The Gym Bag and Me

Here's the problem: I have every intention of going to the gym after work.  And, on my way to the train at 7am, gym bag happily swinging from my shoulder--stuffed with all sorts of gym-type-necessities, I merrily think to myself how nice a run sounds.  By 5pm, the run doesn't sound so nice any more.

So I have this new fun tradition.  I pack the gym bag.  I bring it to work.  I leave it there at the end of the day, promising myself that I will go tomorrow.  The next day, though, yoga or whatnot is not an option, so now I bring another bag with my running sneakers.  And I persist in my leaving of the gym bag at work, for just one more day.

Today I was really gonna go.  Yeah.  That didn't happen.

The last couple weeks I tried this new plan, which actually kind of worked.  You see, even if I leave the school building intending to follow through, the train ride home, ever so persuasive and cunning, convinces me that the gym is not a good option.  Knowing this, I have taken to telling one of my students on the way out that I am going to the gym.  What's more, I tell them that they should ask me the next day if I indeed did go, and if not, their entire class gets a free homework pass.

Yes, that's the sort of teacher I am.  I would rather go to work out at the end of an exhausting day than to give a whole class of ninth graders a free homework.  Is this a fact to be proud or ashamed of?  It is not entirely clear to me...

I am home now.  My gym bag, with all its potential gym goodness, came home with me.  Not sure whether dim sum or running will win out this weekend, but it seemed a wise idea to have the gym shoes at home just in case.  Le sigh.