Oh the places you lift

With the closure of Cherry Hill's Philadelphia Sports Club I joined Super Fitness. Upon joining a new gym (again) I decided to take a trip down the memory lane of lifting.

Gym	Start	End	The Good	The Bad
500 Bell Road	1993	1994	Cheap free bench in my bedroom plus a Men's Health book and I was off and running.	Often sacrificed lifting in the name of one more round of Street Fighter 2.
7 Brambling Late	1994	1996	Convenient location of weight bench in my bedroom. Learning to lift in a 7x10 room prepared me for the possibility of having to exercise in jail.	How good of a workout do you get in a 7x10 room?
17 Covington Lane	1996	1998	Monsterous basement provided enough room for a treadmill, bench, and OCD arrangement of plates on the floor.	Jumping rope on concrete for several months led to knees of a 70 year old man when I was 17.
Werblin @ Rutgers	1998	2002	Spend enough time isolated with math, science, and introverted people and you gain appreciation for what would already be an amazing gym. State of the art facilities, and best-in-class pool provided 4 years of engineering stress relief. Also home to the largest Asian dudes I've ever seen.	First experience of old guys in the locker room that liked to brush their teeth naked. Learned valuable skill to walk in a locker room while looking at the ceiling and not bumping my knees on anything.
Winter break: YMCA	Winter 1999		Cheap.	Not too inspired by co-members. Show up with teeth and without diabetes and you're already in the top healthy 1%
Winter break: Rohrer	Winter 2000		And on the 7th day, God (with funding from the Sonk family) created the Rohrer	They stopped offering student discounts. My desire to work out is only exceeded by my desire to not spend more than $100 a month to do so.
Ocean City Library	Summer 2000		Cheap. Highlights include the jazz boxer, torn biceps, music station that took it to the Wiggity-wild wild west,and "The Bouncer"	What could be bad about a gym in the Library? Oh, right, it's in the library.
Ocean City Islander	Summer 2000		First experience with a gym that had chalk for lifting.	Threw out my back attempting a clean-n-press. "My back, the chalk does nothing!"
Ballys - Echelon	2002	2004	Three years of payments ends up with dirt-cheap renewals. Got to lift with Uncle Tony!	Pool contents: 90% water, 9% chlorine, 1% band-aids
Ballys - MT. Laurel	2004	Present	Closer to work. Less floating band-aids than other Ballys.	No pool.
Philly Sports Club	2006	2009	Clean. Fresh towels from the desk. Never crowded. New equipment. Courteous, friendly, responsive staff, passed it on the way home from work. First gym Jackie agreed to join because the other clientèle did not give her the heebie-jeebies.	Closed down to build a CVS. A F*&%ING CVS!
Super Fitness	2009	ASAP	Cheap, around the corner, hours from 5am-11pm are conducive to the wonky schedule of new-fatherhood.	Going from PSC to SF is liking giving up your Porsche for a Jetta. That's right, I'm still bitter about my Jetta.