Perseverance...

Best Friend Rachel and I have decided to be workout buddies this week because she works days at the hospital instead of random evenings and tonight is Zumba. I'm really excited to go because I haven't been since before Sandy caused all classes to be cancelled. Although immediately after I get home, I realize it would be much more enjoyable to sit at home and watch TV for most or all of the night. So I text Rachel and attempt to convince her that Zumba is not actually what we want to do. Fortunately or unfortunately, Rachel can not be swayed and insists we do Zumba.

I pack my bag and drag myself to my car to drive to the gym, all the while cursing the fact that I'm not home watching HGTV at this present moment. Even if that couple had ridiculous demands and no budget for their first home and be incredibly entertaining. I get to the gym and say hi to Carla.

While in the locker room, I have a conversation with myself and it goes something like this. "Suck it up. You may not want to be here but you know you should be." "Yeah, maybe I should be but I'm really grumpy about it." "Grumpy people piss me off and I don't want to be pissed off when I start Zumba." "Well I can't help it." "Yes you can. You can choose to be grumpy or you can choose to have the best time you can. And you better choose the latter because it can't be fun if you won't let it." "Wow. I'm really smart. Thanks for helping me adjust my attitude, me." "Anytime."

I have conversations like that with myself on a semi-frequent basis and I am not ashamed. So I meet Rachel upstairs and tell her thanks for making me come because I totally didn't want to. We take our regular place towards the front of the room and high five each other for the awesome workout we're about to experience.

A third of the way in I get the all too familiar cramp in the right side of my stomach. I hate this part. But I know from experience that I can work through this pain and I'm not actually suffering from something serious like appendicitis. And sure enough, after 2 more songs, the pain is gone and I'm still having a blast.

Here's my complaint with Zumba, though. It is so focused on feet movement and my legs get tired and be arches of my feet KILL before class is over. No, I don't want to move my foot really fast right now. I'd rather do squats than kick ball change. And that's saying something because I hate squats, as all of you know.

By the end of class we've done some new dances, we've done some old dances, and I have greatly increased my club dance repertoire. Watch out for me next weekend, Boston. I'll wipe the floor with you.