Savannah Diva

Apparently in TnT you're a celebrity if you exercise. As part of my recent commitment to keeping healthier and losing some unwanted protrusions and handles, I embarked on a 'serious' exercise programme. So serious is this programme that I am wont to leave my home at least three times per week and head to the Aranguez Savannah, San Juan, by foot, to do my obligatory two laps around (third lap is optional/lagniappe), in peace and relative solitude.
Getting there in my cute little exercise suit creates quite a stir however.
People (invariably men of the oogling, "psst family" variety) pop their horns, shout out encouragement or other sentiments, most of them complimentary though.
I've heard "Nice, nice, keep it up", "Oh gosh darkie yuh lookin' sweet in dat outfit", and my favourite which always makes me smile "Like yuh exercising girl?" Women look too - I see them trying not to look but they can't hide their stares that reveal they are thinking that they should be exercising too.
It is always the same, from the time I hit the street near my home I can count the seconds before it starts.
At the Savannah now it's a little less, but still existent. Fellow joggers nod at you almost as if doing a curtsy - you have joined the Monarchy of the exercise elite; "there are only a few of us left" they seem to be saying. And of course there are the limers around the track who stop talking long enough as you pass to take in your form from top to bottom (gluteus maximus, that is).
So, is it that if you are a public exerciser in this country, you are automatically a celebrity? It seems so to me. Well, at least you are a curiosity. Why is it that so few of us fail to exercise regularly, although we would spend hours at a fete jumping, waving, and wining and two full days on the road after that? Is it that we consider exercise boring? I know I did. Exercising is hard, grueling work especially if you haven't done it for a while. But there's something else - it grows on you until you look forward to it, heading to the Savannah, or doing 20 minutes of Pilates, then weight training with your small dumbbells in your living room, or doing about 50 plus twists on your newly bought (delightfully cheap) abs twister, on an alternate basis, every day.
Celebrity or not, I'll continue to revel in the attention I get when I go out exercising. If you see me, you're welcome to say hi or just wave.
Charms.