When I’m back in the States I like to see my peeps and one of these weirdos is Marcus P, who I grew up with way back in the day. We’re both a little bit older, his hair’s a little grayer and mine a little thinner, but we’ve been friends for over 15 years and still act like idiots when we’re together. I could fill this entire blog with stories of dumb shit we’ve done together, but I’ll save that for another time. Well, ok — here’s one. 🙂
Anyway, what’s important for you to know now is that even though Marcus P is the bomb-dot-com, his girlfriend Nicole is slowly becoming one of the best parts of knowing him. I mean, nothing against my homie, love the guy, but getting to know Nicole over the past few years has been a nice addition to me and Marc’s weird and fantastic friendship.
All Zumba, all the time
Besides putting up with Marc (and his friends like me), Nicole has something else unique about her — she’s a Zumba freak (which I mean in the best way possible). She’s a certified teacher and has been for a while now, which I think is super cool.
Now, you’ve all probably heard about Zumba or seen someone rocking a neon shirt with “ZUMBA!!!” written across the front with way too many exclamation points, but have you ever tried it? Nope? Well, me either. I had seen people dancing Zumba all over the place in the Philippines, with the craziest being thousands of Filipinos getting their Zumba on for Earth Hour a while back. Man, that was a trip.
Time for me to get my Zumba workout on
For me, life’s about trying out new things and experiencing what normal is like for other people. It’s a great way to really understand someone else, even if you feel like you already know them. So, when Nicole told me that she was teaching a class the next morning I was all in for trying Zumba for the first time.
Nicole teaches a class almost every day – daaaaang, girl
The class started way too early and thanks to a concert we all went to bed way too late, but Nicole and I still made it to a nearby apartment complex’s half-court basketball gym in plenty of time to get the Zumba party started. As people started showing up Nicole plugged her phone into the huge speaker she lugged in from her SUV and fired up the hip-hop playlist she had masterfully put together.
Then, according to some sort of cue that thanks to me being the new guy I wasn’t aware of, the dancing started. What followed was an hour filled with an incredible amount of attitude, pelvic thrusting, and several dance moves that seemed to be just outside of my body’s range of motion and/or coordination. Not knowing the moves didn’t matter though and as the sweat quickly showed up I was so happy every time we had a short break to catch my breath between songs. This Zumba stuff was no joke and my lungs felt like they were on fire.
This made it even more incredible that Nicole was still doing her thing in front of us, non-stop and at maximum level, all while still looking like she was actually enjoying herself. The rest of the people in the class also seemed be more used to the ridiculous amount of energy this was requiring, so I just had to keep going and hope that every song that ended was the last one (which took longer than I would have liked).
I Zumba’d and lived to tell the story
Eventually the jumping, clapping, and my many attempted failures to shake my ass ended and my heart felt like it was going to bust out of my chest. Nicole, on the other hand, was still smiling and talked us into doing a “quick and easy” ab workout on top of yoga mats to finish up the class. Well, 10-minutes of intense ab-burning later we were officially done and our hour was up.
Zumba had officially done what I wanted it to, give me one hell of a workout, and even though it brought the pain it was also a really fun way to kill some calories. It was also great to see Nicole in her element and experience this thing that she spends so much time doing for myself. I don’t think Zumba will be something I do all the time, but this definitely won’t be the last time I let a bunch of women show me what a real workout looks like.
If you’re reading this and happen to be in Northern Indianapolis area, here’s more info on Nicole’s classes. She’ll help you get in a 1-hour workout that’s super fun and still hard enough to actually do something.
Also, if you live around Indianapolis and have an interesting experience that you think I’d like to check out, let me know! I’ll be in town for a while and I’m always up for checking out something new and a little weird.
Trying Out Zumba For The First Time
When I’m back in the States I like to see my peeps and one of these weirdos is Marcus P, who I grew up with way back in the day. We’re both a little bit older, his hair’s a little grayer and mine a little thinner, but we’ve been friends for over 15 years and still act like idiots when we’re together. I could fill this entire blog with stories of dumb shit we’ve done together, but I’ll save that for another time. Well, ok — here’s one. 🙂
Anyway, what’s important for you to know now is that even though Marcus P is the bomb-dot-com, his girlfriend Nicole is slowly becoming one of the best parts of knowing him. I mean, nothing against my homie, love the guy, but getting to know Nicole over the past few years has been a nice addition to me and Marc’s weird and fantastic friendship.
All Zumba, all the time
Besides putting up with Marc (and his friends like me), Nicole has something else unique about her — she’s a Zumba freak (which I mean in the best way possible). She’s a certified teacher and has been for a while now, which I think is super cool.
Now, you’ve all probably heard about Zumba or seen someone rocking a neon shirt with “ZUMBA!!!” written across the front with way too many exclamation points, but have you ever tried it? Nope? Well, me either. I had seen people dancing Zumba all over the place in the Philippines, with the craziest being thousands of Filipinos getting their Zumba on for Earth Hour a while back. Man, that was a trip.
Time for me to get my Zumba workout on
For me, life’s about trying out new things and experiencing what normal is like for other people. It’s a great way to really understand someone else, even if you feel like you already know them. So, when Nicole told me that she was teaching a class the next morning I was all in for trying Zumba for the first time.
Nicole teaches a class almost every day – daaaaang, girl
The class started way too early and thanks to a concert we all went to bed way too late, but Nicole and I still made it to a nearby apartment complex’s half-court basketball gym in plenty of time to get the Zumba party started. As people started showing up Nicole plugged her phone into the huge speaker she lugged in from her SUV and fired up the hip-hop playlist she had masterfully put together.
Then, according to some sort of cue that thanks to me being the new guy I wasn’t aware of, the dancing started. What followed was an hour filled with an incredible amount of attitude, pelvic thrusting, and several dance moves that seemed to be just outside of my body’s range of motion and/or coordination. Not knowing the moves didn’t matter though and as the sweat quickly showed up I was so happy every time we had a short break to catch my breath between songs. This Zumba stuff was no joke and my lungs felt like they were on fire.
This made it even more incredible that Nicole was still doing her thing in front of us, non-stop and at maximum level, all while still looking like she was actually enjoying herself. The rest of the people in the class also seemed be more used to the ridiculous amount of energy this was requiring, so I just had to keep going and hope that every song that ended was the last one (which took longer than I would have liked).
I Zumba’d and lived to tell the story
Eventually the jumping, clapping, and my many attempted failures to shake my ass ended and my heart felt like it was going to bust out of my chest. Nicole, on the other hand, was still smiling and talked us into doing a “quick and easy” ab workout on top of yoga mats to finish up the class. Well, 10-minutes of intense ab-burning later we were officially done and our hour was up.
Zumba had officially done what I wanted it to, give me one hell of a workout, and even though it brought the pain it was also a really fun way to kill some calories. It was also great to see Nicole in her element and experience this thing that she spends so much time doing for myself. I don’t think Zumba will be something I do all the time, but this definitely won’t be the last time I let a bunch of women show me what a real workout looks like.
If you’re reading this and happen to be in Northern Indianapolis area, here’s more info on Nicole’s classes. She’ll help you get in a 1-hour workout that’s super fun and still hard enough to actually do something.
Also, if you live around Indianapolis and have an interesting experience that you think I’d like to check out, let me know! I’ll be in town for a while and I’m always up for checking out something new and a little weird.
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