Chapter 5: Sharp Dressed Man

Fitness for Boomers, Tuscaloosa, AL

Mid-Afternoon, January 8, 2003

We departed Fitness for Boomers about three-twenty-five in the afternoon. Before we left, Kaleigh actually gave me a physically tangible birthday gift. After she pulled on her skin tight blue-jeans and pink cashmere sweater, sans a bra, she told me to wait while she ran out to the welcome desk. I had my socks and Marvin boxers on, and was half-heartedly looking for my tanned pants and South Carolina polo when she came back into the ladies’ dressing room with a neatly wrapped birthday package.

“Great timing I see,” she exclaimed as I moved over to the leather couch with my pants. “Don’t bother with those ... remember the wet spot,” she said with small laugh. “I hope you like what I got you for your birthday!”

“Star-Baby, you already gave me the best gift I could ever ask for. You didn’t need to get me anything else.”

“Just open it and see if it works for you,” she said as she tossed the boxed present at me.

“Trying to kill me are you!” I said as I snagged the flung gift wrapped box from the air in front of my face.

“If I wanted you killed, you’d be dead by now,” she fired back, again showing her quick wit.

I made a big, “Ohhh!” sound in response, but thought better about trying to outdo her in a verbal jousting contest at moment. I instead ripped open the gift and saw a Western Wear box. I glanced at Kaleigh and raised my left eyebrow as I’m sure she wouldn’t have gotten me any ‘country styled’ clothes.

“Just open it, you big dummy,” she said with a touch of exasperation.

Inside the box was a black Adidas track suit, with red and white trim. On the left chest was an embroidered, ‘Fitness for Boomers‘ logo with ‘Dr. Iron’ below it.

“Wow! This is one sharp suit. I love your logo, as well. Thank you, Kaleigh.” I jumped up off the couch and softly kissed Kaleigh on her lips and forehead. I tossed the jacket on the couch and pulled the pants on and tied the drawstring. Kaleigh handed me my polo shirt. The track jacket looked great with my garnet colored Gamecock shirt.

“Yes! You’re one sharp dressed man, now!” Kaleigh exclaimed as I did a poor little pirouette for her. Both of us then put on our running shoes and headed out of the dressing room into the main workout area towards the front entrance.

“Hold on a sec, Iron,” she said as she ducked behind the welcome desk. She played with some electronic gear under it, and then came back around to the door with her handbag under her arm. “Okay, the alarm system is all set. Let’s make like a leaf and tree,” Kaleigh giggled at her purposeful miss-wording of that silly saying.

I followed her Nissan Maxima the short distance to the Cypress Inn restaurant on the Black Warrior River in Northport, AL. As it was still relatively early for dinner, we got a window table, which showed the beautiful view of that big river as well as my lovely lady. We chatted about her fitness club and how well it was doing as we waited for our waitress to take our drink and dinner orders. Kaleigh said she had exceeded all her sales projections and expectations since she first opened it in October of 2002. She also said she was well ahead in paying off her business loans for all her club’s equipment.

Kaleigh related that the turning point in her club’s finances occurred in mid-November, the Tuesday after the Alabama-Auburn Iron Bowl game. Both head football coach Dennis Franchione’s wife, Kim, and defensive coordinator Carl Torbush’s wife, Janet stopped into the club to look around. While Ms. Kim and Ms. Janet didn’t actually qualify as baby boomers yet, they were impressed with Kaleigh’s facilities, her staff, and her overall knowledge of what it took to help older woman (and a few men) maintain or improve their health. After taking a tour of the club, both ladies signed up for full memberships.

Kaleigh told me she then boldly asked both ladies if they would agree to be in her first advertisement brochure, and possibly give a small testimonial about her club. They both said they would think it over and talk with their husbands about it before getting back with her on it.

Not only did the big-time football coaches’ wives agree to a photo session and testimonial, they said they would do a radio spot, if and when Kaleigh wanted to advertise on the that media. I just smiled and soaked up all the things Kaleigh had done so quickly with her fitness club. I let her know how proud I was of her for all her early accomplishments.

What I didn’t tell Kaleigh right then was that Coach Torbush, and his wife Janet were friends of mine, and Janet was actually a new adjunct instructor in our Human Performance Department. I was sure that Kaleigh probably didn’t know that last part, as Janet only taught non-major courses in our department.

At a faculty meeting that prior November, Janet told me about Kaleigh’s fitness club. I said that Kaleigh was still an undergraduate student with us and was finishing her degree that December. That impressed Janet a lot, and she related that Kaleigh asked her and Kim Franchione to do that promotional work for the club. I told Janet that Kaleigh was my advisee and a real go-getter. I also stressed that I didn’t think she would misuse their images or story in any way to bring disrespect to them or their husbands. I could tell from prior my conversation with Janet that she was at least going to help Kaleigh with her advertisements, and I hoped that Janet could convince Kim and Coach Fran to go along with her. Knowing Janet and Carl like I did, I kind of figured Kaleigh was going to get her super spokeswomen to help out.

Kaleigh was telling me about the upcoming photo shoot with Ms. Franchione and Ms. Torbush when our waitress came by to take our orders. I told her I wanted a sweet tea with lemon, while Kaleigh ordered a diet coke. We hadn’t really looked at the menu with our discussion going on, so our waitress left to get our drinks. Kaleigh normally spoke with a soft southern accent, but right now, she could easily pass for a ‘Southern-Canadian’ girl as she was wound-up and talking fast regarding her new business plans. I saw the waitress coming with our drinks and causally picked up my menu to signal to Kaleigh that maybe we should take a look at what we wanted to eat. Kaleigh caught that hint and stopped her business talk and looked at her menu.

We both order the glazed Bourbon-glazed salmon and steamed vegetables (dang health conscious people!), but we also ordered a Triple Chocolate Fudge Brownie for desert. As usual, the food at Cypress was incredible, seasoned to perfection and just the right portion size for a normal person to eat. That was good because the desert was definitely big enough for two huge eaters and it would have caused us to explode if we had of stuffed ourselves on the main course.

We continued talking about her new business, and then switched easily into telling each other about our families. I met her parents and younger brother at graduation, but her older sister, Molly, wasn’t able to make it her graduation. Kaleigh told me that Molly lived in Tampa Bay and is a cheerleader for the Buccaneers. Her sister had a Buccaneer fundraiser to attend that Saturday, and then a game to cheer at that following Sunday. As we were talking, Kaleigh pulled out her cellphone and opened up her digital photo albums.

I loved the picture of Molly, Kaleigh and their mother, Tammy at a Tampa Bay Bucs game. The old adage of looking at a girl’s mother to see what she will probably look like twenty years down the line was looking great for the two Plyer girls. Kaleigh and Molly were a spitting image of their mother, who looked like she could have been their older sister. All three ladies had kick ass bodies and golden blonde hair in that picture. Molly was wearing her body rocking Buc’s cheer outfit, which showed she was blessed at least as well in the chest department as Kaleigh. Both Kaleigh and her mother were wearing pretty sundresses. All three ladies wore some killer cheap sunglasses in the bright Florida sunshine.

I told Kaleigh that her family members were all good looking folks, but that I was more impressed with her awesome personality and overall kindheartedness than her looks. I then related a story I heard through the grapevine about how Kaleigh went out of her way to help a few students with both the academic aspects of a school project, and some material resources, too. These students weren’t even friends of her or other kinesiology students.

A librarian friend of mine told me how Kaleigh heard some students softly arguing about some topic in the Education library. Apparently these students couldn’t do an assignment that way they wanted to because they didn’t have the money to get the needed materials for it. Kaleigh, as I was told, simply offered her view on their topic, which seemed to clarify the other students’ perception of the project. Then, about fifteen minutes later, my librarian friend said that Kaleigh came back to the library and gave those students a Supply Store bag with the needed materials to complete the project in the way they thought was best but couldn’t afford on their own. The other students tried to refuse her help, but Kaleigh simply told them that God blessed her with financial resources and she felt like it was the right thing to do for them.

Kaleigh just stared at me dumbfounded and then softly said, “I just did what I thought needed to be done. That guy and girl just seemed totally defeated in the library. I knew they were onto something with their art project, and I love creative art. They, just uh, they were on track but had their hands tied behind their backs. That isn’t a good thing for artists.”

My Star smiled at me and added, “You’ve done some homework on me it seems, just like I did with you.”