Friday, June 16, 2006

Motivation Comes From the Unlikeliest Places

Tonight, as I was walking home from the gym alone, I encountered a band of ruffians.

This particular band of ruffians manifested itself in a group of about six men between the ages of 16 and 22, and two young boys that were around ten. They were all wearing big baggy shorts and oversized white t-shirts. Most had 'fros. All were riding those "lowrider bikes."

One of the younger ruffians looks back to talk to a ruffian behind him, and his bike veers almost off the sidewalk, and I step north to avoid it. He looks up, startled that he's so close to me, and says, "Excuse me, ma'am!" I laugh a little and say it's alright, but I never really break my stride. And now, I'm in the midst of the ruffians.

"Hey, you've got some nice legs!" one of the older ones says, and I blush, and keep walking. "Hell yeah, those are some stems!" another one chimes in. At this point I'm past the group, and I can hear them still chattering amongst themselves. The workout shorts that I was wearing said "FINEST" on the ass (my dorm's mascot in college was the "finest". Seriously, look at the bottom of that page. It says, "Home of the Finest."), and there were some quiet remarks made about that, and then, I'm sure, they forgot all about me.

And I know I shouldn't care at all about what they said, and, in fact, a lot of times when something like this happens, I'm insulted to be treated like a piece of meat. But tonight, it made me happy. I don't remember a stranger ever complimenting me on my legs before, and I liked it. It made me glad that I was working out.

So to celebrate, tonight instead of sternum baring, I did leg baring. I wore a bright red mini skirt out, and I had a gin and tonic.

Reward

The worst thing about working out, though, is my thought was, "I wonder how many calories are in a gin and tonic?"

9 comments:

Teri M. said...

Awwww... ruffians with manners. That's so cute! "Stems" - I love it. Too bad one of them didn't say "gams". Then you really couldn't be offended!

0000 said...

Ha! I think it's a woman's job to "act" offended, but secretly we're all, WOO!

Anonymous said...

"Stems" -- that's cute! D. favors the term "gams," which is never applied to me because I have field-hockey-player legs. : (

Gin & tonic is approx. 175 calories.
http://www.dietbites.com/CalorieIndexSpirits.html

That website reminds me of a story my crazy friend Michelle told me about her sorority days. A nutritionist came to the sorority, in an effort to curb their drinking, and told them exactly how many calories were in their favorite mixed drinks. The girls' natural and logical response was to starve themselves all day and binge on alcohol calories at night.

Anonymous said...

Gin and Tonic is one of the best drinks to drink. Calories wise. So is a vodka tonic, and vodka and water. :-)

Kiki said...

"The girls' natural and logical response was to starve themselves all day and binge on alcohol calories at night"

Duh! Isn't that what everyone does! :-)

It's nice that the ruffians had manners. How cute. And you go girl with your hot 'stems'!

Jay said...

Stems? I think the ruffians have been watching too much Clueless lately!

D e s i g n Girl said...

Hey good for you! No matter what the age sometimes it's just nice to hear :)

Anonymous said...

I don't get offended by compliments about my legs. Any other body parts, I will probably want to kill the guy.

Lena said...

You do have some sexy stems hon!

And I'm pretty sure a gin and tonic has negative calories. You'll actually LOSE weight. No, really. Just don't google it.