Pretty in pink

Remember a few days ago when I had to approach my Zumba teacher with the nerdy request to turn the music down? And she was so nice about it?

I went to a different gym once since then and I wish I could have asked the same question.

It is strange because I have begun going to Zumba more often than I had in recent months. Last week I, um, went five times, I think. It is a good time investment, you know? I feel better. I sleep better. I can get up earlier to do Pennario work.

But Zumba changed a little in the months when I was not going as often. The clothes are more aggressive, more street-like, and the tunes are louder. This gal at the Sheridan Drive L.A. Fitness was blasting this stuff. I mean, it hurt!

There was not much point in taking the matter up with her. I do not go to that gym much and I ended up leaving before the final stretching, that was how deafening it was. Meanwhile this is embarrassing but I had to Zumba way in the back where all kinds of people in the gym could see me. Ha, ha! In my retro, un-hip, hot pink, un-threatening, un-street-wise Zumba pants. See that picture up above? That is not me but that was my exact outfit. It looked exactly as dopey on me the way as it looks on her. With everyone else in the class trying to dress like, I don't know, the Goodyear Boys. Ha, ha!

Speaking of which, not to change the subject, but that reminds me...

Isn't it about time Zumba clothes began showing up at garage sales?

This fad has been around for a while now.

This summer, I will be on the alert for used Zumba clothes.

It has to happen!

The triumph of the nerd

Today was the nerdiest day. Here is why.

After Zumba class I approached the teacher. And I told her I loved her class but asked if she could turn the music down!

"Can you turn the music down?" That is the nerdiest thing I ever said.

On the other hand, let me think for a moment. There is one other thing that comes close. Well, there are probably a lot of things that come close, most of them Leonard Pennario-related. But the one that comes to mind is once my friend Michelle was picking me up for a road trip. There is blond Michelle and brunette Michelle and both of them are beautiful. This is blond Michelle.

Blond Michelle picked me up and here is what I said.

"Oh, I am looking forward to this long drive. Look what I've got. I've got the new Andras Schiff CD."

I am afraid that tops the Zumba story now that I think about it. You should have seen Michelle's face. She wordlessly turned up the Amy Winehouse. Amy Winehouse was new then. This was before she died. She was singing, "They wanted me to go to rehab and I said no, no, no!"

Hahahahahaa!

I am the one who should go to rehab!! So they can turn me into a normal human being.

I was honestly excited about the new Andras Schiff ...



 ... CD! That was before I met Leonard Pennario. Pennario would have laughed me off the block about that one. We had a running joke about Andras Schiff because Schiff was so nerdy.

But to get back to my story, mission accomplished. The Zumba teacher could not have been nicer and she said she would turn down the music! Which, I have to say, I am used to loud music and I usually wear some kind of earplugs. But this was just too loud.

I am so glad she was so nice. Not only that but she caught up with me later in the locker room and we had a conversation. Not about Andras Schiff but about genteel things all the same.

Zumba teachers rock.

They are the greatest!

Is this heaven? No, it's the gym

I worked late today and decided I did not have time for the gym. I would be too late for Zumba class which began at 5:45 p.m.

However! Somehow I took the exit automatically and my car homed toward the gym. And I soon saw why.

Everything was charmed!

First, I scored this great parking space that miraculously opened. Second, this handsome gentleman waited something like a minute and a half to hold the door for me. Why, thank you, kind sir! He smiled at me as if to say, Welcome to L.A. Fitness!

As I walked in the sound system was just kicking in with the title theme to "Flashdance."



I am sorry, if they cannot play Leonard Pennario that is the next best thing. It cracked me up.

Next what happened was, I was walking toward the locker room and there were these tables set up promoting some concern or other, I do not know what, but they had this big boxer that wore a sign saying "Pet Me." This was the dog boxer...

... not the other kind.

This being a gym I must make that clear!

I could not believe my luck. I had assumed the boxer would be a blind person's dog, one that you could not pet. So I hugged the boxer dog and petted him as he looked up at me with his sweet serious eyes.

No one was in the locker room. I dressed in comfort in my Zumba clothes. I was a half hour late for the class but what the heck, there was still a half hour to go. Zumba was fun. I looked skinnier than I had looked last week. As class was ending and I was leaving I thought the teacher called over to me, "You sneaked in when I wasn't looking!" But I do not know this teacher. I thought: She could not be talking to me.

I did some weights and then I went to the locker room to get my stuff. And the teacher appeared! She said, again: "You sneaked in!" Then she said: "I was so happy to see you! I always love when you come to my class."

I stood there in my conspicuous neon Zumba clothes, smiling, delighted.

What a wonderful hour at the gym!

No wonder my car led me there!

When I left I hoped to pet the boxer again but he was gone. I wondered for a second if I had dreamed him.

Everything was just too perfect, you know?

You've got to wonder.

I know squat

Tonight I went to Zumba class. Our teacher was wearing a shirt that said in big letters, "YOU DON'T KNOW SQUAT."

By the end of the class I knew squat.

Hahaha I am seeing online there are all kinds of inspirational quotes about squats, such as ...

And...

It is funny, what good it does you to move around after a day sitting at your desk. On the way to the gym I was vexed because my brakes were making a noise and I am thinking I will have to go in and get a brake job. Once I walked into the gym and went to Zumba class I forgot all about my brakes. And when I came out to the parking lot and remembered them, it did not seem as bad.

Brakes, schmakes.

So what?

So I spend a thousand dollars, big whiz. Remember that when you were a kid, you would say "Big whiz." Haha.

My car is getting to the point where it is this or it is that. All little things, nothing that will strand me, but I have to start thinking of if I want to get a newer car, one that will give me less trouble. My CD player has been kaput for some time, which is torture because I have Leonard Pennario's "Virtuoso Showpieces" sitting right there all ready to go in the slot in the driver's side door. The sun roof kicked a while ago. All kinds of things are not working and so decisions must be made.

But not today. That is a nice thing when you can say that no decision has to be made today.

It can be postponed!

Gotta dance

Yesterday I had a very long day at work so I chilled out afterward by going to Zumba. Our cat Jeoffry had been under the weather so I found myself apologizing to him as I backed out the door in my pink Zumba pants.

"Jeoffry, I'm sorry, I'm just going to Zumba," I told him. "I'll be back. I'll leave class 15 minutes early."

I actually said that!

The good news is that Jeoffry got over what he had which, that is a story for another day. Also I liked Zumba class a lot more than I thought I would. I had kind of fallen off the Zumba wagon because it had become too much a hip-hop, shake-your-booty, backwards-baseball-cap thing. I mean, I can take a song or two of that, but I do not want it to be the whole class.

It seemed it had become all this monotonous stuff with someone yelling something over a beat. Once I kept track and there were something like 10 songs in a row with absolutely no tune. Some of the words were too trashy. The "songs" were too dumb. I picked up that snotty habit from Leonard Pennario of the sarcastic use of quote marks.

Also, as you can see in this picture ...

... nobody wears those cute neon-colored Zumba clothes I used to like. It says you do not take yourself too seriously and now I think Zumba takes itself more seriously.

Anyway I had not been to Zumba in a while.

But you have to do something, you know? I missed the exercise. So yesterday there I was. And it was better. Not as bad as I had been remembering. Perhaps the pendulum is swinging, pendulously, back the other way.

Plus we had a great teacher who never stopped the class. I hate lazy teachers who stop the class. It ended up this teacher was imported from Clarence for the evening, my luck. But anyway, good class, and it made me feel good. I will try Zumba again.

I will report!

The mystery movie

I have been going again to Zumba at the downtown gym. It fits in well with my schedule so I can knock off a class without too much time taken away from my, ahem, busy schedule. Plus, there is this great new teacher. She never stops the class! The old teacher had good moves but she always used to stop the class.

So there I am the other day at Zumba at the downtown gym. It's a small class because this gym is sort of empty now. And three of the other Zumba-ers are guys. Two of the guys I know, and we say hi to each other and everything, and the third guy I don't know.

And after class the third guy comes up to me.

"Is your name Mary?" he asks.

And I say yes.

And he says: "We went to a movie together once."

I looked at him. No memory. "We did?" I said.

And he said yes, that it was a long time ago, the movie was about Christopher Columbus, and that I criticized it as being inaccurate and unfair to Columbus. I had to say that had the ring of truth. That is me, like Leonard Pennario, criticizing movies and defending Christopher Columbus and slinging opinions around.

"Oh, I kind of remember now," I said. But I was fibbing. I did not remember. "Where did we know each other from?" I asked.

And he said I was working at American Color.

That killed me. I temped at American Color for about a month. That was where they printed the color comics. I was a receptionist, or I sat in a warehouse and answered a phone, something like that. Here is a snapshot this guy had held onto of me on the job.

The American Color job was not as dramatic as my brief but glorious temp stint in the vaults of Manufacturers and Traders Trust. But it was one of my better temp jobs. I thought of that just last week when I went down Military Road. Now here was someone who remembered me from there! I love that.

And it did not even take Facebook! Usually these people turn up on Facebook.

So now this guy, John, and I are friends. Because we once went to the movies together. I imagine the movie was this one: "1492." It came out in 1992 which I think was when I was temping at American Color.



Hmm, this looks pretty good!

I would have to see it again to see what it was that I criticized about it.

I am sure I had my reasons!

The gym at the end of the universe

Last night I went to a Zumba class at an unusual gym. It is the Buffalo Athletic Club at Eastern Hills! I almost never go there.

I used to go to that gym all the time back when Howard lived on Transit Road. I had this routine, after work on Fridays I would go out to Transit and decompress by going first to the Salvation Army out on Transit and next to the BAC. Hundreds of times I went to that BAC because this routine carried over a few years.

Then after I converted Howard into an urbanite our routines changed and I never go to that particular club any more. And here is what is funny: They remodeled that Eastern Hills BAC a few years ago and now when I go I no longer recognize a thing there.

"Well," Howard said, "it was a long time ago." And it was.

We are talking, ahem, a decade ago! Before Leonard Pennario. Before everything.

But still. When I say I went to that gym hundreds of times, I mean that literally. It is amazing that they remodeled that place so thoroughly that absolutely nothing is familiar. This other time when I went, a few months ago, I had to ask where the locker rooms were!

I don't even remember where I used to park or even how I used to get to the darn place. Transit Road changes constantly and so different buildings surround the gym than used to.

End result, as we say here in Buffalo: I really enjoyed my trip to the gym yesterday. I love newness when it comes to the gym. Different gym, different class, different teacher. The teacher this time was Patti and here is something I loved: She had hurt her foot and so another teacher was teaching the class, and Patti was Zumba-ing while sitting on a medicine ball!

That is the kind of commitment I admire.

Zumba must be done whether or not you can walk!

One other neat thing, on the way out they gave me a gift of free yogurt. An 8-ounce serving, too. I must have had that lean and hungry look.

A memorable evening!

Thank you, Elton John ...

.... for this morning's problem!

Don't you hate it when you have a song on your brain ... and you don't know the words?

This is a problem with Zumba class because there are these Zumba numbers running through your head and a lot of the time, even in class hearing the thing, you can't catch most of the words. So you have just a shard of it stuck in your mind.

"Yo, I'm standin' here with chocolate meltin' on my hands ..."

"The following is not a test, DEEJAY!"

Enough already!

On the other end of the spectrum this sort of problem also occurs with classical songs or opera arias. One day I hope to learn all the words to Mozart's "Non So Piu ..."

...

from "The Marriage of Figaro," but I do not know much Italian and after the first line or so I am stuck.

Anyway, this morning I wake up, I am loading up the coffee percolator, and for some reason there is one song in me and it has to come out and it is Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."

I think the reason it was on my mind was the other night when I had to Tweet about the Emmy Awards, I was hoping old Elton, in his Liberace tribute, would at least come up with a good song. He does not have the piano chops but at least you expect a good song. Which we did not get. And this was my subconscious dealing with the situation, going, "Well, Elton John has written some songs I like."

The trouble is, I have heard them a million times but I don't know the words. I guess I have never listened that carefully. So this is me singing "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road":

"So goodbye la la la la la
Where the la la la la la la la
You can't keep me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough.
Back to la la la la la la
La la la la la la la
Because I know my future lies
Beyond the Yellow Brick Whoooooaaaaaaa...."

That was when I almost submerged the percolator in dishwater. I always almost forget that you cannot!

Notice that I spelled plough the British way. It is because Elton John is British! Speaking of the plough, I always like him for that reference to the Roman statesman Cincinnatus. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus owned a farm and wanted to go back to his plow, and he did, but when Rome needed his service again, he answered the call. In Latin class you always learn the story of Cincinnatus and his plow.

You have to wonder, you know, if you stopped a kid on the street in Cincinnati and asked him or her who the city was named after, if the kid would be able to tell you.

Oh well. All this rumination and I am still stuck with my original problem.

"Back to la la la la la la
Where the la la la la la la la..."

Got to nip this in the bud otherwise this will be a long day. Administer Brahms immediately!

Getting nasty

 Today toward the end of my crowded day I managed to make it to Zumba class. It feels great to move after a day at your desk!

I just cannot understand why everyone does not do it. I mean, a routine like the one up above. You cannot do it and not laugh! That song above is "Getting Nasty." We did it today.

The other day I was in the gym locker room after a Pilates class. And I hear these women talking about how much they hate Zumba. Imagine, hating Zumba.

One of them says: "I just do not like it. I can't get the rhythm."

Another one: "I don't like it either. I just don't like how it feels."

What do they want, some grim cycling class?

I ask you.

Sometimes to tell you the truth in Zumba class I sometimes think how much Leonard Pennario would hate the thought of my doing that, I mean to that music. But then I think, well, he would not want me be out of shape either.

I need the energy to finish and peddle this book!

And so...

So you think you can dance...

At Zumba class yesterday I began to get dissatisfied with my lot.

My Zumba clothes are so 2010. Nobody wears Zumba clothes any more like the ones that I wear. I have the fluorescent green and blue and pink pants. Now the trend is for more muted colors. I am so out of fashion!

Also my body is all wrong for Zumba. Last night I kept seeing myself in the mirror and thinking that.

Those belly dancing moves look ridiculous when I do them.

The petite curvy girls look better doing the salsa than I do.

The teacher does all these cute moves that I just cannot make work.

I am so tall and straight up and down! I have never felt so tall in my life. In my family you could call me the runt of the litter -- I am littler than my brothers and sisters  -- but in Zumba I feel tall, and unsuited to the moves. I am constantly being reminded just by looking at myself that I am descended from German soldiers. Reluctant German soldiers, perhaps, but German soldiers all the same.

So. What I need is new clothes.

I know, that is the answer to everything! But in this case it really is.

Maybe I can get knee-length pants and a top that is not so tight, the better to create the impression that maybe I have something to bring to the table here.

Or how about this outfit? Is it me or what?

Those clothes would fool people into thinking I am this Zumba pro and not an, ahem, music critic, not to mention Leonard Pennario's biographer.

Oh well. Who cares if I am not cool in Zumba class?

Not cool still burns calories.

Dancing queen

I went back to Zumba class today at the downtown Buffalo Athletic Club. I was very happy about that.

I had so much fun!

I am not sure I could afford the time. One reason I fell off the Web log wagon was, I was trying to get a draft of the book about Leonard Pennario into the hands of an editor who volunteered to help me with it. Which I did, but I am not sure that situation is going to work out.

I found myself saying yesterday: "If it gets too onerous, you can give it back to me..."

And I did not hear: "Oh, no, it will not become too onerous."

I heard: "I will let you know."

Onerous!

My book is onerous!

And that is even without the voluminous discography which I am working on. And a couple of other chapters still in progress. Zut alors, zut alors, zut alors.

But meanwhile there is Zumba. As I said I could not really budget the time but I thought, perhaps it will make me feel better. It will jazz me up.

And it did! They had all these new dances I did not know and I had fun trying to do them. I am without pretention or inhibition in Zumba now. I just dance and I do not care. There were all these guys in the class, was one change. It used to be all girls. One guy dancing next to me seemed to know everything and so I followed him. He looked incredibly hip. Where had all these people come from?

I had so much fun and before I knew it the hour was up. I went home in my Zumba get-up. It was like going home in a wet bathing suit. It felt like summer even though it was chilly so I opened the moon roof. That is what the sun roof is called if it is night! And I drove home down by the river. I admired the lights on the Peace Bridge.

I am exercised! Kind of a new feeling these days because I have not had time for that. I try to walk once in a while but walking does not even count for me.

I must get to the gym more often.

I must.

Zumba zumba zumba

Yesterday I made it to Zumba class, for the first time in forever. The last time I went to Zumba, it was before New Year's. I was coming down with that cold I caught from my sneezing nephew.

But I did not know I was coming down with that cold. That Zumba class gave me a clue. All of a sudden while I was dancing my mouth felt really dry and I felt as if I would pass out. I thought I would go outside to get a drink of water. But then they kicked in with this song I really love dancing to and so I stayed.

That song, hahahahaa.. I hate to admit what it was! It is just so much fun to dance to. I am ashamed! I could just see Leonard Pennario's face, if he knew I danced to this stuff. It is, ahem, most unseemly. I mean, he had the funk but he was conservative in many respects.

How did I get onto that? Back to Zumba. That song came on, so I stayed. By that night though I knew I was dead. It was only one of many things that threw me out of whack during the holiday season. So that was it for me and Zumba until yesterday.

I went to lunchtime Zumba yesterday and it took a lot of planning to be able to get out and go. Here is what drove me crazy. I get to the gym and they say: "Mary, anyone you know who is interested in joining?'

You mean me forking over my life savings isn't enough? I said, "You know what, none of my friends exercises."

Then I went and got changed and went to Zumba class. And after Zumba we get lectured! The teacher goes, "This class is being canceled. I told everyone, this is what would happen if you didn't show up. If you didn't get your friends to come."

Waaaaahh!

I know, I have trouble making it to this class, because I work. But I pay for the gym and I would like this class to be available to me for the one-in-five times that I can make it. Is that too much to ask?

I was fuming. And despairing. But then something happened.

What happened was, I was standing there talking with another gym rat, and gradually I noticed the room filling up with the adherents of the next class, which was Pilates, with a teacher I did not know.

These people were all in the greatest shape!

They had the greatest bodies!

I was staring at them thinking, OK, I will have what they are having.

So mayhap next week I will do that, seeing that Zumba was canceled.

I sometimes worry my body has gotten too used to Zumba anyway. I mean, I love it, but after a while things stop happening, it is as if you adjust. Your body goes, "OK, I know what she is going to do next. She is going to the gym and throw herself around as if there is no tomorrow. We can deal with that. Yo, metabolism. Ration those calories."

On the other hand...

It is just so much fun!!

Smile!

Today I am back in the land of the living. I finally think I kicked this cold. Looking back I thought I had kicked it on Sunday. Ha, ha! Good one, Mary!

Yesterday the cold and I celebrated our one-week anniversary!

But today I finally felt better and went back to Zumba class.

I got the idea to go to Zumba only in the late afternoon. I did not think I would be up to it because I was still sleeping with Nyquil. But, all of a sudden, I was! It was a magic moment. I realized I was feeling better!

Going to Zumba was a surprise thought, a secret thought, like all of a sudden in the middle of a work day in the summer you might think: when I get off work, I am going to go to the beach. I got all excited. And after work, sure enough, there I am, parking in the parking garage, walking to the gym. I love going to the gym. It makes me feel alive.

All week I had been out of it and going nowhere so I felt like a tourist in my own hometown. I wondered about Occupy Buffalo. That is this protest going on supposedly in Niagara Square. Will I hear the drums? I wondered. I had heard they were beating drums.

But walking to the gym which is right next to Niagara Square, I heard no drums. I saw no evidence of anyone.

The only thing I saw was, this one lost-looking hairy hippie showed up with this camera. He was looking around and seemed to be heading over to Niagara Square. I assumed he was looking for Occupy Buffalo. I kind of nodded to him and continued on with my gym bag to the gym.

I walked up the marble steps of the gym -- this is the, ahem, Buffalo Athletic Club, where Leonard Pennario used to go, may I add -- and for some reason as I opened the door, I turned around.

And the hairy hippie was taking a picture of me walking into the gym!

Hahahahhaaa! I am afraid I kind of turned away instinctively, but that was just out of astonishment. I did not exactly mind having my picture taken. Heck, snap away. I always the advice Howard Stern gave to Princess Diana, based on his own experience, on how to deal with the paparazzi: "Stand there until they get sick of taking your picture."

But I had to wonder why this guy was taking my picture.

All I can think is, well, the Buffalo Athletic Club has a very stentorian entrance. It is in a beautiful dignified old brick building downtown ...

... that also houses other offices. You walk up the marble steps and there are beautiful old lanterns on either side of the door.

And there I was, standing on these marble steps between these lanterns, and I had on this beautiful herringbone skirt from West Germany that, I got it at a garage sale, but this hippie would never guess. I love how the label specifies that, West Germany. I was carrying a green jet bag with my Zumba clothes and I had on my nice black heels.

Hahahahaa! That Occupy Buffalo person probably looked at me and saw the enemy!

He was probably from out of town and saw me going into this dignified building and thought: Look, there is a bourgeois banker woman walking into this bank building carrying a green bag full of money. I am going to take her picture before I go on to Occupy Buffalo. And we can put the picture up and use it as target practice.

Either that or, he recognized me as the authorized biographer of Leonard Pennario. Which, then I could understand him taking my picture.

Well, whatever. Either way, I am glad to be back in the land of the living.

It feels great to be feeling better!

Zzzzz-umba

Yesterday I finally, after a week away from it, got to go to Zumba.

What a relief that was!

You do not realize how much you need exercise until you have to go without it.

This week was a mess. There was Howard's birthday and then there was Labor Day weekend. Over Labor Day weekend the gym I go to, the Buffalo Athletic Club, saw fit to scramble all their schedules and move all their classes around. There were virtually no Zumba classes on the holiday itself and on Sunday it got moved to when I was at Mass.

Plus when I am not in the office, when I have a day when I can stay home, I like to concentrate on Leonard Pennario because I feel, better to exercise after work when I am not good for anything else anyway. So I did a lot of work on the discography for my book. That is a lot of work because Pennario made a lot of records!

Anyway. However lofty my motives a week without Zumba turned out to be a disaster. The biggest problem was, I stopped sleeping. I would wake up and not be able to go back to sleep. I was late for work a couple of times. Heinous!

Yesterday, problem solved.

You do Zumba, you sleep!

The day that got away

Yesterday I forgot to write what I made for my mega-important family dinner, the one my sister Margie came in for on the Megabus.

I made pot roast!

There is this great recipe I got out of  Betty Crocker's American Heritage Recipes. It is a great old 1970s cookbook which, 1970s cookbooks are usually not the greatest but this one is. It has all kinds of nice straightforward recipes without annoyingly calling for millions of fresh herbs you are not going to have on hand in Buffalo in the middle of winter. 

It was Yankee Pot Roast and it had rutabaga and carrots and what else? Onions and celery. Margie made this wonderful brown and white rice to go with it. My hyper-talented nieces Rosie and Milllie made a berry pie.

I have to admit, I threw my pot roast together in something of a panic. For some reason I was awake the night before, just could not sleep. Maybe I was excited about my dinner. Also I think my grand jury business is getting to me. It has just turned my schedule upside down and on Friday I was at the office until about 7 p.m. trying to finish this story I had due. There was no time for Zumba. Plus I was thinking about Leonard Pennario and making revisions to my book in my head. That never helps!

Eventually I slept fitfully between maybe 7 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. I had a cup of coffee and then went to the gym to wake up. It was this wild snowy morning and it took me 20 minutes just to brush off the car but it was worth it. Zumba wakes you up! This was Mary G's Zumba class and she is a wild teacher. She gets you laughing and you forget your problems including that you did not sleep the night before.

Because I had this dinner to cook -- and I was making, ahem, Slow Food -- I was going to be a good girl and go home after Zumba. But my friend Nicole was there and somehow we talked each other into staying for Zumba Toning. That is like Zumba only you jump around with these shaker weights. It was only a half-hour class so I thought, welllllll ... OK.

So here I am in Zumba Toning and it is now 1 p.m., with dinner at 5 and I have not even done the shopping. Good going, Mary! That is me I am talking about now, not Mary G.

The party's over, I told myself. Dutifully I headed for the locker room and got out of my Zumba clothes and into my normal clothes. But then my Zumba friend Gail accosted me. "Where are you going?" she demanded. She reminded me that we had planned on going to this special free Hula Hoop class and it started at 1 p.m., which was now.

"Oh, but I can't, I have to go home," I said. "I have this dinner to cook --"

"Come on!" she said. "It's just 45 minutes."

"But I've already changed!" 

"Well, change back!"

You can see where this story is headed. To Hula Hoop class!

Which was a blast. But that is a whole other story. For now I will fast forward until when I finally, finally got out to the car. Two things. One, I felt completely awake and fine, as if I had slept eight hours. It is miraculous what exercise can do. And two ... gulp, it was after 2 o'clock. By the time I got home it was 3.

It is a good thing you did not see me compressing shopping, cooking and de-cluttering into this short amount of time. It was not pretty! Those are the wages of spending three hours dancing in the gym. Not smart!

But fun all the same.

I had no regrets!

One singular sensation

It is funny, I have all this stuff weighing on my mind but then I go to Zumba class and it goes away. Today I was thinking, it is like "A Chorus Line." "Life was beautiful, at the ballet."

Well, it is not exactly the ballet. Let us not be naive.

But it takes my mind off everything! Just trying to follow the steps. I have noticed that when I go at night, as I did tonight, I am not as apt to take instruction as I am earlier in the day. Sometimes I just forget about listening and I just dance.

I always emerge from the gym feeling better!

A fringe benefit is, I drink less wine. Whole evenings pass when I am not drinking wine because I am dancing in the gym. They have not fixed it yet so you can do both at the same time. I have my fingers crossed hoping that day will come but it has not come yet.

I also go to sleep faster at night so I can get up earlier in the morning and work.

When my book on Leonard Pennario comes out perhaps I should list in my acknowledgments Alberto Perez. He is the founder of Zumba! That is Alberto Perez pictured up above. I was disappointed when I saw what he looked like, to tell you the truth. I was somehow thinking he would be old. I was imagining this cool old Latin guy. Then I see this disco-y guy in pink sneakers. Oh well.

I think sometimes how Leonard would sneer at our Zumba music. There was one song downtown the other day I could not get over. Downtown is the tough Zumba, the hip-hop Zumba. This one song, and I use the term loosely, kept using the sound effects of sirens and breaking glass.

I am out shimmying to this breaking glass thinking, uh, this is not really something I should be doing.

Well, so what.

All's I know, as we say here in Buffalo...

All's I know is, I've lost 10 pounds.

While walking into work

This morning arriving at the office I walked through the group of protesters at the entrance to The Buffalo News. There were maybe 40 people. I am a bad judge of numbers. And I see now that you certainly can not tell from the picture I took up above! Ahahahaha! Good thing I am not a news photographer.

Anyway, what startled me was the man at the microphone, the man giving this impassioned speech, was my friend Sam from Zumba class!

I stood agog. I met Sam to begin with when I had been taking Zumba maybe a couple of weeks. It was his birthday, and he made this announcement that he was going to celebrate by giving a rose to every lady in the class. Sam always says "lady." As in "You ladies did a great job with that song."

That day all of us ladies walked out of the gym carrying our roses and feeling proud and special. We giggled about it and I joked around about it in the Buzz column. I got to know Sam because of that and often in class we wind up Zumba-ing next to each other.

But today, all I could think was: How is this for an awkward situation?

I sort of tried to catch Sam's eye as he was making his speech. On the other hand I did not try too hard because I did not want to throw him off. All of a sudden he would stop thinking about his grievances against The Buffalo News and start thinking about Charleston step, cumbia step, hips in a circle, shake it.

Maybe he would not even place me out of context. That happens to me so I would totally understand.

This being Buffalo where we talk to strangers I had to talk to someone and I approached a gentleman on the fringe of the group of protesters. "That's my friend," I said, pointing to Sam. "I know him from Zumba class."

If you did this kind of thing in Toronto they would look at you funny and move away but this being Buffalo, the gentleman moved politely and interestedly closer to me. "Oh yeah?" he said.

"Yeah," I said. "I can't believe he is up there giving this speech."

"Where do you do Zumba?" the guy asked me.

Buffalo, gotta love it.

We chatted for a couple more minutes during which time I did not manage to work Leonard Pennario into the conversation but did manage to mention that I had lost five pounds. The protest is because some people object to how The Buffalo News covered our recent downtown shootings, pointing out the victims' criminal backgrounds. While I stick with how the paper covered it, I told this protester that I felt bad that this event had divided our town.

The gentleman smiled at me and he said, "Sometimes good comes out of bad."

What will people say?

Do you ever wonder if someone were writing your biography, the people that person would call? I started worrying -- er, thinking -- about that just now.

I was taking a break in my Leonard Pennario labors and I had gone to pour myself a glass of Diet Squirt. I am starting to think I am going to have to mention Diet Squirt in my acknowledgments. Hmm, perhaps I should start drinking a pop with a more dignified name. Diet Squirt does just not sound right.

Well, whatever. En route to the kitchen I passed the hall mirror and I noticed what I was wearing, a funky striped tank top and shorts, because it's just too darn hot. And I thought, maybe I should wear this outfit to Zumba tonight.

Then I thought: What if someone ever writes a biography of me? They might get a hold of my Zumba teachers.

Ha, ha! I could imagine someone's triumph, decades from now, to have hunted down Renee, who teaches my downtown urban hip-hop Zumba class, or Ellery, or Mary, or Laurie over at the Boulevard. Because Zumba is to me what bridge was to Pennario, this silly thing you do to relax that takes up a lot of your time.

When my adoring biographer calls up, Ellery or Renee or Mary or Laurie from over at the Boulevard will say: "She really loved to Zumba. She did it every day! Sometimes she went to two or three classes!" It is true. Once last week I went to three. Well, that was a long story. Normally I do not budget time for that.

And just the way Leonard's old bridge buddies laugh about him, my Zumba teachers will laugh about me. "She never really got it together with it, I mean, she did not have the makings of a great Zumba dancer," they will say. Just the way Leonard did not have the makings of a great bridge player.

"And she always wore the funniest clothes!" That was what got me onto this train of thought, that I was considering wearing these random goofy clothes I am wearing right now to Zumba.

The odd things that cross your mind over the course of the day.

Another thing, please check out this hot new Pennario link -- he is playing this Spanish-style piece I love by Moritz Moszkowski. What a seductive performance.

OK, enough kicking it around.

Back to work!