probably one of the things i miss the most from my "old" life is taking Total Body Conditioning class on Saturday mornings in Brooklyn. i know i sound like a freak, but i really, truly looked forward to it. i actually enjoyed hauling my ass out of bed at seven-thirty on a weekend morning, downing a sugar-free Red Bull on my walk to the gym, making sure to hustle so i'd get a good spot in the studio (front of the room, right hand corner). i would literally get there at least thirty minutes before class was scheduled to start, because the women at the NYSC in Cobble Hill were cut-throat about getting spots in the class; believe me, i wasn't the only one there at eight-forty-five for a nine-fifteen class. i would sit and read the paper or eavesdrop on all the interesting conversations going on in the room until David arrived.
and oh how i loved him. he would kick our asses, but he would make us laugh in the process, tell us - while we were hating him intensely for making us do twenty more lunges - that we would make the other girls on the beach so jealous with our tight butts. i have no idea where he was from, but he had a great accent and said "shoes" instead of "feet" and would always come up to me during our warm-ups to say hello - he addressed me as "my friend."
an hour later, feeling spent and sweaty and relieved, i would leave the gym, grab an apple at the organic market on the corner and walk home, feeling downright joyful about being alive. seriously. the class always put me in an unbelievable mood - and what a way to start a weekend. (Sundays were usually more about being in pain, but hey - the sore glutes were worth it.) i have tried not to think about David and the class too often in the last two months. i've tried instead to focus on my running, to do crunches on my own, even some push-ups.
yeah, no - so not the same thing.
you may remember that i joined a gym in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago in a fit of desperation during a particularly brutal bout of humidity. i spent forty-five minutes on the elliptical that day - and never went back. until this morning. they had a body sculpting class on their schedule that sounded sort of like Total Body, and so i decided to be brave and give it a shot. i couldn't neglect my muscles any longer. to be honest, my expectations were low... which is why i was pleasantly surprised when i walked into the aerobics studio to find a bunch of women with their steps in place, a few sets of weights nearby, and their mats rolled up, waiting to sweat. a scene right out of Cobble Hill!
but there was no David. instead, Workout Barbie was at the front of the room, pink tank top and headset included. she was a decent enough instructor, i suppose, but she played bad music and chatted away into her little microphone the entire class - about Dancing With the Stars and her trip to Hershey Park and how if we went even lower with our squats we could have more margaritas this weekend. she did too many jumping jacks and not enough crunches. and i had to drive home from the gym - no apple, no euphoria.
of course i was judging the whole experience unfairly - nothing will ever live up to David's class. and i did sweat quite a lot today, and my muscles are feeling happily fatigued now. but it was just another reminder that i am not a big fan of change, that i will resist it with all my might - but that sometimes it's just inevitable. and sore glutes are better than neglected glutes any day.
mb
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