I am the biggest bitch in the world.

[rivka]

Rivka: Good morning.
Health Club Clerk: Oh, good for you, you made it in.
Rivka: [silently wonders why this is news]
Health Club Clerk: [takes membership card to scan] I have a friend, she's got multiple sclerosis, and she blah blah blah.
Rivka: Why are you telling me this?
Health Club Clerk: [says more things about her friend with multiple sclerosis]
Rivka: [slightly louder] Why are you telling me this?
Health Club Clerk: Well... what do you have?
Rivka: That's a personal question. That's none of your business.
Health Club Clerk: Oh. But I just...
Rivka: [firmly] It's a very rude question. [walks away]
Health Club Clerk: [calling after her] I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings!
Rivka: [calling back] You didn't "hurt my feelings," you made me angry.
Health Club Clerk: Ma'am, ma'am, please come here. Please accept my apology.
Rivka: [alarmed] Okay, just... okay, don't cry.
Health Club Clerk: [crying] I am going to cry. I've had a really bad day, and...
Rivka: Look, I'm sorry you've had a bad day, but...
Health Club Clerk: Please, please say you accept my apology.
Rivka: Fine. I accept your apology. Okay.

Sheesh.

Comments

[redbird]

What the professor should have done--which I think you realize, but I want to reiterate--is treat your friend the same way he treated everyone else in the class.

And the towel attendant should have greeted Rivka the same way he greets other gym members. If he wanted to ask her for advice about disability, well, he probably should have found someone he actually knows, not intruded on a stranger during her probably-limited workout time. Failing that, "Excuse me, but if you have a few minutes on your way out, I'd like to ask your advice" would have been a better opening than to make a big deal about how Rivka actually made it to the gym.

Because the only valid predicter of who will or won't stick to an exercise program is travel time: people who live within (I think this is the number) 12 minutes' travel of their gym are much more likely to keep going than those who live further away. Nothing else--age, gender, disability, good intentions, class, nothing--correlated meaningfully.