I went to this exercise class yesterday called zumba. Its probably old news to people who are in to fitness techniques but to me it was a revelation. Exercise can be fun in the winter while indoors too. Technically zumba is called Latin dance and aerobics put together. But that is like calling ice cream frozen milk with a little extra sugar. I’d call zumba something more like a hip hop attitude while attending Carnival all night and running in to a Mexican oompah band and a few bellydancers along the way. Ouch. And it was an hour long. After about 5 minutes I had long passed my target heartrate and I wondered vaguely if I would keel over and die on the floor in front of all of those lovely fit people who just couldn’t stop their feet. They all seemed to have natural rythym and hours of professional dance under their exercise belts, whereas I stared in the mirror at a girl who was clearly winging it and turning various shades pink. Nevertheless, don’t get the idea that I didn’t have a good time. In fact, I am certain I would have been smiling the whole hour if it weren’t for the fact that all of my other muscles were engaged and I couldn’t manage the extra brain power to make me smile. I tried a few times but it kept creeping away as I focused one more time on left, forward, shimmy, roll it, roll it , now reverse, clap clap clap, jump type stuff. The instructor was awesome too. He had memorized all of the songs lyrics, wore a headset, blasted the music and was so into the dance and singing that he actually closed his eyes in happiniess when he wasn’t too busy shouting encouraging things to us. All in all, it was incredibly corny, yet hilarious and exciting like being at a party where everyone is pals and a little tipsy and playing their favorite song of the summer at top volume. I’m definately going back because it beats doing sit ups and jogging in place. After the class a few friendly folks came by to encourage my return. One lady had a fancy watch that kept track of her heart rate and calorie burning. She informed us that we had burned 500 calories.  I am imagining next time already. Maybe I’ll only turn light purple and I’ll remember some of the steps.