Newness.

I have a new camera.

I had a conversation with a friend of mine out in California over some pictures he took at some other friends' party. They were awesome, and I was really impressed with the quality. I asked what he was shooting with, and he had just gotten a Canon Rebel (higher end than I could afford), but it turns out they make a relatively inexpensive one (for a dSLR camera), and I've been price-watching for a while. Someone finally offered up a deal I still can't quite afford, but I'm considering it a combined "hooray for getting into fellowship" and "way to survive another year" gift for myself.

The battery finally charged up, and I shot some pictures with it, just around my living room.

Oh. I LOVE it.

It's upgradeable and gorgeous and there are other lens kits and I totally love the picture quality. The color balance is SO much better than my old one (I was constantly having to fix the colors on the Kodak). It's got that rapid-action shooting feature I like so much. You can shoot really nice point-and-shoot stuff on it, or manipulate it like a traditional reflex-lens camera.

Wowie. Wowie, wowie, wowie, am I excited. Because you know how much I fancy myself an amateur photographer. This makes me giddy with the idea of going out shooting tomorrow (we'll see if I have time).

I also joined a new gym today, because I went to the Peak (the chain where I've been going since December, where Gomer lived until yesterday, which is closing all its Triangle locations) near where I live now, and it has already closed. But there was a notice on the door stating that Lifestyle Family Fitness was absorbing our contracts, and they just happen to be next door to my apartment. So, I said, fine. I stormed over there and said, okay, what can you do for me?

As it turns out, not much.

Well, that's not true. There's not much they can do about my current membership, which was prepaid for two years. Two years. It seemed like SUCH a good deal at the time. It worked out to being, like, $12 a month...except...oops.

They really screwed me on this.

I might be able to get out of my training contract, because Gomer no longer works for them. Which is great for him - as I told him earlier, I had no doubt he'd land on his feet. And I have an intake appointment next Saturday with a trainer at the new place. She's very nice, but I can already tell, she's no Gomer. Among other things, she's nowhere near as scenic. And I like to think Gomer and I have gotten to be friends by this point, despite the fact that I hated him when we started.

It's a big change.

But the new gym said, well, come in and work out. And it was really nice. Click on the link up there, and then membership, and take the virtual tour. My club really does look like that. All the machines work. There's TONS of 'em. And they're the Life Fitness ellipticals that I like (we have two at the gym in CH, and a bunch of these black ones that I'm too short for). There's separate areas for the free motion machines, the Hammer Strength machines (which have the big weight plates), and the Life Fitness machines (which have weight stacks). And there's a whole separate personal training area (they say it's "private", but, it's kind of in the middle of everything). They have two classrooms, one for high intensity cardio, and one for yoga and pilates. The locker rooms are clean, and very nice, although they still don't have towels for the showers (I was spoiled by the fitness center in medical school. That one had shampoo and soap in the wall, real towels, and a hair dryer bar). And all the cardio machines have those little TVs on them, with limited cable, which was awesome (I watched a whole episode of Royal Pains while I worked out. It was cute). Plus, there's tanning, and childcare, if you're into those sorts of things.

All in all, it was a pretty cool facility.

And the crowd there today was definitely more fit, "pretty" people than my old gym (which was mostly over 60, although those old people could kick my ass), but nobody acted like I didn't belong there. And when I said, I might need a new trainer, they were like, "Of course. Come over here, we'll set you up." I really appreciated that. The staff was very friendly, and the people seemed nice enough. Plus, they gave me a decent rate, with no admin fees (because I was coming from Peak), and they're part of IHSRA, which means I can work out at member clubs all over the country (i.e., Chicago) as part of my membership here.

We'll see how it goes, I guess.

I'm still not sure what I think about breaking up with my trainer. And leaving him for a woman.

There's a lot of changes going on around here...