Lifestyles of the poor and nameless

I've come to enjoy the look of surprise that crosses peoples' faces
when I meet them for the first time after speaking to them on the phone
for a while. Case in point: I called the local gym to find out about
memberships, and made an appointment to tour the facilities. I spoke to
a woman named Fran, about 4 times. When I showed up at the gym
yesterday for my appointment, Fran clearly wasn't expecting a Black
female. Lol. I loved watching her pick her jaw up off the floor. I
purposely put on my "white voice" when I'm making these kinds of calls.
My "white voice" has no accent at all (i.e. no Brooklyn/Caribbean/Black
intonations). That's right Fran, forget your preconceived notions for a
minute and look at the person before you.

A similar situation happened when she introduced me to Matt. Matt had a
hard time believing that I'm from NY because he couldn't detect an
accent.

At the end of the day, I joined the local gym :-). Although the
facilities are lacking by comparison to what I'm used to, I guess this
is the best I can get in this neighborhood...and it's only $33/month. I
miss my Precor elliptical machines and LifeFitness treadmills. Sigh.
There's no spinning class either :-\. BUT, there is a cardio kickbox
class and a hip-hop/reggae dance class. I'm curious to know who's going
to be teaching that in THIS neighborhood. lol. Personal training is
included, so that's a plus. Now let's see how often I go.