How Elsa Got Her Shoes Back

I went to spin class on Friday morning and on Sunday night when I went to set out my spin shoes they were gone. I searched the Extended Stay, my car, the Extended Stay some more (there weren’t that many places they could be) and then I called the gym. Surely, if I had left them there the instructor would have noticed and would have put them in the lost and found. Here’s our conversation:

Gym Employee: “It’s a great day to work out at Lance Armstrong 24 Hour Fitness, my name is Lisa, how may I direct your call?”
WG: “Hi, I think I left my spin shoes there. Did anybody turn them in?”
Gym Employee: “No, I haven’t seen any and there isn’t anything in the lost and found.”
WG: “Oh, okay…Um, bye.”

The more I thought about it the more I was positive I had left them there. I called back:

GE: “It’s a great day to work out at Lance Armstrong 24 Hour Fitness, my name is Lisa, how may I direct your call?”
WG: “Hi, I just called about leaving my spin shoes. I’m sure I left them there. Could you leave a message for the instructor to call me if she found them?”
GE: “Um, I guess so…”
(insert me giving her instructor’s name and my info).
GE: “Okay, have a good day,” (LAUGHING)

So she either was flirting with front desk boy or she thought that me losing my spin shoes was hilarious.

And let me point out two important details:
1, As a spin instructor myself, I’m somewhat of an employee of said gym. Therefore I am not using this girl’s real name nor do I wish to launch any sort of media slander campaign against my semi-employer.
2. Spin shoes are really expensive!!

Yesterday, I went to the gym anyway (despite my lack of appropriate footwear) and asked the front desk girl (different girl) if she had seen any spin shoes. She immediately said, “Oh, yes. I found them on Friday and put them in the lost and found. They’re right there.” She pointed to the top of a file cabinet where my shoes were perched.

Now I ask you, why couldn’t “Lisa” take a little glance that way and realize the same thing? She didn’t even try! And there I was, Sunday night, frantically searching for spin shoes online, emailing other instructors for advice and downright panicking over not getting to say goodbye to my trusty kicks.

So the moral of the story is, don’t trust people when they say they can’t find your spin shoes and they don’t sound like they’ve even looked. You’ve gotta look for your spin shoes yourself.

Or maybe the moral of the story is, “If you set your spin shoes free and they come back, they’re really yours. If they don’t, they never really were.” That was on a poster in my friend Jaime’s room growing up. Except it was about a unicorn. I’m pretty sure it still applies.

But probably the moral is don’t leave expensive things lying around for other people to take.

Nah. I like the unicorn one better.