I’ll Take You To a Temple
Going to the gym is a huge part of the NYC lifestyle. All my friends go to the gym and most of them go almost every day (ok, they’re gay, but not all my friends are). The first thing that surprised me when I moved to NY was that gyms were cheap. Well, you can find the expensive ones too, but you can easily go to the gym for only $10 a month (!). I did that for a year. Some of them are $40 and $60 and that’s already considered as a bit pricey. I had access to an expensive and a very popular gym in Manhattan – Equinox – for a year, but unfortunately, I didn’t go much, since my working hours didn’t allow me to attend (read: I found some excuses).
Some people, especially those living in Manhattan, treat going to their gym as a part of their daily hygiene. Since I can finally spend my evenings in Manhattan now, I suddenly noticed that between 6 pm and 9 pm, you’ll see people either with a gym bag or gym clothes already on them all over Manhattan. You can easily spot them even during the winter season because people wear their workout shorts and shirts and just put the winter jacket over (no matter what’s the temperature outside). The same thing you can spot in the mornings on the weekends. They work out and then do grocery shopping at the Whole Foods or Trader’s Joe.
Luckily, just recently my friend Mariusz gave me a monthly membership to a new gym in Hell’s Kitchen. It’s called Temple. The owner of the gym is David Barton, who used to have a chain of gyms in NY. Temple looks a bit like a night club, smells good and has a very good vibe – not to mention good looking guys. I’m really tempted to join it, even though it’s more than $100/month and I can’t really afford it. What I really like about this place, except for great spinning classes, is this weird atmosphere. Sauna room is next to the locker rooms, but also next to the pool and the stretching area; that means that when I go to sauna (I love sauna and I go there after every training) in my towel only, everyone who is stretching or is still working out can look at me (which obviously works for me – and for them, I hope). You basically strut around half-naked, pretending that you really want to sweat it out, which, of course, is not a case at all. Sauna is for both men and women which is nice because I can look at these gorgeous bodies without any restrictions. I just always pray that my towel will not land on the floor (like Elaine on “Seinfeld”, I don’t have that much grace). Well, Hell’s Kitchen is a very gay neighborhood, so my chances for a hot straight guy are not that high, but at least a few instructors are straight, so there is still hope for me. I’ve already talked to one of the managers about “one of the classes” (yeah, sure…), and he seemed straight. Let’s see how my “work out” will go.
