YMCA - Take Two

You just know that it had to keep going, right? There had to be more to the story. Comedies are usually more than one act. I should have remembered that.

This morning, I walked into the aerobics room and was greeted with a "Back for more torture are you?" from a friendly older gentleman. I smiled sideways and mumbled something in the affirmative, then went over to say hi to Obama. I asked him if anyone has ever told him that he looked like Obama. Only once. "But you're much better looking than him!", some other woman added. We all laughed. I thought things were going well.

Mr. Obama told me that today's class is a bit different than Wednesday's (oh yeah...didn't I see something like that on the calendar?). Apparently, Friday's are more about working our "core", so we use the exercise ball a lot. The Exercise Ball. I inwardly cringed and tried to breathe normally.

We "warmed up" the first 20 minutes to Zumba, a kind of Latino-like aerobics. Ironically, it was a lot like the dancing I did in Peru almost 4 years ago, the last time I was in any kind of shape at all. I lost 30 pounds in 3 months dancing in Martha and Enrique's living room. I loved it.

But I'm feeling self-conscious Zumba-ing in front of all these strangers ("Okay! Now shake the booty! Shake the booty!"). I did it half-heartedly, which is all I could have done anyway, since I was so out of breath.

Then we got those silly exercise balls out. I was the last in line, and it was the last ball in the closet. It felt a bit flat, but what was I going to do? So I took it. She told us to sit on the ball, put bands on our feet, lay on the ball, roll across the ball, put our hands on the floor, and do push-ups. By the time I got myself on the blasted ball, they were already getting up to do something else!

It was when I was laying on the ball that I noticed how flat mine really was - it was halfway deflated when I was on top. I either weighed an extraordinary amount more than the others (something I couldn't help but consider), or I had the Lemon.

Next thing was "dips" using our ball. We were to sit on the ball, roll forward and off of the ball, hanging on from the back with our hands, and go up and down. Well, mine was so flat that everytime I tried my hands would roll off!!!

I was beginning to get a bit frustrated, but made it through to the end (it's a comedy, after all). I'm turning around, headed for my water bottle and a rest, when everyone starts running around the room! Really. Running. The instructor tells everyone to hop to it, we've got 3 minutes left. You've got to be kidding me. Is this optional? Will Grandma at least sit out so that I'm not the only one? Nope. Grandma starts running too. So I've got no choice. There I go, running laps around the big room - something I haven't done since P.E. in 9th grade.

I finally stopped when I got so hot I felt like I needed to sit down. I kept muttering "ridiculous" to myself. I'm not sure if I thought the class was ridiculous or I was, but it doesn't matter. I did it! And my shirt wasn't even inside out. Things are looking up.