Personal Hygiene...I just have to rant for a minute

I promise that very soon (hopefully by the end of the night!) I will write about our trip home for Christmas, our anniversary, and post a new entry on the "Wine Duo" blog. But for now, I just need to get something out of my system.

Here's the story... Tonight I was working out at the RSF, the Cal-Berkeley gym. I was enjoying my elliptical workout very much until a lady got on the treadmill right next to my machine. She looked harmless enough...about 5'5", 30-ish years old, black workout pants and a white top. After about one minute of her running on the treadmill though, my workout was basically ruined. This woman STUNK soooooo bad I just about gagged. It wasn't just a sweaty smell - we were in a gym after all, I can't expect people not to sweat - but this woman had the smell of someone who hadn't showered in days, had never heard of the term "deodorant", and certainly was a stranger to scented soaps. I toughed it out for about 15 more minutes, but alas the stink won out. I simply could not stand to smell the salty Frito chip scent this woman was putting out any longer, so I got off the machine. Thinking maybe I was the smelly one, I did a quick sniff of my shirt. Nope. Smelled like laundry detergent.

This is no isolated incident. There have been MANY times that I've ended up next to a super stinky person on a piece of equipment in Berkeley (both at the YMCA and the RSF). The problem is that people there just do not seem to take any pride in personal hygiene or personal appearance. It's one thing to look sloppy but when you smell like a pig pen, there's a real problem. If I had to guess, I would say over 50% of the people in Berkeley do not believe in deodorant, and that bothers me.

I'll keep working out there though...it's really my only option. I just needed to get this little rant out of my system. Maybe in the future I'll be lucky enough to get on equipment where no one else is around!!!