Numbers?  I don’t need no stinkin’ numbers!  Well, sometimes you don’t.  Sure, measuring yourself with a tape measure or weighing yourself regularly is a good way to track your progress but they are a means to the end, or rather, they are validation of the means.

Or, perhaps, one could view those measurements as the chronicle of a tale told.

But…  the story itself plays out whether or not we record it.

Last week I spent a lot of time in front of my computer dealing with being unemployed.  This week there was less of that “desk stuff” and a lot more dancing in the studio.  Neither last week nor this week have I really been all that concerned about “keeping track” of my fitness levels-NOT a high priority!  This week so far I’ve….

• Sunday — 2 hour couples practice
• Monday — 2 hour couples practice
• Tuesday — An hour private lesson with my coach followed by Line dance practice followed by 30 minutes of couples practice followed by an hour couples lesson followed by another hour of couples practice
• Wed — an hour and a half of couples practice followed by an hour and a half of line dance practice

Which brings me to now. OMG!!!  Gurl let me tell ya…

… I just got home from the studio and I hurt.  I ache.  I have been introduced this week to lots of new muscles:  “Mr. Tony, let me introduce you to your adductor; and his close relative the abductor.”

I now firmly believe that Waltz is a four letter word.

My “and’s” and my “uh’s” have become “huh’s” and “I dropped a beat, don’t step on it!”    (If you’re a dancer you got that; if you’re not, it’s a dance thing…just go with it.)

“Contra body” is something which I am CERTAIN was invented by the Marquis de Sade.

“Staying low and driving,” another common dance technique that one must master I *know*  without a doubt, was invented as a technique to obtain information from victims of the Spanish Inquisition!

Ooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiioooooooooowwwwwwwwww!

The arches of my feet ache.  The tops of my feet ache.  Even the hair follicles on my feet ache!  When I stretch out my leg and feet my ankles sound like a cereal commercial: Snap, Crackle, Pop!

The muscles in my lower back are caucusing with the muscles in my inner thighs and they are planning a revolt.  The muscles in my neck and shoulders are joining the party by making protest signs and my quads have already placed an order on the Internet for flaming torches and pitchforks.

All in all it’s been a good week in the studio.  🙂   We made a lot of progress this week.  🙂

Folks.  In all candor, I am now in the worst shape, physically of my life.  No, I fib.  My worst shape physically was on March 9th when I lost my job.  I weighed 287.5 lbs that day.  Since then I haven’t been weighing but I know that I’m loosing weight and toning muscles. But it ain’t easy; the kind of effort I’m expending this week, a year and a half a go was not such a tough row to hoe.  I can really feel how out of shape I am..  *sigh*

As an aside, I have been putting off trying on my costumes because I’m afraid they may not fit.  Cross your fingers for me.  I have to try them on tonight.   I’ll do it alone in my room.  I don’t want anyone hurt when a button pops off and launches across the room like missile headed for space.  We may be making an emergency trip to the XL store to buy a plain white shirt tomorrow.  *sigh*  But I digress…  😉

But.. On the bright side…  Yes, my muscles are aching but it is that good kind of ache that you get when you’ve done a good workout and you know that your body is going to “recover” from the stress that you’ve put it under, get used to it and then suddenly you can go further and do more.

HOWEVER, at this moment?  Oooooooohhhhhhh  the AAA-go-KNEE right now!  Excuse me, uhm waiter, could I have some cheese and crackers to go with my whine?

Hey this is fun! Let’s use another cliché!   Pity, Party of one, your table is ready! 

I crack myself up sometimes.  But uhm.. .what was I talking about?  Oh yeah, working out this week…..

I have another lesson tomorrow and more line dance practice on the dances I’m teaching this weekend… Oh about the weekend coming up….  Hmmm… I think the endorphins are kicking in.  😉  “Squirrel!”

Texas Hoedown this Weekend!

I’ve got a big weekend coming up.  The first big multi-style dance event in this part of the country each year is the Texas Hoedown in Fort Worth Texas.  Held at a hotel on the very eastern edge of Fort Worth, just south of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the event is part of the American Country Dance Association circuit.  It features social dancing on Friday and Saturday nights, a Saturday night show, competitions in Country Western ProAm, Couples, Line Dance, and Teams.  It also has a West Coast competition as well.  And Workshops.  Lots of workshops.  There is a line dance lobby with a floor dedicated to line dancers and there are vendors with shoes, shirts, jewelry and other dance related goodies.

This event is absolutely one of the “must attend” events in the country western dance world.  It is FUN! Lots of fun.

I’m competing in two age divisions of Intermediate ProAm on Friday night.  I dance with my awesome dance partner Donna on Sunday morning in Division II Couples (Intermediate level).

And I’m on the line dance staff.  Woo Hoo!  Yippee!

I’ll be teaching three dances.  On Friday at 11am I’ll teach the Wobble, at 3pm I teach A Walk on the Wild Side and on Saturday at 1pm I teach  Hi-a-Ma Cha.

It is going to be a busy weekend!  My muscles hate me already.

See ya on the dance floor!