right, joined the conversation. After I completed my time, I left them for another machine where Clif, a retired police officer, would usually work in with me, and you guessed it, we’d talk and talk, and so on the ritual went. Riley would fill me in on her college life while we did cables, and she captivated me with her fun running trails that made me miss running. When I first started dumbbells with Adam, he was nicely toned. By the end of my sabbatical, he was buffed, which came in handy for his job. It was neat hearing about his aspirations and later seeing that he accomplished his goal when I ran into him at Kaiser Hospital, where he became an orderly. I love when plans come together for people. I learned so much about a fireman’s life, which isn’t as scary as I envisioned. The stories Anthony told me made it easy to see how firefighters become family between the dangerous moments and their downtime where they played, ate, shopped, and lived together.
It didn’t matter which machine or the dumbbell station I was at; the regulars and I always ended up yakking away the time as we squeezed in our workout. I met so many wonderful people at Bayhill Gym that I ended up referring to my gym time as The Bayhill Social Club. You know, getting to know people is such a beautiful experience, and when it happens as easy as a summer breeze, that’s how it should be. I am a total sucker for harmony. It troubles me when we have to struggle to get along with people. Come to think of it. I met tons of people but not one I didn’t get along with during my Bayhill gym days.
My husband Mark, Awesome Dan, his beautiful wife Becky, Rose, and her guy Ron and I took our conversations outside the gym, where we began triple-dating. On our first date, I met Becky, and as much as I liked Dan from our gym time, he earned Awesome Dan when I observed how loving and gentle he was to his wife. It was rare to see a man open a door for a woman, let alone one who pulls out a chair for her and who wasn’t shy looking into her eyes as if this was their first date and makes all those little chivalry and gentlemanly efforts that let her know she’s the most important person to him. I thought only my Mark did those things, but he wasn’t alone.
Talking with Becky earlier brought me down memory lane to those beautiful days when we worked out together in the morning and triple-dated in the evening. I love summers, and these moments remind me of summer and make me long for the good times where relationships were easy as a summer breeze.
