by Tish MacWebber | Aug 6, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
If you have ever wondered why I picked the “Angry Tomato” pic for this series, there are a few reasons. One is that it made me laugh, out loud. I reacted to it, so I decided it would work. Another is because I am fighting my way to living a healthier lifestyle, and I wanted a kitchen themed picture for this series. I try to do the cooking and cleaning on the weekends, I find it had to work at during the work week. I have had some success this year in my spring cleaning challenge, but as of yet, I have not finished. I choose not to dwell on what I have not done and try to move forward because of what I have done.
I am planning my day out, dreading the return to work tomorrow. I am a firm believer that there should be less week and more weekend. I do not have the power or the budget to sustain a lifestyle that does not include a day job, so the reality is, I have to keep the day job, even if I would rather devote all of my time to being creative and writing.
Which brings me to my books. I have started them, yes. I have had an idea (finally) this morning about where to continue as I plan to write some more today. I don’t know if I will succeed in writing enough to complete the weekend challenge I joined, but I am going to see what I could do. That is how I entered. This doesn’t count, as it is not progressing on my book. I will add it to the word count as a side project, because it is writing, nonetheless. I do have deadlines with my blog, too, though and I have to do my best to keep up with it here for myself, and for my followers. Thank you to those who are taking the time to read my Blog, and welcome to any people who are new here. I write at least twice a week, and this is one of my regular categories. Me vs the weekend. 🙂
Yesterday I got up early, bought and delivered a birthday present to a friend. Her birthday had been the day before, and I wanted to make sure I got to see her. We had a good talk, but as she was working it wasn’t the same as a real visit. I am going to try and pop over again today, as I think it would be nice.
I then tackled some indoor gardening projects. I have read online that spiders and other bugs do not like mint plants. A few weeks ago, I had bought six different mint plants, and my husband replanted them into new pots for me. I have noticed that they were drying up. I am still trying to figure out a watering schedule for them. I watered them from the top yesterday when I was finished, and just before I started writing I watered them from the bottom. I will have to do some online research. While I was working yesterday I found a green “leaf eater” bug, which my husband buried in the dirt saying that it is a leaf eater, that should be the end of it. I have my doubts. I also found an inchworm in another one, and that was successfully relocated outside on a leaf from that plant. Late last night I got him to move a ladybug back outside for me. The ants and spiders are not found as frequently inside, so that is a bonus. I am hoping it works and more bugs stay outside.
Something else was a little confusing. There is a spearmint plant amongst the varieties I bought, and around the base of the pot on the shelf that I have it on are a lot of hard, black dots. It is either droppings from a critter or the plant went to seed because it was so dry. I am not sure, the black bits are no bigger than granulated sugar pieces. They may indeed be little seeds. I may gather them up and plant them, to see what comes up!
My husband worked a few extra hours yesterday. He has been doing that on one of his days off to help with our budget. I am not going to write about my work here, at least not this week, I had a frustrating week. I am going to leave it at that, and it is also the reason I did not do any over time at my work this week. Sometimes I do. This week it just wasn’t going to happen.
After he was done, we picked up a few groceries. He made us subs for lunch and he barbequed some wieners for supper. We then headed out to spend time with some friends. He had a guys gaming night, and I watched a movie with another friend and called it a ladies night. Sometimes it is important to plan activities apart. Other times, like today, we will spend more time together. It is OK to not spend every single minute with your significant other when you have free time. It is healthy to have different friends, hobbies and activities. There is still a common ground for the things you enjoy doing together, but a little break here and there is something we all need.
For prep cooking today I am making Bangin’ Ranch Drums. It is a Trim Healthy Mama recipe. I love it, and my husband is OK with it in the rotation, but like with all of the THM recipes, he doesn’t want it all the time. We also got buns for barbequed cheeseburgers and sloppy joes. I have some THM sloppy joe mix already made in my freezer. He likes Manwich. On this, I am OK with him making his own supper. If I am to be on plan when I eat it, I will have it with salad, not on a bun. I may make some green bean fries this week too, as I do enjoy them as a side with the chicken. I am still working on everything all at once but trying to be realistic at the same time.
Today I will be continuing the cat sitting job. I also did some plant care there yesterday, they have one houseplant and it needed TLC. I don’t know about the plant boxes on the deck, though. They look like they have had a rough summer, and I am not sure if they can be rescued. I may try, just to surprise my friends when they come home. I will see how the day goes. It is very dry, there is a no fire ban here province wide. If I do work on the outdoor plants, I will have to remember to water them. If they don’t read this, it will be a nice surprise. If they do, I make no promises. It may be beyond saving.
I am a member of the Fredericton Science Fiction Society. The FSFS gets together a little less frequently than it used to, but today we are going to meet up at a local ice cream shop. My husband is a member too, and the group usually has potluck events year round. With a ban on fires, we decided it would be better to go have ice cream instead of an outdoor BBQ at a local park today. Air conditioning may or may not have been a deciding factor in this plan.
We have to do some cleaning. While I was working on my indoor gardening yesterday, my husband was trimming the lawn. He didn’t mow it yet. It is still very dry so there may not be a rush for that. He is amused that I think we should water it with the garden hose. It is turning brown. I just want it to be healthy, and not be so dry it is at risk for burning. There was a thunderstorm last night, but we need more rain to remove the risk of fires, sooner rather than later.
All in all a busy weekend, but thankfully, it has been going at a slower pace this week. It is a holiday tomorrow, and I look forward to the holiday pay that I *may have* already spent yesterday. It is OK. I will forfeit it to the budget since I went ahead and bought some extras. It’s all about compromise and doing what you can to make life enjoyable with what you have to work with. Weekends are supposed to be fun and relaxing. I think I snuck a little of each in this weekend, so it is a win for me! What did you do this weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Jul 30, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Oh my goodness! I am busy, busy, busy this weekend! It is great to have things to do, but again there are too many choices to do EVERYTHING I want to do. As a result, I have been able to do some things, and I will write about that.
Friday night right after work I had to get groceries for the house and a party I was invited to on Saturday. There was a potluck, and I like cooking. My friend was having a party at her house, and so the first thing on my to do list Saturday morning was to get the chocolate macaroons aka frogs aka mud pies aka haystacks made and in the fridge to set. I have finally mastered making them with cashew milk. At least I hope it wasn’t a fluke. I also used butter, white and brown sugar, vanilla, cocoa, oats and unsweetened coconut. Other times I have made double batches, and they never set properly. They stayed gooey and had to be licked off the wax paper as they wouldn’t come off cleanly. Still delicious, but messy. Sometimes I goof up on the timing and end up making chocolate granola. But the ones I made yesterday had that perfect consistency, they were slightly granular, just past the gooey stage, but not dry or crumbly. I am quite proud that they turned out so well.
As soon as I had them in the fridge I took the chicken I was marinating in Kraft Greek Feta and Oregano dressing. Yes, I was going to be at a BBQ, but I wanted MY prep work to be as close to finished as possible. I then popped to the store for a last minute beverage run. I had bought myself some rum and key limes but needed the mix. I got some Zevia Cola to mix, and some Gatorade G2. (That is my anti-hangover trick these days, and it seems to work really well!) I needed more coffee, so I decided to grab two of my favourites, Folgers Black Silk and Kahlua flavoured coffee. I tried the Folgers Intensely Dark, as it comes in the larger boxes, but it doesn’t compare to the Black Silk. So I had to buy 2 smaller boxes, at least they were on sale.
Rushed home to keep cooking. I made the biggest batch of Greek Pasta salad I have ever made, as the hubby was wanting some for home too. That was to go with the chicken that was in the oven. While I was boiling the pasta, I picked up small pasta shells on Friday night, I started cooking the ground beef to prep for the hot nacho sauce. It is hot off the stove hot, not spicy hot, and goes so well with nacho chips. This recipe can be made with soy ground meat replacement for vegetarians. I packed the rest of the ingredients, and the pot to cook it in. At this point, my host was starting to get ready to pick me and another friend up to go to the party. That was AMAZING! I had enough time to get everything done and packed before he was here.
We had a wonderful time. We had food, snacks, drinks, music blasting, we played Backyard Yahtzee and had a BBQ. I am a little sore from the 2.5 games of Backyard Yahtzee.
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Action shot!
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I got Yahtzee!
We did have to call interference a few times. My friends have dogs, and one of them would steal a wooden die every so often. We’d get it back, and allow re-rolls if needed.
When it was time for cake, we surprised the birthday girl with a minions ice cream cake. She didn’t even know we snuck it in earlier at the start of the party. She got some presents, and cards, and it was a nice time. For those of us that stayed after dark, our host made a nice fire in the back yard fire pit. We gathered around it and just enjoyed the quiet, watching the flames and the fireflies.
Today started off with a little slower pace. I went to an afternoon matinee with a friend. I am now finishing this story, in the company of another blogger, we are visiting and writing at the same time. I am going to be visiting another friend after supper. In the meantime, there are dishes and laundry to be caught up on. This has been another busy weekend, and from where I sit now, I think I won this round! What did you do this weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Jul 25, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Please accept my apologies for posting this on a Monday. (Which is now Tuesday). I was literally too tired to finish it before I went to bed last night. The weekend was THAT busy and took ALL of my energy by the end of it. I started writing it yesterday morning and will leave it in its original format.
I am in the middle of a busy weekend again! I find that it happens a lot in the summer. The sun is out, and people want to do more things together. Family and friends gather around, yard sale season happens, and there is always something going on somewhere. Usually too much to be able to participate in all that you want to do.
Back in April, we took a road trip to visit Nanny Webber in Nova Scotia. Yesterday was her 109th birthday, and we went back on a day trip to visit and have some birthday cake. We got there and she was very happy that we made it. We didn’t commit because sometimes things happen, and just in case we couldn’t go, we didn’t want to make a promise that we couldn’t keep. I am happy to say that she was surprised to see us step through the crowd of people. In fact, I would say she was delighted.
She and Roy’s father were happy to see us, but a little sad that it was just a day trip, and that we would be making the drive home the same day. She told me that she kept asking her son, Roy’s dad if we were going to make it. He didn’t know. She said she kept asking him because she knew that if Roy made the trip, that I would go with him. What a nice thing to say. Nanny Webber really is a special lady, and I like spending time with her.
I had made her a bracelet, for her birthday. I made it too big for her wrist, but because I made it, I packed what I needed to fix it if I had to. I asked her what colour to take out, and with a few minutes and 2 tries, I got it to fit better.
On the way back from the party to her place, we had a car full of party food, gifts, cards, and balloons. I took a few selfies of me in the car with the balloons. I mean, when I looked into the back seat, all I saw was balloons! It was just screaming selfie!
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109 Birthday Balloons
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109 Birthday Balloon Selfie
We went back to her place and made a visit. We had a plate of sandwiches and sweets. Then we got her to open her gift. What do you give someone for their 109th birthday? Well, along with the custom made bracelet, we found a little crystal flower and vase decorative suncatcher in pink and green. We also got her a piece of decorative art, themed with things grandma says. She read some of it, as the words went in different directions within the frame.
Then it was time to go. She said she had a good day, and I think she was a little tired but didn’t want to tell us. So we said our goodbyes and went to our next stop.
We had a 4 to 5 hour drive in each direction. We planned to have supper with a friend on the way home, to break up the drive. We had a nice visit and then got back on the road. It was 1 am on Sunday by the time we got home.
We set the alarm and went to bed. By 1 pm, we had divided to get some groceries and to start laundry, got a chicken in the slow cooker, put away the groceries, and started the dishwasher. We were off and running to go see Spiderman Homecoming with friends. I enjoyed the movie, it was fun.
After the movie, we rushed home to get the house ready for company. We were expecting guests and they were staying overnight. We finished up after they arrived, and had a filling chicken supper. We had strawberry shortcake for dessert and a visit before making up the bed for the guests. I did not stay up much later than my company last night. It was a full and busy weekend.
What did you do this weekend? Were you a Warrior like me, running here there and everywhere?
by Tish MacWebber | Jul 16, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
This weekend is jam packed with so many things to do that I cannot possibly do them all. I started off on Saturday with going to a few yard sales. I found some great deals! I got a Pampered Chef Meat breaking tool, for cooking ground beef. (I was SO happy when I found it, I have wanted to try one for a while. I hope it is as good as I think it will be. I am fighting the early stages of carpal tunnel in my wrists, and anything that helps me do more in the kitchen with less aggravation to my wrists is a good thing.
I found a Rankin Family cd, bought the DVD of Love, Actually, a movie I am interested in watching. I bought a new to me Guy Gavriel Kay book. He is a Canadian Author, and I have read other books by him.
After this, I bought a cheeseburger to go with my coffee as this yard sale was in support of a local SPCA. We also visited the dogs and cats that were available for adoption. One of the cats I really liked was adopted by the end of the day. Good news for that beautiful tabby.
The next yard sale was in a parking lot and had several vendors. I found a set of 4 margarita glasses, and my new wine glass, aka a Thundermug. Hee hee hee. I will probably not use it for wine, I think it would hold a whole bottle! It sure got a laugh out of the lady I was buying it from! I do like beer mugs for other drinks, and it will hold a lot of GGMS over ice, the way it is supposed to be enjoyed.
The third yard sale was a moving sale. We were nearing the time of day when they start closing the yard sales by then. I found a little stand alone cabinet for my Master bathroom. It is wooden, with a door, and three shelves inside. It has flowers painted on the door. For $10.00 I consider it the deal of the day! I was able to find a few jewellery display stands there too. I was very pleased with my purchases yesterday. Then we did some more shopping when my husband was done his overtime.
We went to the Scott’s Nursery, the local year round gardening store. I wanted peppermint plants. I bought six different types,( Spearmint, Pineapple Mint, Strawberry Mint, Chocolate Mint, Berries and Cream Mint, and Moroccan Mint). They will be transplanted into their new clay pots today, and distributed around the mini home in an effort to keep bugs from wanting to be inside my home. It does not seem to have any effect on the housefly that is buzzing around. Time to buy an actual fly swatter, as the flyers are not packing a big enough punch against this stubborn pest.
I am working on a gift for someone very special. I have taken the week off from writing my book, and I am hoping to have it finished in that time. So I will write here when I get a chance, but it may be minimal because this project is going to take a lot of time. I will also post about the finished project when it is completed.
I have to run out to the Freddy Beach Market, which used to be called The Northside Market. I am visiting a friend there briefly and getting some ground beef. We get it there once or twice a month. It is a farmer we buy it from, and they are there every weekend. My friend owns a yarn store and is branching out with a table at this market. I hope it works well for her.
So other than missing out on a free movie downtown, and going to a bar to see an up and coming band with a friend, it has been a really busy weekend so far, and it’s not over yet. We will be going to see Despicable Me 3 tonight, and I am looking forward to it. I love the Minions! And there is supposed to be an evil villain dance off in it too!
Why does there always seem to be more things to do than there is time for on the weekends? What did YOU do this weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Jul 11, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Yes, I know it is Monday. But when your vacation ends on a Monday, the weekend ends on Monday too. What a week I have had!
I will be writing about that in a guest post as soon as I can. I am waiting for pictures from family members to put into that post, and what I write will be determined by the pics they send.
I can tell you that I went home. I went swimming and spent a fair bit of time between visiting with my family and one of my best friends. It was a full week.
I was supposed to be writing at this time. I have not yet started my book. I was very busy on my vacation while being able to relax and have fun at the same time.
This weekend was also busy. I was on the road for most of Sunday, after staying Saturday night at my friend’s house. We stayed there most of the week. It was nice to spend time with her at her home.
Today was a day to make phone calls, and get my driver’s license renewed. Then the first step back into my routine, back to Zumba class. I go back to work tomorrow. So this is the end of my vacation right now.
I did have a hard time in Zumba. It has been a while since I have gone to class. I am not looking forward to going back to work, and back to normal tomorrow. So I was in my head in class. I broke free for a few minutes, but it was with a heavy heart that I worked out in class today. I have a hard time saying goodbye, and there were more than a few this weekend. It was good to see the people I was able to see and hard to come home.
I was ready, though. It was time to come home and feel like I was home again. I love my friends and family, but being home is also a feeling that is good. Another weekend has ended. Back to life in the real world tomorrow.
by Tish MacWebber | Jul 4, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Hello to you all, and thank you for your patience. I am a little off schedule this week, because as I expected, life got in the way of the weekend. Not to fear, I will be back on schedule for the upcoming week, and plan to post my next Trust Your Gut on time and on schedule.
I am going to keep this short as it is now Tuesday. Canada Day was Saturday, and there were festivities all over the country. There were public events, and house parties from one end of the country to the other. I wore my red summer top and Nova Scotia Hoodie with the Cape Breton patch I sewed onto it myself.
Sunday was my birthday. I turned 43, and it had a few little surprises. I was with my family, and that in itself was really special. There are 5 of us, my parents, and my two sisters and myself. My sisters have their families with them. We live in different parts of Canada, and we have not all been together in the same place at the same time in 4 years. I am getting ready for another family gathering tonight, and I had some help today making deviled eggs and big mac salad for the evening.
Pete Luckett’s Phone Book White and the bottle of Bodacious Smooth White wines were lovely at the gatherings we have been to so far.
I will say that this past weekend was another win for me, and I am still working on winning the whole week long! I am taking the time I have this week to be thankful for my family and friends, and enjoying the memories I am making. What did you do this past weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Jun 24, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
It’s here! The first official weekend of the summer! I am gearing up to run errands and host a BBQ today. I have been working hard at my Spring Cleaning Challenge, and I am literally at the finish line! I have made it to the Master Bedroom and Bathroom.
Last weekend, I worked really hard to have the floors done, the guest room ready, and the main bathroom was cleaned. When I did this, I had to move things out of the way. I moved them into the master bedroom. A pile gathered on my bed. When it was time to crawl into that bed, the only logical place to temporarily store these items was in the sunken bathtub in the master bathroom.
This means I made a lot of progress in most of the house, but not all. Today I plan to work on that. The word purge is now in my weekend plans again, and it does not refer to food in any way.
I have been working on this project since last fall. I started with my clothing. I then went through the kitchen and didn’t have a lot to purge there, but rather spent time cleaning and organizing. I have purged my makeup to make room for new makeup. I am still in the middle of writing about that experience. Today I plan to purge and organize my craft supplies.
I have decided that I am not going to do this alone. I have asked a friend to help me with this chore. It is not going to be a hard thing to do, but it may prove to be difficult. Remember when I wrote I had purged my makeup? I gathered it all up and then was unable to throw it out until I bought the new makeup. I wanted to start with a clean palette, but I was very worried that I would not be able to afford to replace everything, and I decided to not throw it out until I had done the shopping so I would not be left without a critical item for my new makeup collection.
As I wrote, I am working on that story, and I plan to have it published sometime this week. If the zit I treated that promptly decided to cause a skin reaction to the treatment and blew up over my face would kindly heal and let me feel like I can safely try my new makeup on, that would be fantastic.
When I went through my clothing, I did it all on my own. I reduced my wardrobe by 50%. I donated it to a friend who upcycles fabric. So far, the only items I have really missed were some of the more lightweight tank tops that I gave away. One of my errands today is to replace those tank tops. I have some, but I have not had a clothing shopping budget regularly for many years. We have been working insanely hard on our household budget, and we are making some changes to that. I am looking forward to the days when I don’t feel guilty about buying a new article of clothing to wear. Or about buying a new book or magazine. Things I like to buy from time to time. Mostly beading magazines, and more recently, a writing magazine. It will also be useful to know what I have on hand for craft supplies, so I don’t purchase items that I don’t need because I don’t know what I have in my stash.
The last area of my house that needs TLC is my office, a corner of my living room. I have been building up to getting this area ready for spring cleaning. It is where I plan to do my writing, and a fitting final task for all of the cleaning I am doing to prepare for writing. I have organized the desk several times since I moved here, and it is long overdue. Time to fire up the paper shredder when I am ready to tackle the last big area. I am really proud of how much I have accomplished this year with my cleaning projects, and although I still have some smaller areas to work on after my deadline, the larger, more complicated projects will be done and over with, so I can feel confident about my home not falling apart when I start writing my book. Maybe I will even be able to make time for more creative projects after it is all finished.
Phase 2 will be starting when I am settling into writing my book. With the larger cleaning projects being finished, I will have to switch gears and get the maintenance cleaning done, to keep my home from ever becoming a disaster like it was when I decided to start the spring cleaning for real this year.
I also hope that this weekend is a start of more entertaining at my house. I am feeling good about it, and not too embarrassed when I look around at the progress I have made here, the last 6 months. Time to get going and finish this stage, so I can close the chapter of Spring Cleaning 2017, and open a new book to start writing it.
I hope my friend enjoys bouncing the house with me this afternoon, I need the extra push when it comes to purging craft supplies. She is invited to stay for the BBQ as a thank you for her taking the time to help me out. What are you working on this weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Jun 17, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Egads! I am up REALLY early on a Saturday morning. There must be a reason. Oh yes, there is. A friend wanted to go Yard Sale Shopping today. It is a bit rainy, so we may not do a lot of that, but we have errands, and he doesn’t have a car. I am trying to make more time for my friends, as they are important in my life.
As soon as we are done, Operation Spring Cleaning is going to be completed. I am expecting guests this month, starting tomorrow! I will still have some to do, but today will be the day for the final push. I need to be ready. My parents are coming, and I have not seen them in two years. I am over the moon excited to see them.
I have a plan. I thought it up when I was supposed to be sleeping last night. I will start in the guest room, then the bathrooms. After that, the floors will need cleaning. All of that will take time, and I hope I have more time when I finish all of the chores I have for today.
My Makeup Blog story is in the draft phase. In the next 2 weeks, I plan to publish it. I know it has been taking a really long time for this, but I am writing it without pictures. When I have everything organized after cleaning the Master bedroom, I will then have a place for all of my new makeup, and then I can try it out. See, I DO have a plan, and I have been buying bits and pieces of organization supplies along the way. Maybe today I will find something to help with that.
I wanted to write this early this weekend so I can focus on what I need to do. I am taking on this weekend with a full, running start, and fueling myself with coffee. Lots of coffee.
I hope you are all having a productive, fun-filled, happy weekend! I am going to give it my all, and then some. What are you doing this weekend? What do you do to prepare for guests that visit? Let me know! Maybe I can learn something new!
by Tish MacWebber | Jun 13, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
The Zumba adventures continue even while there is no class for two weeks. I have found another comparison between Zumba, my body, and a musical instrument. First, though, I want to take you back to my pre-Zumba university days. Back to when I lived on campus and went out dancing quite often (who am I kidding, four nights a week) to party when I really should have been studying. When I started university, moving away from home was a big deal, and I was in control of my life for the first time ever. I made new friends and shared rooms with roommates. One, in particular, comes to mind in relation to this story. We were in different programs, and at times, there were personality conflicts. It happens, and it is a part of growing up.
This roommate liked animals more than people and had a different taste in music than I did. We would take turns playing our favourite music when we were in the room at the same time. These days, that would not be a problem, because I am sure every Millenial out there has an MP3 Player of some sort with amazing headphones so the issue I ran into would not be a problem today like it was back then. Yes, I am talking about playing music on a ghetto blaster, also known as a boom box. Back then (yeah, I know this ages me some) we had cassette tapes, and CDs were still new. It was a thing for us to play the music you liked for other people, and see if they liked it as much as you did. Sometimes it was great. Other times it was overplayed. The worst was when you had to listen to someone else’s music that you hated because it was their turn to play their music.
Living with this roommate ALMOST ruined Bon Jovi for me. She played it over and over and over. My love for Bon Jovi returned after a few years, but it was iffy for quite some time. When she decided to play a different band, I was open to hearing something new. Oh boy, was that a short-lived bit of hope. The other band she absolutely LOVED and wanted to play when she wasn’t playing Bon Jovi was a band called The Who. I tolerated it the first time I listened to it, but it really wasn’t my cup of tea.
Miles and miles and miles and miles and miles still haunts me when I think of it. Twitch. There was one song that I found amusing. Squeeze Box. It is a funny little song that has more than one meaning. A Squeeze Box is another name for an accordion, but if you let your mind drift a little left of center, you know what the song could be referring to if you have any sort of a gutter based imagination. Imagine my surprise when this song popped into my head in the middle of a Zumba class!
As of yet, we have not done Zumba to Weird Al Yankovic or any of his Polka Parties. (How much fun would THAT be)? Weird Al is the accordion player that I listen to, and I really like his music. I love the humour in his parodies, and the fun he inserts into my day if I am listening to his music. I digress. The Squeeze Box reference refers once again to my chest.
You see, I am rather curvy, and just as my hips sometimes get in the way of my bowling, my “girls” get in the way at Zumba. I crack people up whenever I think this stuff up, because then I act on it, or tell someone the joke to see if it is funny. A few weeks ago we were reaching in front with our arms. Sometimes I feel like my arms are really too short, like T-Rex short. So for the instructor to see, I pretended to extend my arms longer at my sides, and then cross them in front of my stomach like she was showing us to do, holding the upper parts of my arms straight down, and just bending them to reach to the front from my elbows. I look really funny when I am flailing my arms like that. She laughed. She lost track of what she was doing for a minute.
Then, in another recent class, we were doing a move that involves crossing your arms in front of you while you make your legs wobbly and move your knees to touch each other, and back apart. I know that might not be the best description, but if you think of the funny dance when you put your hands on your knees and move your legs like that and cross your hands back and forth, it is like that, except we are standing straight up, and you are crossing your arms in front of you. So when we do this, I hold my arms straight out and cross them back and forth, but because I have short arms, the “girls” become my Squeeze Box, just like that song implies. I shared my accordion thought and got the desired reaction from the Zumba Crew that heard me. Another funny analogy brought to you by me, an old roommate, and Zumba.
As the summer time hits, and we are all working out in the heat, please remember to hydrate. And when your Zumba instructor is encouraging you to show some fire in class, remember, it is about your dance moves, even if all you really feel like doing is putting out the fire with the Zumba move I am going to call the, “Stop, Drop, and Roll.” If you decide that you NEED to try this out, and you want to deliver it with a bigger impact, throw in the T-Rex arms. Hilarious, until you get the ambulance bill.
Oh, and by the way, my ghetto blaster is still working, as is my walkman. Long live the mixed tapes and the local radio stations! I am looking forward to my next trip to The Zumba Zone!
