Bonding with the Middle Age Men at the YMCA Pool

I was thinking recently, about how fit I was in high school, all thanks to swim team. Because I would like to get fit again (hopefully not to the full extent of my high school days when I had a triangle shaped body with huge shoulders) I decided to start swimming laps at the Y.

I started this Saturday early afternoon, thinking the pool would be pretty empty (which it relatively was). There was some teenage guy in the right lane and some middle aged man to my left. I started of swimming slowly, stopping every 100 meters, switching up the swimming strokes every once in a while.

Instead of stopping every time I reached the end of the pool, I did flip turns (just as if I was still in swim team - in fact, if I remember correctly, we got in trouble if we didn't do flip turns when we were suppose to). While I was stopping to catch my breath after a set, the older guy to my left started to talk to me and the guy to my right about the benefits of swimming. After a five minute chat, we went along our merry way once again. When I stopped again, same older guy stopped as well and started to ask me about how one does the flip-turn doing a back stroke. I told him, and he started in on how it was done when he was in high school. I just politely chatted back, smiled, put my goggles on and continued to swim.

After I was done, my muscles were really sore, so I decided to hit up the hot tub/whirlpool. Once I got into the area, I noticed that there was already two older guys sitting in there. So instead of turning around and looking like an ass (after they already noticed that I wanted to use the pool too) I just waded in and sat down, minding my own business. Once again, the strangers start talking to me again, talking about how it is nice to relax your muscles after working out and blah, blah, blah. I give a uh-huh and stare off in front of me. One minute later I get up and walk away.

Two things strangers need to know about me:
1. Don't disturb me when I am clearly doing a task, such as exercising.
2. If you don't know me, best bet will be not to talk to me at all. I am kind of cold and stand-offish because I am awkward and not really a fan of people in general. Thank you.

Learning to be friendly is an on-going process. I am working on it. It is hard.