And then there was Zumba!

(pronounced Zoom-ba! And for some reason, always in a loud crazy-like voice!)

Not long after the 27th Annual Causeway Walk in January, my friend Lori asked if I would be interested in accompanying her to the local gym. She offered me a free pass and said she felt pretty confident I would like the Zumba classes – a ‘new’ kind of aerobics. Now I love walking the beach in the morning but I was ready to incorporate a change. So away I went as did a couple of other gal-pals Lori invited from the KOA. We were five together on that first morning.

Now keep in mind that Lori had already experienced one or two Zumba classes. She had shared her view that it was a strenuous workout and strongly recommended we bring a bottle of water and a drying towel - what would I need that for? I wasn’t planning to shower there!

But only one of us really understood what was in store and that was Lori. She offered to drive and I was never so thankful especially on the ride home. After that first Zumba class, there was no way I could have taken control of a car – my arms and legs were like rubber and I was still sweating when I got home and climbed into the shower!

On our first visit, Lori introduced us to our Zumba instructor - tall, slim, muscular and perfect for the part – Zumba shoes and clothes included! I knew I was in trouble when she was sweating and we were only 3 minutes into the class with another 57 to go! Have you ever tried to wiggle every part of your body at the same time for 60 minutes? Each piece of music runs about 5 minutes and there is little and sometimes no time to catch your breath in between. There are many different dance routines and steps – Samba and Salsa especially – and all fast. The music can be Latin, Caribbean, African, Greek – man alive, I was jiggling everywhere (and not necessarily to the beat) and LOVING it!

It made no matter what I looked like and, believe me, I looked like a rag after 3 short minutes. I took a quick look around the room and EVERYBODY looked like a wet rag - a situation that did not improve with future visits. As Lori suggested, I brought a drying towel and I used it repeatedly between songs to wipe my brow, cheeks, mouth, neck and arms and, for good measure, my face once again!

I observed our instructor wore a headband so I headed off to Wally-Mart to get one. At the next Zumba session, all it did was keep the sweat contained on my head! I also put my hair back in a wee pony tail for the class – just like the instructor. When I got home, lo and behold, I took off the headband and released the elastic only to see my hair stay in the exact same place – flat to my skull, soaking wet and tied back as if the elastic was still in place!

I won’t give you any more details on the rest of my body and attire after each class save to say that I apologized to Lori every time I got out of her car. After all, she has leather seats and there I was sitting on them leaving behind who knows what! Whenever I got out of her car, I swept my hand over the seat and then… I’d eagerly make sure I was in tune for our next scheduled visit to Zumba!

I could not have completed those Zumba classes (I ended up going to 6 of them) without my gal-pals. Thank you Lori for introducing me to Zumba. Thank you Peggy for driving that day when we were only two. Thank you Tia for coming along when you could and making it look easy. Thank you to Johanne and Joan for giving it a try. It was sure a lot of fun that night at the dance club when we pretended to Zumba both on and off the dance floor!

Let me be clear, there are no photos of this athletic event. Not a single one of us would allow such a thing to happen. Did any of us lose weight because of Zumba? Lori for sure - me? probably not. But wow, was it fun! Zumba may be the new craze but best of all, it was great being crazy with those gals!

You can relax now, the two pieces on exercise are over! The next blog entry will be about flying – no, not kites! Flying in a real airplane… give me a few days and I’ll be back to you… m.