It's fun to stay at the ...

... YMCA.

I guess the only time a stright guy (yours truly) can extol the virtues of the YMCA is when he talks about working out - which also sounds a little gay if you think about it.

Ok - off to a bad start, I don't want to sound like a homophobe and a lazy bastard at the same time.

Especially because I am a lazy bastard.

I'd like to lay around, watch TV and eat cheetos after work, but I can't if I want to live "well" to a ripe old age. By living well, I mean not being blind, on dialysis and with all limbs intact.

These things are a concern to me becuase I have Type 1 Diabetes.

Type 1 is the type that kids usually get and is a result of an autoimmune process. The body is exposed to something (aka as an "antigen" usually a virus) and in the process of fighting it make antibodies against the antigen. Unfortunately sometimes these antibodies (in susceptible people) do more than they're supposed to after the antigen is gone. They go looking for more antigen to destroy but find normal cells in the body that are familiar to the antigen and these antibodies start to kill off these normal cells. In the case of type 1 diabetes, the normal cells in question are the beta cells in the pancreas - the cell that produce insulin. So, several months after the body is exposed to the antigen (usually manifested as a "cold"), the antibodies have been slowly knocking off the beta cells and a critical mass is reached whereby the beta cells can't make enough insulin to cover the body's need and the body develops diabetes. Diabetes, in lay-man terms, is when there's too much circulating glucose in the blood stream - in the type 1 case because there isn't any (or enough) insulin to help this glucose to get brought into the cells to use as fuel. Exercise is one of those rare body functions that allow the cells to suck up glucose without the need for insulin to help them.

Don't worry - the physiology lesson is over for now.

So, as opposed to someone who wants to lookgood in therir bathing or birthday suits, I need to work out to stay healthy. And, yes, I'm just vain enough that I wouldn't mind being the "hot dad" at the soccer games.

So, back to the YMCA.

I'm used to the dingy, grungy basement work out rooms and the chlorine baths they called pools of my youth. So I was in total shock when I visited the YMCA across the street from my work last week. It was beautiful; light and airy; no visible fungii walking around in the showers; all the treadmills had a little screen hooked up to cable! (seriously!)

There's free daycare for 2 hours and the kids were ecstatic to be there - doing crafts, playing games. Hell, I want to spend an hour there, have some milk and then lay down for a nap!

So, young man, were do are going? Everybody - It's fun to go to the Y-M-C-A ayyyyy.