I'm on my way into work at Super Mondo today and coming up to the big doors leading me into the office. There's two doors to get in, one on the left and one on the right, with a little partition between them.

In front of me, about 200 feet away is some lady who goes into the left door and proceeds to hold it open for me. Now while it's always nice to have the door held for you, I was also far enough away that it's not like the door would slam in my face if she didn't hold it open. There was also nobody entering or leaving the door to the right so it's not like she was saving me from something. And when I go in, I go to the right. Which is why I always go to the right door. I do not go left. But because she was holding the door for me and making such a big production out of it by waiting for me, I had to go the left.

Then later I went to the gym. I like using one of those walking machines, not the treadmill one, but the one that kind of recreates a hill and you can hold onto them (the elliptical?). The gym was kind of busy today so there were only two machines open. One of them was broken so I couldn't use that one. The other one was open, but somebody had draped two towels over it and left a half-open magazine on the magazine rack that was attached to the machine (you know, on the panel-- I'm still really, really tired from my trip so my english isn't what it used to be). I asked the people nearby and they said somebody was using it but they ran off for something and were coming back.

Now maybe it's because I come from the ethic that if you leave your chair for any reason, you lose it. Dog-sit-dog world. So is it okay to "hold" gym equipment like that? Is that right? Can you "reserve" gym equipment like that? What was she doing? Going to the bathroom? Shouldn't she have done anything like that before she got on the machine?

If I were a man, I would have just gone on the damn equipment and excercised away. But, of course, I'm a mouse.