Ouch.

I feel like God is in Heaven screaming at me, "What more do I have to do to convince you that you need to get off your duff and get some exercise!?" The signs are coming from all sides--a pile of my friends are on diets, I joined CommonHealth at work, I'm working with clients who are ill from years of bodily neglect. And I'm screaming back at God, "Ok! I GET IT! Just give me a job that doesn't have me on the road stressing out all day so I have a little energy when I get home!"

Well, last night my sister came over to celebrate my big day, and I had gotten a Dancing With the Stars exercise DVD two months ago. It was still shrinkwrapped in its original packaging. Since my sister is looking so great these days, I figured she'd be up for it. We used to "Sweat to the Oldies" together, and frankly, the treadmill is not cutting it for me--I don't like walking in one place for more than about 10 minutes, even with the TV on. I do like to walk our neighborhood when the weather's good, but it's summer in Virginia, and when it's not 9,000 degrees, it's pouring.

But I digress. So, we decided to "Dance With the Stars". That Maksim is yummy, and the DVD promised to be for all skill levels, even beginners. Judy was game, so we popped the DVD in and were ready to become dancing stars.

I knew we were doomed when I said "Let's learn to foxtrot", dramatically threw my arms in the air, and the remote flew out of my hand, hit the collage I made of our Vegas trip, and fell on the floor, batteries scattered.

When we recovered from our giggles, we began. The warm ups were pretty good, and then it started to get intense.

(Now, I must say, this is probably a hell of a lot easier on hardwood floors, but I've got craptastic carpet and until I can afford otherwise, that's what we're exercising on. And also, we both got pedicures yesterday--a birthday treat from my sister, so our feet offered no resistance)

So, we start doing lunges. Why, I do not know. And Judy is lunging barefoot. And her foot keeps lunging, until she does a perfect split, her foot stopped only by my TV cabinet. We were in tears we were laughing so hard.

We get through the first two routines, which were about impossible not because they were difficult but because the instructors (sorry to say, Maksim and Ashley--I THINK) were not really telling you what to do. We paso doble'ed and something elsed and then Kym took over and taught us how to samba. And she was a great instructor. She told us what to do with our feet, our arms, etc. We were doing so well, although frankly, our turns need work, and then all of a sudden we shot backwards too far and I fell onto the couch and Judy cracked her heel on the couch. We just laid there laughing... It was the first time either of us had felt slightly coordinated in the past 40 minutes, and then we both crashed.

Well, by the time all that was over and we did the jive, we were beat, so we fast forwarded through putting all the dances together into one big routine and just did the cool down.

That DVD was great for a laugh, and for someone who has been avoiding exercise, it was a good time. :-) I'll probably alternate that and Richard Simmons, which I still have believe it or not, with walks around my block and see how I feel. Exercise is definitely less of a PITA with a good friend and a good giggle to get you through.