My Workout With Obama

The Obamas have been vacationing literally right down the street from us: (A is Ann, B is Barack)

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Jeff encountered his motorcade arriving when he was biking to a friend's house for football. We saw his media bus and entourage when driving down his street. But still no actual view of Mr. President-Elect. When I heard he was working out daily at MY gym on the Marine Corps Base, I had to adjust my workout schedule to accomodate an encounter. Mich, Aedan and I went to workout. When we were greeted with security measures such as wanding, confiscation of cell phones and cameras, and discouraging warnings about a lack of cardio equipment, we knew we were hot on the trail. Unfortunately, no guests were permitted this particular day, so Mich and Aedan stood post in the "proud to be crowd" on the sidewalk behind the yellow tape, while I entered the Eagle's Nest for a face encounter.

I scanned the room from my elliptical machine, and located O mulling about the weight area clustered by well-wishers shaking his hand. I determined I would not sink to such measures, interrupting the rhythm of the Presidential Workout Routine he referred to in his pocket. I noted he alternated between an upper body exercise and a lower body exercise, and I strategized my encounter. After a sensible cardio warm-up, I nonchalantly selected my dumbbells and continued to the workout bench I had staked out, a safe one-yard distance from the target.

I had planned to say something clever in passing such as, "I just wanted to thank you for inspiring the Greater Windward region of the island into a regular workout regimen during the holidays." In reality, as I crossed his path, I muttered a casual, "Morning!" with mediocre eye contact, to which he nodded and promptly cranked up his I-pod.

As I sat on my bench, observing his reverse fly technique with the silver "girly" weights, I wondered if I would best serve my country by sharing my tactic for looking Tuff around the Marines: use the girly weight level in the manly black dumbbell set. I gotta hand it to him for mixing with the commoners, if it were me, I would definitely opt for the in-home gym at my holiday retreat.