Zah zah zah Zumba!

Oh My HEAVENS!
That was quite possibly the single most entertaining event I have ever attended.  And not because it was so spectacular that I couldn't contain myself, but rather, because of the interesting social dynamic that was present.

Anyone who read my previous Zumba post knows that I am fashion challenged, but I never knew how important fashion in exercise was until the 'Wake Up Your Life Zumbathon' in Helena.  Girls were there of all shapes and sizes and, thankfully, in all sorts of different types of apparel, but there was CLEARLY a bar set that many reached, but a majority did not.  I think if we were in Los Angeles, this would not have been the case, but in Helena, Montana....there are not many who can achieve the high level of  'cool' that is the Zumba crowd.

The problem, I think, is a lack of sunshine.  When I moved to Montana from sunny California, I noticed this fashion deficiency and actually welcomed it, because I could never really keep up with the west coast vibe anyway.  It isn't just a Zumba thing, but it became exceedingly evident and clear at the Zumbathon that we in the north of the Mountain Standard Time Zone simply do not have what it takes to be 'cool'.  I'm not sure how clear that was to any of the native Montanans, but for a transplant like me, it was obvious.

True Zumba girls walked around in 'packs' sporting their best Zumba gear, which included $60 Official Zumba pants, $40 Official Zumba 'shirts' (I use quotations because they might not qualify as 'shirts' unless you are on the beach.), and some sort of wrist or head band with bright florescent colors.

You could tell who was 'out of date' because some people had official Zumba pants, but they didn't have this year's tassels that hung from the knees and butt cheeks of the more up-to-date Zumba-ers.  Most of the Montana instructors got the memo that camo pants with bright orange tassels were the proper attire for the evening. This group walked around together with power strides through the crowd bumping anyone with the audacity to be standing in the wrong place as they tried to get through.  I was silly enough to be standing in the same spot for 20 minutes while waiting for things to start when I was bumped over by the seriously intent group who clearly had something more important to do than to worry about the little people down on the floor that might have gotten in the way.  It was like a flashback from high school where the Cheerleaders had a pep rally to get to, and all of the regular student body had to part the red sea for them to get by or else get bumped into the wall as the 'important' people go by.  Usually the importants would smile and say 'ooh! sorry!' with a shining smile, and the innocent bystander was supposed to smile back and wave, because, hey, they TALKED to you.  This time, however, I was older than the 'cool kids' so I wasn't nearly as impressed.

The special guests of the evening were really famous.  My friend and I had VIP tickets so we got to meet them AND go take our picture with them. Except, we had NO idea who they were.  Once everyone figured out that the guy wearing the blue sweat suit,  that was walking around for an hour before the thing started, was the guy we were all waiting for, the line to meet him on stage got very long very fast.  It was DeeJay something and this girl named... Marcie??  All I know is I thought maybe she was Christina Aguilera in disguise because she had long blonde hair and wore a very fashionable hat.  Anyway, I guess they invented Zumba or something.  The main thing is that our instructors were REALLY excited to meet them, so we pretended to be excited too.

Turns out Marcie IS an amazing dancer, and she is really nice.  The DeeJay is...well...very attractive without his shirt on.  He took his shirt off half way through the hour and a half Zumbathon to inspire the masses to keep going....and it worked.  Married women, young women, old women, and women who prefer women, all screamed in a wild frenzy as he disrobed and flexed his amazing abs.  My friend took one look and said, ''Somehow, he reminds me of my laundry.''  I said he reminded me of my husband, so I won the witty funny comment contest on that round.  Don't tell Greg I said that, he'll remind me that I look reeeeeally wide in my photo with the DeeJay, and my dream of washboard abs has never, ever, been achievable....not even BEFORE kids.

Anyway, I managed to make it through the entire hour and a half without needing assistance from the paramedics on site, and I was reminded of how much I used to love dancing to fun music.  I think Zumba is 'the biggest exercise craze since aerobics' because women like to go out dancing.  Their husbands either won't take them, or are terrible dancers and simply shouldn't take them.  Its like girls' night out with weight loss benefits.  I'm pretty sure I lost 5 pounds in that one hour and a half session and I can't complain about that. Plus all the laundry I got done using only my eyeballs...

So, a big shout out to all my Zumba peeps...thanks for the party! "Holla!"