Can't steal my joy

It's Friday and it's the day after Thanksgiving and I had nowhere to be today. So why was somebody trying to steal my joy? Did he not like the look on my face? Was I a little too relaxed for his liking? I sure wasn't wearing a shirt that said "Try to get stuck in my craw!" What is a craw anyway? I think I looked that up at some point and if I recall, it was somewhat of a letdown.

I was at the gym when the incident occurred, the first incident anyway. I sat down on an exercise bike and proceeded to ride my way into a low impact cardio workout. It's not my workout of choice, but I have to do what I can do right now and actually running still is not yet an option. I had my headphones on and was zoning out listening to the Verve remixes CD while my man L.A. was holdin' court on the hardwood. This was entertainment in itself. L.A. is always quite the character when our 6am crew would play, having never met a shot that he didn't like and not being at all afraid to tell you about it. He was flat out giving it to some clown that was trying to guard him, although said clown would not exactly be what you'd all all-everything or even all-anything for that matter. I think I must've been laughing aloud because L.A. kept looking in my direction every time he scored. You know how it is when you've got headphones on and you don't realize that people can actually hear you. I'm glad I didn't scream out what I was thinking of saying (something like "I guess you're proof that 50 is indeed the new 40" or "you must've been somethin' else back in your 30s"...something that would've really jabbed at him).

For some reason, the guy on the bike next to mine thought that I was deriving such pleasure from listening to CNN's coverage of the economic crisis.

"Are you listening to this?" he said, motioning to the miniature TV screen above the handlebars on the bike.

I had the music on and didn't really hear his question (well, I heard it, but wasn't really comprehending that he was actually talking to me) and was reaching for the left earbud when he said, "Oh, I didn't see that you had your music on,...."

I just nodded, but he continued. He decided that this would be a good day to be a very vocal Obama detractor. At that moment, CNN was running a story about another person that Barack had appointed to his cabinet and ol' Peter Pessimist to my right decided that he had had enough.

"I'm not a republican, but this is the first time that I have voted against my gut," he said, confusing me for a minute. Was he saying that he was a McCain guy or that he was an Obama guy? As we (actually, he) kept talking, it became clear that he had actually voted for Obama. His frustration, however, was in what he perceived as Barack appointing the same "establishment" types that had produced the financial mess in the first place. Has any President-Elect ever been blamed and criticized for so much even before he was sworn in? It's ridiculous. It's like he's not just been hired for the job of President of the United States, but Manager of the New York Yankees. If he orders his eggs over easy instead of poached, there will be a news story about it and his competence will be measured against this action and dissected and analyzed over and over again. Luckily, my rehabilitating knee prohibits me from spending too much time on the bike, so I was soon free of this very annoying conversation, but it wouldn't be the last of the day.

A friend of mine would later try to get me to assist with some of their personal drama and try to bend my ear with some of their gossip about somebody that is supposed to be one of their close friends. Again, I got outta there as soon as I could. Finally, I could not help but be saddened by the madness that led to the senseless death of some people at Walmart. It is truly a shame when people are so maniacal about saving a few bucks. The irony is that they are spending to save. How does that work? Some unlucky person that happened to be working and attempting to control the crowd was trampled in the process and later died. At a time when the whole world needs to really take a step back and remember the real reason for the season, we are still all caught up in the materialism that continues to send us into a tailspin.