Lovin' the Y

Our neighborhood Y opened last year, but we didn't join right away -- the girls were still taking their swim lessons at the downtown Y, and we still had a membership at the local rundown health club, where the owner spent most of his energy trying to reopen the little bar, trying to relive the glory days of the 1980 singles scene and foist deep-fried Sysco foods on people who had just finished a workout. Successful? Un. We were obliged to pretend the upstairs hallway, with its right-angled corners, was a track, and you didn't even want to think about the whirlpool. But it was the best gym around for a long time, and I was happy enough there, and felt bad that the Y would probably put it out of business. But then Lee joined the Y not long ago, and said it was Real Nice. And I was itching to get running again and letting weather keep me from doing it. So we signed up the whole family, and have been spending huge amounts of time there. Hannah is training to run her first 5K, and is doing really well with the training. She comes along with me and runs while I run (they let kids on the track, though not the treadmills). Last night, I had both of them in tow, but they have FREE CHILD CARE. At the old gym, child care consisted of a little locked room with a bunch of snot-encrusted plastic toys and a blaring television, and it was really only available during the day. Here, you sign the kids up and they go in to a corner of the main gym, where they can shoot baskets (Rebekah got 10 last night) or toss balls around, or go into a little anteroom and play table hockey or foosball or any number of other things. At certain hours, they have swimming and arts and crafts. Since the track is over the gym, I could actually watch her as I did my run. Sweet. Okay, now I've got the Y life. Hey, where'd my mLife go?