I am trying to be more fitness conscious and more social at the same time!  The Answer: a workout companion.  Not a Wii or an Ipod (both are trying market themselves as a “workout companion”); No, I am talking about a real person.

A friend six or eight years older than I recently invited me to join him for a Tuesday night workout.  He said; “bring your bathing suit; we will hit the sauna afterwards.”  I know this sounds girlish but since I had just bought a new Quicksilver bathing suit so I was quick to accept.

I’m sorry, but man, woman, or child; you buy a new bathing suit and you are looking for a pool!   Unbeknownst to me, it turns out the pool was the workout; pool volleyball to be exact.

I arrived, late, and my buddy was already in the pool.  He was surrounded by six or seven “ladies” easily ten to fifteen years his senior.  They were all wearing blue swim caps like something out of the Great Gatsby.  I said to myself; “Glad I’m late.  There is NO WAY I can do this for two hours!”  I was thinking… I play basketball with college-aged men every Thursday night!  “There is NO WAY I can do this…..”

Ten minutes into it I hyper-extended my right elbow; my legs were cramping; my head was sinking; my left shoulder was killing me as I clung to the side of the pool; AND, I established myself as the single worst pool Volleyball player in three Generations!  My thought; “There is no way I CAN do this for two hours!” now took on a meaning of survival rather than attitude.

As an expert in Generational Conflict and Workplace Culture Change this was humbling to me and gave a new perspective to the highly recommended book “When Generations Collide:  Who They Are, Why They Clash.”  The author MUST have played  pool Volleyball!

My biggest surprise though, was how much I enjoyed myself.  It was absent the competitive, sometimes belittling edge ever-present for Thursday night basketball.  One “lady” did joke that I was out of uniform without a blue swim cap.  Then she looked at my bald head, winked and said, “But I guess you don’t really need one?”  I almost came back with a “yo-momma” joke until I realized she literally was old enough to be my momma!  Then she went too far and said, “But it would compliment your bathing suit!”

I can’t wait ‘til next Tuesday.  Grandma is going down!