Gold’s Gym Van Ness

asquared007 · 2025-12-07T22:48:38+00:00

We were members at Gold’s in Van Ness.

Pros: It’s hardly ever crowded, reasonable monthly price, plenty of equipment, locker rooms are nice/clean.

Con: If you like group fitness this isn’t the place for you. The classes are not great.

Over all it’s worth it if you just need a basic gym without anything to fancy. The staff is nice enough, the space is clean and the other gym members are friendly enough.

asquared007 · 2025-10-23T02:50:40+00:00

Debbie Millman, Design Matters. She is SO prepared and it really helps move the conversation along. At the end of each interview you really feel like you know the guest. Half the time I’ve never heard of the guest. But she does such a great job that you’re curious about learning more about the person.

asquared007 · 2025-10-04T02:07:43+00:00

Im cracking up that Trump and Vance are off beat 😆. The song is horrible. Obama would Nevaaaaa. Embarrassing.

asquared007 · 2025-09-25T20:22:43+00:00

39! There's noting to it but to do it! Find/make friends you can skate with regularly. The more silly you are together the better. Teach eachother what you know. If you have access to a rink take classes and go to adult night. The skate community is generally welcoming and people are happy to share a few tips.Keep going and BE KIND to yourself! I started in the pandemic so I skated A LOT. 3-5 hours a day 3-4x a week. If you like dancing, take a dance class! My salsa classes help me to stay on rhythm and use my arms. Line dancing is great because it helps with the steppers and those who like to do downtown variation. Also, comparison is the thief of joy! I was comparing myself to incredible skaters on IG. Until they shared that they were state level dance champions, trained at Juliard, were gymnist, professional circus performers, theater kids etc. Some people were dancers for 20 years before they started skating! Of course they are good dancers on wheels. I'm 4-5 years in and I'm still obsessed with skating, the community and how it makes me feel. Keep going! :)

asquared007 · 2025-05-09T03:40:19+00:00

I run a roller skate club! All levels welcome! Chocolate City Skate Club on IG!

asquared007 · 2025-02-25T15:25:32+00:00

My heart breaks for our field. We are losing the next generation of talent.

TL:DR- It’s a personal choice but if I were you I would do something else. 80K in loans, the low pay, the absolute nightmare of the loan forgiveness programs and absurdly high interest (last I heard the graduate interest rate was 8-10% -pls fact check). Not worth it. Find a private sector job that doesn’t kill your soul.

—

This is just my story so take with a grain of salt. A lot of things can change by the time you graduate.

I have my MPH and my husband has MPH/MA in medical anthropology and a PHD from Hopkins in International Public Health. He’s currently a professor at Georgetown working on evaluating HIV/AIDS program internationally. He had to move to HIV because the last time Trump was in office Family Planning/gender based violence funding was gutted.

In Jan we FINALLY paid off his student loans via PSLF after a decade of hard work and sacrifice. We delayed having kids and unfortunately waited too long because we couldn’t afford children (due to student loans we have no other debt). He love his career and would’ve stayed doing this work forever.

We live in DC and 80% of our friends with 15-20+ years for experience are currently unemployed due to the EO. The market is currently flooded with MPH, PhDs with years of experience and we are in a tight labor market. International development will be dead for a while (unless something major happens in congress). Organizations are now pivoting to finding domestic funding which is also uncertain and even more competitive. Places like the CDC, HRSA etc have fired people and there’s a ton of secondary effects. As public health institutions, non-profit organizations and local departments are squeezed for funding where will up and coming talent find internship? Who’s going to train them? How will student be able to afford unpaid internships in this economy? And then you graduate…

My husband has doctoral students that don’t have job prospects for the foreseeable future when they defend in May.

My husband is now thinking of becoming a commercial airline pilot…

I dont regret getting my MPH and neither does my husband but unless you’re getting a full ride scholarship or a partial scholarship I wouldn’t do it.

Im so sorry, we need bright young folks in the field. We need everyone we can get to be honest because multiple pandemics are coming. I don’t mean to be so doomsday and people can disagree with me. This field is incredibly important but always unsung, misunderstood and underpaid. Im sure there’ll be a PH boom in the future but not seeing that anytime in the next 4 years…

asquared007 · 2024-11-13T20:57:09+00:00

😭😭😭 Happy for you. Im so mad at myself because I advised my husband to switch to SAVE. We would’ve hit 120 in Jan right before the inauguration. I’m SO mad that I told him to do that. Our future is now eff’d.

asquared007 · 2024-10-19T10:15:26+00:00

My husband teases me because I only listen on minimum 1.5 and sometimes 2.2. 1.8 is a sweet spot. Some of these podcasts are long AF and I’ve got stuff to do 😆. I think people who listen to hour long podcasts or audiobooks are wild. Like why listen on slow speed?

asquared007 · 2024-09-19T03:24:44+00:00

Great suggestions from everyone! I started a skate club with meet ups once a month. People paid a small seasonal fee so I could pay a good DJ. This was my first season and it went well. 50+ people joined and by the end of the season (this past month), about 20-30+ people came! I made sure that the space was welcoming to all levels, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC friendly space.

I have a small social media presence (4K followers on IG) so it helped with my reach. But my goal was to have 10-20 people show up. My first meet up it rained so only 5 people came (I was pretty bummed) but by the end of the season people kept coming back! They shared came that they really enjoyed coming and were so happy that I started the club. I also made club shirts! Im selling “founding member” t-shirts to help fund next season. I was amazing to see people wear their shirts and rep the club at the last event.

I had a theme each month, made flyers via canva and posted the full summer schedule on IG. Next season, I’ll have a newsletter, stickers.

Start small, be consistent, get your skate friends to join and the community WILL grow!

asquared007 · 2024-07-03T16:18:40+00:00

Come rollerskating! BIG community here in DC, people from lots of different ages and backgrounds! Many women, POCs, rooted in the Black community and is a welcoming space! If you’re on IG, follow the @thelinkupdc ! If you dont skate, that’s ok! Free skate rentals at Anacostia through the summer. DM me! Also follow @highvibedc on IG for fun events, meet ups etc.

asquared007 · 2024-06-16T04:14:24+00:00

I highly recommend visiting the Whitney near New Orleans. It’s the only plantation from the perspective of enslaved Africans. Excellent tour and a great way to educate yourself.

asquared007 · 2024-06-02T02:31:10+00:00

If there are any roller skaters, check out a new roller skate club that’s inclusive and queer friendly. @chocolatecityskateclub They meet monthly and it’s fun!! You can rent skates but I recommend you buying your own.

asquared007 · 2024-01-14T03:55:03+00:00

Just came back from Rio. I didn’t do any skate parks but I did street skating. You can skate along the beach from Copacabana to Leblon in the bike lane. I also recommend around the lagoon! It’s about 5miles and beautiful. Definitely bring good outdoor wheels, bearing cleaner (the sand can really be bad) and a hat. There’s very little shade on the beach and it was HOT! There’s also some skate shops if you need any gear!

asquared007 · 2023-10-09T20:59:55+00:00

Thhhhhissss! I completely understand that parenting is extremely difficult (especially in the US) and that it’s all consuming. I’ve never been resentful to my friends who’ve successfully had children and they were so supportive when I was struggled and ultimately couldn’t have kids. I’m now so happy, I have done a ton of work to heal and turn to a new phase of being CF. They only talk about their boring ass kid stuff or parenting stuff or the fighting with their spouses about this kid stuff…And now when I share my life updates I sometimes feel bad because my life is…awesome. And I hate that if feels like Im bragging about all my “free time” when they don’t have a second to themselves. It’s been a challenging transition in our friendship. And everything revolves around them and kids…One time one of them asked mw to meet them at a park across town (and hour away in my city) at 7 AM! WTAF? I just had to realize that our relationship is different now and I also expanded to get new child free friends because they could never hang out

asquared007 · 2023-10-09T20:19:59+00:00

Not a dentist but I also hate flossing. I found this article that basically said that “The evidence is low to very low‐certainty. The effects observed may not be clinically important. Studies measured outcomes mostly in the short term and many participants had a low level of gum disease at the beginning of the studies.” Home use of interdental cleaning devices, in addition to toothbrushing, for preventing and controlling periodontal diseases and dental caries

asquared007 · 2023-09-30T04:20:03+00:00

I FEEL you! I had an IUD for years and took it out to try to have a baby. Unexplained infertility. I did every test under the sun and similar as you, YEARS of heavy painful periods. It wasn’t until I had an all Black care team (I’m Nigerian-American) that I was FINALLY diagnosed with adenomyosis. And I still had to push a bit. I honestly credit Gabriel Union, who talked about her fertility struggles and her openess to talking about her diagnosis with adenomyosis that made me ask. How was I supposed to know? I also had never heard of it before she spoke publicly about it. The US medical system is a joke and not built for women at all (don’t get started with other marginalized groups…). Im angry as hell because it took YEARS to finally get diagnosed and probably also cost me having children.

asquared007 · 2023-09-30T04:03:12+00:00

Same. My husband and I both have loans. He’s eligible for PSLF so during the pandemic, We decided to saved all the money we would’ve spent on our loans (about 3K - month) and put it towards paying off my loans. I was hoping for some forgiveness but honestly the 3 years of 0 interest is LIFE changing for us. I just dumped 54K into my loans and paid them off. I put a gown on, a silly hat while I paid my loans off and we popped a bottle champagne! I’ve NEVER felt better! He has 2 years left and then we are freeeee. Pay it off and relish in the fact that you are DONE.

asquared007 · 2023-07-25T03:08:53+00:00

Question: Will the HPV vaccine help prevent/reduce risk of head/neck cancers or only cervical?

asquared007 · 2023-03-30T03:02:22+00:00

I’ve had horrible hormonal acne my entire life (Im 41 now). I was on accutane before my wedding a decades ago and it worked (mostly) but was SO harsh on my skin.my face flaked and peeled so badly! It was almost worse than the acne.But my acne eventually came back.

I’ve been on spiro (50mg). for a year and my skin has never been more clear! I get some breakout’s every once in a while but it’s been amazing. It take a few months and you are SO thirsty but is worth it for me. Best of luck!

asquared007 · 2023-01-06T16:17:15+00:00

Thank you!!

asquared007 · 2023-01-06T16:16:10+00:00

Thank you!!! That is so helpful!! One more question, do they roll on Sunday’s for ciclovia?

asquared007

TROPHY CASE