Can I really do this?

6/20/2011

I'm scared to death that I'm going to make a total fool of myself at this deep water aerobics class.  True to form, I have spent hours researching deep water aerobics.  Just HOW aerobic is the exercise?  Am I going to flouder around in the pool until I sink to the bottom and drown?  I'm a strong singer, but horrendously out of shape.  Do I really have the nerve to join this class?

I forced myself to the Y Women's Locker Room and changed into my swim suit.  I did this in a bathroom stall because I was too embarrassed to change in full view of the other ladies in the locker room.  Or perhaps I'm too kind to expose them to the horror of seeing me naked?  *wink*  Thinking of no excuse that would give me an "out," I reluctantly pull myself from the locker room into the pool area.  Great!  Just as I feared, the class seems to be made of older women who all know each other.  Okay, at least they don't know me so I can slip in unnoticed.

Horror!  The instructor looks around and notices that I'm one of two faces that are unfamiliar.  She calls the "newbies" to the front row so we can watch her demo each move and hear her commands.  Ugh!  Attention is NOT what I want and being front and center when I'm afraid of making a spectacle of myself is WAY counterproductive.  But, I'm a good girl and I follow directions.  I must be in the front row, as Bob Uecker used to say.

Okay, I'll admit that I was WAY READY for the class to be over by the time we hit the "cool down" routine.  Some of the footwork was complicated -- for me -- and putting it together with the arm motions while trying to keep my back straight, shouders back, tight tummy....  Let's just say, I'm really glad nobody was taping this lesson!  But, I made it through.  I even felt good enough about myself that I walked from the pool back to the locker room with my towel draped over my shouders, and not wrapped around me like a cocoon. 

I wonder how I'm gonna feel tomorrow?