zumba

Sometime early next month, in the fall, there's this weekly aerobic-fake-Afrocaribbean-dance thing called Zumba that's free and specifically for immigrants. All the students, as far as I spotted when we went to the last class of the year last May (before the teacher went on her summer holiday), are from various Finnish classes at my school.

It was fun because I like to dance and it afforded me an opportunity to bond a bit with classmates I like and the teachers. On the other hand, Zumba is about 40% more aerobics than I like, and I think in order to avoid collapse I will have to make an effort to scale back to a more low-impact workout on the fly.

Honestly, I kinda wish there was an immigrant-ladies-only yoga class at that place because it would probably be more my speed, but I'm still looking forward to it. Besides, I really should probably bounce around significantly more in my life because I really don't have muscles right now and that's inconvenient and indubitably bad for my future health, even if I am at low risk of heart disease. I think hopping and jumping counts as weight-bearing for purposes of reducing the risk of osteoporosis anyway, and I do have a family history of that.

Although I'm really sad to say this, but: country line dancing was significantly more fun than Zumba, for me. I mean if it was just watching hot ladies like our instructor who are awesome at it doing Zumba, then it would be somewhat like seeing a live music video and that would be way better than country line dancing. But for participation, Slappin' Leather in 7th grade P.E. class is definitely beating it. (OTOH in 7th grade PE class, I didn't get to watch middle aged Finnish ladies doing booty-shaking dances, which is comedy gold.)

Also this means that I have to purchase some better clothes to zumba in because I don't have anything but sweatpants, and it's wayyyy too hot for that.

shoes of the day

Converse has this new women's style called the 'Chuck Taylor All Star Dainty'. It's not actually dainty - the All Star Light is dainty and as far as I know it's sold as unisex (although it's hard to see how a shoe could be more unisex than the Chuck Taylor and the difference isn't very noticeable, so I feel dudes should feel no shame in buying it). After some squinting we've determined the main difference is the fabric is cut lower under the ankles, which could be good if the current cut gives you ankle blisters (which waxjism says it does, so).

You can see the difference below: the ordinary Converse Chuck Taylor All Star Ox in glitter turquoise on the left and the new "Chuck Taylor AE All Star Dainty Ox" on the right in "Parasailing" (not their first foray into dumbass color names, but it's still a standout).





Irregular Choice Fresh Cut Grass in Green and Irregular Choice Summer Storm in Green
Vans Classic Slip-On in Washed Checker Pool and Superga 2750 Cotu Classic in Pastel Green