Well, I'm proud of myself for sticking with LA Fitness. When I joined last year as a New Years resolution to lose weight, I didn't want to become one of those statistics. The gyms love January. They have to. And, they're probably empty by March.

I lost a lot of weight when I met a group of guys that was playing basketball every afternoon, but they haven't been playing there in a month. So I've been trying to find new guys to play with. And when I can't, I usually just hit the pool.

I'll read stories in the paper about fitness. I get half way thru, but they bore me. When it says "continued on page A13," I think...."no it doesn't."

And the things I've read say you need to add weights to your fitness program. I just hate lifting. For exercise, I have to do things that are fun, like basketball, racquetball, and swimming.

The LA Fitness in San Carlos was a bust. This guy Patrick I met from one location, told me they play basketball there. But I didn't see anyone.

I did see a sign on the wall for a woman named Jacqueline Paraiso...who, I remember reading stories about 18 years ago. She's a championship racquetball player, and at that time, I had been losing to a guy who was such an arrogant jerk, I wanted bring her to the courts. We'd pretend to be dating, and then I'd bet him $100 she would win if they played. I never did that. But, it was cool to see she's still involved in the sport.

So...I did what I always end up doing at these places. I swam.

And the pools are so weird. I feel awkward when all the lanes are taken, and I have to stand their in my bathing suit (no, not a Speedo), and ask someone if I can share a lane.

Usually they're cool. Sometimes, you get an old, grouchy man that says no. And you want to say, "Hey idiot...I don't really have to ask you..." because the rule is that two people CAN share a lane.

The other day in Sorrento Valley, a woman came in that was muscular. Not as muscular as this female weight lifter in San Marcos. She actually has a body like Schwarzenegger. You walk by her and your jaw drops. She knows you're looking at her, and she just smiles.

This woman was cut, but didn't look disgusting with muscles bulging out everywhere. She did the weirdest thing. She stood by the lane she'd be swimming in, and she did stretches for 30 minutes. And weird stretches, that almost looked like some bizarre yoga thing.

Then she jumped in the pool and did that butterfly stroke for about 20 minutes. I can't do that thing for 20 seconds.

The one thing about swimmers at all the different locations, is they wear so much weird stuff. Okay, the goggles I can understand. But they have something over their head, they have fins sometimes snorkels...and, aren't you swimming to work out? I mean, if you're Michael Phelps and going for a world record, that's one thing. He'd probably shave his under arms to save 1/900 of a second. But to wear all this garb, when you're at a pool to get a work out, seems strange.

But back to the San Carlos.

They only had three lanes. And two fat women were at the end of one lane, doing this water aerobics thing.

Now, I think it's great if heavier people are out there at the gym. Especially in the pool, where people might be self-conscious. But, these two women are taking up one of three lanes, to lift their legs up and down, doing absolutely nothing. Seriously, they could've done that for three hours, and they would've probably burned 20 calories. They would've been a lot better off walking around the block. And all the other lanes have two swimmers in them. I can't yell to them, to ask if I can also swim in that lane, because they're al the way down at the other end.

But I got lucky. After standing there for 5 minutes and getting to the point where I was going to leave, someone came out and I got a spot.

As I swam, I thought about how I'd do this for an hour. I glanced at the clock and was dreading it. I then thought about how as a kid, I loved nothing more than swimming.

I then thought about possibly blogging this. And a different thought popped into my head as I reached each end of the pool. One time, it was that someone might be offended by me mentioning the fat women. Another was that it's kind of a boring topic. But then I figured...if it gets a few more people to show up and play basketball, and a few less people in the pools, I'll be happy.