Bummed

About this time last year, we joined a new gym. The gym had been open for a few months (6, 8?) and it had received rave reviews from lots of our friends. We visited and not only was the facility amazing, but we LOVED the childcare facility. LOVED.

So we joined. And we were all happy. Matt and I were happy because we had awesome facilities to workout in. We had tons of cardio machines with their own TVs. We had great classes and instructors. We had immaculate locker rooms and steam rooms that didn't skeeze us out to use. And the kids were happy because they loved the giant kids facility with its tons of toys, jumpy castle and AMAZING staff.

In the winter I went at least 4x/week and usually more like 6x/week. And this summer we still made it there at least 2x/week even though we were outside much much more. The kids practically begged to go.

And then this past week, disaster struck. I found out on Friday that they are closing down our beloved gym on Tuesday (yes, the one that is a mere 2 days away). We are shocked and really really upset about it.

Turns out they've had problems with their landlord all along. The landlord defaulted on his contractor and our gym had to pay some subcontractors out of their own pocket to get the place open. It has only gotten worse from there. The landlord hasn't paid taxes since 2008. I don't know all the ins and outs, but they are concerned that the county might close the buildings up any day now and all of us are left out in the (soon to be) cold. Overall, I feel like the corporation could have handled the situation much better. This has been looming big for some time and we had little warning. We also all feel like they could have been more proactive about finding some sort of solution to the problem (such as moving a mile down the road to the empty supermarket front, something they apparently considered and dismissed since they didn't want to have to explain the reasons to their members or something like that).

Of course I feel terrible for us. We are going to have to make a whole new routine. This gym has been a central part of our family life. And now we have to figure out a new place to go. But I'm really bummed for the great people who worked there who didn't ask for this and who are getting the worst end of the deal. Lots of them are in school and trying to just make ends meet. There are lots of single moms. It is terrible. Today we went to say goodbye, in particular to some of our favorite people at the childcare center. We're all really bummed. There's a very small chance they may be able to open again somewhere nearby, but it is months away at best.

So for now we'll be running outside and enjoying the fall. We'll be Shredding with Jillian and maybe trying out some p90x. And I'm sure, eventually, we'll find a new gym. But we are BUMMED.