58| canned heat

disclaimer: i'm sorry for how long this post is, but i can't seem to get a javascript "jump" to work. anyone who wants to help in this matter, it would be greatly appreciated.

i had a very weird afternoon, which seems appropriate, given how sane my morning had been.

{pre-amble}: i worked seven years in retail and i have seen a lot of customers who unjustifiably get angry, just to get their way. while i don't believe that the customer is always right, i do believe in giving them the benefit of the doubt, especially when it comes to things that are sensitive, personal matters, such as finances, relationships, politics, and so forth.

my personal trainer {call her jenna} left the studio a few days ago, with no notice, and no opportunity to finish our sessions. jenna was downright awesome, so i was a bit sad to hear she had left, and i was a touch nervous about meshing with a new trainer. the club set me up with another trainer {call him eddy}, with whom i met for the first time today. i decided to do a bit of research of eddy, to see what sports he played, if we had anything in common. to be honest, my first reaction was that he was the opposite of jenna in many ways, but i wanted to keep an open mind about things.

my sessions with the trainers have been one hour in length, the idea being i get an opportunity to do about 40 minutes of weights, 10 minutes of core strength training, 5 minutes for warming up and 5 minutes for stretching.

first of all, i mentioned my concerns to eddy about transitioning into a new routine, and he basically brushed the comment off. turns out, his routine was super different from that of jenna, and i felt like i was back at square one. secondly, he was too much of a cheerleader for my liking: he really didn't care too much about my posture in the way that jenna did, and i really haven't the slightest clue how many repetitions i did at what weight, because nothing was written down.

i felt like the first half of my workout was more or less a waste of time, but i figured i only had a few sessions left, so what the heck, right? wrong. eddy took me over to the area with the mats to stretch out. one stretch in, the following conversation ensued:

eddy: so have you given much thought to pursuing training in the long term?
me: not at this point, financially i can't commit to something like that {bearing in mind that my training package was 14 sessions for $300, which is the downpayment for a personal trainer after you take the inital package}
eddy: oh, well what's your financial situation like?
me:i don't think that's your business
eddy: that bad, eh?
pause
eddy: well, could you aska family member to help you out, or do you have a line of credit you could look to for a downpayment?
me: it's really not any of your business what my finances are.
eddy: well, actually it is.

the conversation went on for the second half of my workout, the entire second half! eventually, i told him that i was a student, paying my tuition and planning my wedding {the first time i said "planning a wedding", and when i repeated it, his response was "oh, i thought you meant planning someone else's wedding". boys, seriously.}, but i really didn't feel like it was any of his business, and to be quite honest, he left me pretty upset, more because he kept prying.

so, i went and talked to the club manager, whose response was two-fold:

• "we instruct our trainers to teach their clients the importance of personal training in a long-term fitness goal"
• "you're being difficult, so why don't i just give you a refund".

i says, "pardon?". customer. service.