Not as Easy as It Looks

I led my first Zumba song this morning!!!!  Yes, one song only.  Baby steps, friends…  baby steps…  An instructor friend that I know let Steph and I each lead one of our own songs during her class.  It went very well!  Yeah! But, let me tell you, aerobics and group fitness instructors have a tough job.  I had no idea how difficult it would be to lead a group of people through a song.  Because I’m so new to this, I had to just look at myself in the mirror.  I had a fear that if I looked at anyone in the class they would throw me off.

Last night I spent a good three hours rehearsing the same salsa song.  I had practiced it for a couple of hours the day before too.  It was 4 minutes and 19 seconds long with tons of transitions.  So, learning it was pretty tricky.  The music seems to go on forever.  I chose this particular song because we used it a lot in my training class.  I was already somewhat familiar with the rhythm.  Thankfully, there was a lot of repetition so the students could keep up.

I think the most awesome thing about leading Zumba is the fact that it is almost entirely nonverbal.  The instructor cues the students mainly with hand signals or claps.  Therefore, no mic is required.  Thank goodness.  I practiced before class this morning with a headset mic.  It sucked!  It kept falling off of my head because I was bouncing around so much.  I also felt like I was huffing and puffing into the thing.  Not good to have that amplified.  The studio is extremely small so the students could easily hear me if I had to speak.

So, I’ll be checking off this item on my “Things I Want to Do Before I Die” list.  Now, I just need to master an entire class worth of songs…  It might take me forever 🙂

In case you’re curious, check out the Zumba fashion…

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Weekend Recap

Ohhhh, you guys.  I did it.  I broke down and became an official Zumba instructor this on Saturday.  Don’t get too excited.  It’s not like I am in any way prepared to do my own class yet.  In fact, I really just want to sub every once in a while.  It’s going to take me a good month or more to memorize a bunch of songs and then create some choreography.

This is SO out of the box for me.  It’s good to do that to yourself every once in a while.  Shock your system a bit with something new.

I love taking Zumba classes and always wondered how each instructor was able to make the experience so fun.  Now I know.  After 8 hours of straight dancing I know the secrets of Zumbafied Salsa, Merengue, Cumbia and Reggaeton…  And our instructor was simply amazing.  I have never seen a 50-something woman move like that.  Seriously, a-mazing.

My plan is to learn enough stuff really well to sub for a class in the future.  At this point, I cannot imagine doing my own regular class…  Besides, I hear that there is crazy competition among the Zumba instructors in our area.  I certainly don’t need that kind of drama in my life.

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In other news, we hosted a family birthday party for my mom and Dude at our house on Sunday evening.  We had tons of appetizers and Pampered Chef’s Decadent Chocolate Raspberry Torte.  I was a total bum about my appetizers.  I purchased them all.  I didn’t make a single one…  If I was going to spend a couple of hours making the cake there was no way I was going to make appetizers too.

All of the food was great.  But the cake was the highlight.  YUM!  My mother-in-law made it for Christmas and my mom has been craving it ever since.  I broke down and made one for her knowing that the assembly would be a pain in the butt.  It turned out pretty well.  It’s not as perfect looking as my mother-in-law’s was but I think it looked pretty good.  It tasted exactly the same as hers and that’s all that really counts!  That little torte has 20 servings for a reason.  It’s sooooo rich!

I ended up getting my mom a whole bunch of odds and ends for her birthday: two spring green casserole dishes, 5 green dish towels, a bamboo spoon, fun plaid flip flops, a beaded necklace with matching earrings and a gift certificate to her favorite pedicure place.  Aileen’s Gabby purse suggestion was awesome but I’d already bought her presents by the time I’d read her comment 🙂  Maybe I’ll save the purse idea for Christmas or something.

All in all, it was a great weekend.  Very fun!  Very busy!  I’m not looking forward to cleaning my dirty house and doing my piles of laundry this week th0ugh…