Huh.

This is a great start to 2008 and my new fitness routine (and by great, I mean crappy).

I've met with my trainer twice, during which time he has taught me my whole fitness routine. I had an appointment scheduled with him for noon today, and I was excited about asking him some questions about my upper body workout. Here's how it went:

11:30 a.m.: Put on tennis shoes with work outfit a la late '80s Manhatten secretary and don backback in preparation to walk the 8 blocks from office to gym.

11:45 a.m.: Arrive at gym. Forgot membership card with barcode, so must have front desk girl check me in manually, which takes inordinate amount of time because she keeps typing in my last name wrong ("Shoemaker, right? Are you SURE you're a member?").

11:50 a.m.: My "usual locker" is free. Yay! Dress out in locker room.

11:55 a.m.: Bop back upstairs to reception area to await Andre's arrival.

11:57 a.m.: Get bored. Start stretching in anticipation of exacting workout.

12:00 noon: No Andre. Stand in huge line for drinking fountain behind sweaty bodybuilder with big empty water bottle.

12:05 p.m.: Stretched and hydrated, but still no Andre. Ask at desk. Alarm bells go off when girl behind desk goes to whisper with gym owner.

12:06 p.m.: Owner informs me that Andre is no longer working at this gym. "He called all his clients to let them know he was leaving. He didn't call you?" Um, no. "I'm trying to find who you were rescheduled with." How could I be rescheduled if no one called me?!

12:10 p.m.: After a promise from the owner that person in charge of trainers will call me tomorrow to work this out, I run down to the locker room to get my iPod and proceed to have a nice, long, satisfying workout.

But still: Who does that?! It's a good thing I'm not one of those people who gets emotionally attached to her trainer. I could see how this could completely discourage someone from continuing her exercise regimen, especially if it was brand new like mine was. It was really discouraging to be all keyed up for a workout only to find out that my trainer didn't think enough of our working relationship to let me know it had come to an end. I mean, I've had breakups that went better.

On the other hand, I have to say I was considering switching trainers anyway, because I could tell Andre, a single guy, had no concept of the time demands on a working mother. So all in all, it was for the best, but it was weird to go to my first workout of the year (and only my fourth ever at the new gym) only to find my trainer had quit without telling me.

Huh.