The lunch crowd

There’s a fully equipped gym where I work, outfitted with the latest treadmills, ellipticals and such, a certified training staff who besides offering personal training at discounted prices also instruct classes ranging from spinning to kickboxing to yoga. Membership to employees is only ten bucks a month, which is such a bargain considering this fitness centre is accessible almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Before Deaglan came along I was fairly committed to working out. I rarely joined my colleagues for lunch in the cafeteria and chose instead to complete my workouts. And so when I was mentally preparing myself to return to work, I fully intended to get right back on the fitness horse and tighten, tone and trim the havoc child birth had wreaked on my body. However, this was not to be.

I don’t know what happened but suddenly I am desperate for social interaction. I look forward to lunch like a prisoner with yard privileges. But it’s not like my homelife is stifling or too much; if you’ve read this blog at all you know I’m one of those annoyingly happy new moms who thinks the sun shines out of her child’s – well you get the picture.

And don’t get me wrong, it’s not like we’re having martinis and sushi at some trendy café Samantha and Carrie-style. More like soup of the day and whatever’s on the salad bar donning business casual on the fourth floor with a group of marketing specialists (no offense to my friends in life marketing – I think you guys are just as much fun as the girls from Sex and the City any day).

Adult company in the form of light and easy conversation without having to constantly tell someone to get down from the table or get off the cat or please stop drinking the toilet water is a luxury I had never before fully appreciated.

It’s one of those events that shines brighter after you've become a parent. Something you used to take for granted like sleeping in or going to the bathroom alone but suddenly skyrockets in value because you realize how impossibly elusive it has become now that there is a little person to think about first.

I think about working out all the time, I know I should. But it’s just so much more fun to catch up on how Kim R's home renovations are going or what Alex did on the weekend or Keri’s in-laws' move to Mexico, not to mention Crystal and Shannon’s trips to the cottage.