The Talker.

There is a woman at the gym that I steer clear of. She will talk to anyone. And not only will she engage in conversation, but it's totally one-sided. She talks and talks and talks and cannot take any kind of nonverbal cue that lets her know the person she is chattering away to is not interested.

At least, that was my experience.

I was at the gym one night running on a treadmill. It was pretty quiet, so I decided to run on one of the treadmills closest to the TV. It was while I was still on BFL and my iPod was still broken and had not been replaced. Thankfully, I only had to do 20 minutes of cardio.

She gets on the treadmill directly next to me, even though there is no one on any treadmill. Ok, I think, she wants to be able to watch TV, too. Great. The news is on, and they are talking about certain churches being demanded to show proof of exactly how they are spending the millions of dollars they are bringing in, and some churches either will not show proof that their money is going towards reputable causes, or they can't.

She starts talking. And talking. Voicing her opinion loudly. To me. At first I think, ok, fine, I'll make idle chit chat, and then she'll see that I'm not totally interested and stop talking to me. It happens all the time at the gym. You get on a treadmill, maybe make some small talk to the person next to you, then shut up and get on with your workout.

She does not stop talking. I finally stop pretending to even be listening and this lady does not shut up. And it's embarassing. It's one thing to talk about your day or something, but this lady is ranting and raving about churches having to prove how they spend their money and why don't super star athletes have to do the same thing. There are people behind us on the stationary bikes. I hope they don't think I agree with her statements. Or they at least see how annoyed I am.

I have since steered clear of her at all costs. I see her talking to someone constantly. I feel sorry for whoever gets stuck next to her on any of the cardio equipment. If anything, I make sure to leave my earbuds in my ears so she thinks I can't hear her if I see her in the locker room or something. Unforunately, she caught me the other day in the locker room. I thought I was safe because she was on the other side of the lockers, but she caught me in the mirror. There was no one else in there.

"What time do the polls close today?" she asked.

"I really don't know," I say, and hightail it out of there.