The Zumbathon...rescheduled

Last month I was supposed to go to a Zumbathon to raise money for Diabetes. I was very excited about it, I even wrote about it (here). And what happened? The winter happened! This terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad winter happened. That weekend turned out to be an absolutely miserable weather-wise. The event had to be cancelled and rescheduled. Me, Bry, and the boys were stuck in our house all of that weekend because of the winds and drifting that made our driveway impassable. Our plow service comes to plow at 2 inches accumulation or more. Wind blowing snow into our driveway does not (unfortunately) count as accumulation. Basically, it was a crummy weekend. The event -was- rescheduled, and I -was- able to go to it on its new night. That, and a month's time were enough to sooth the savage beast. Yeah, I don't think it was fun for my family being stuck inside a house for two days with "crazy-angry Zumba girl". I think we all know that I'm not really kidding about that...my guys are troopers to put up with me sometimes and I love them for it.

So the Zumbathon was rescheduled to yesterday. When I saw the new date, at first I wasn't entirely sure I could pull off going actually. Over a week earlier, my friend Kay had texted me to ask if that Saturday was a good day for her and our friend Pat to have a combined birthday party for their oldest sons; two good buddies of my oldest son. Of course I said: "Yeah, that's fine. I've got a ZIN Jam on Sunday but Saturday is clear." (What's a ZIN Jam? I'll get to that in another post.) Well, a Zumbathon from 6:30-9pm doesn't seem like it would conflict with a five year old's birthday party from 2-4pm and yet...I was looking at a time crunch. You see, on regular Zumba nights, 2:30-3pm is the time I usually change for class and fix my hair. It's a quiet, slow part of my day. My youngest is napping, and it's still 45 minutes ahead of when I have to get the oldest one off the bus. If I wait until after 4pm, after my oldest is home, then the younger one is awake, everyone needs snacks and drinks and cartoons, and by then it's almost 5pm by the time I have a spare moment. Well, 5-5:30pm is when we usually eat as a family on Zumba nights so that I can leave and be on time to class. Obviously I have developed a system for Zumba nights that juggles both the Zumba and the mommy parts of my life, but that hinges on having the time between 2:30-3pm clear. So what happens when say, there's a birthday party? The answer is this: the Zumbamommy just gets dressed and ready -before- the birthday party. Yes, this means I show up to a children's party completely geared up, neon cargo pants and all. I put a smile on the face of the three year old sister of one of the birthday boys though, she loves pink!

I took my older son to the party and left the little one with Bry. It was a Lego themed party and Lego (did you know that the plural of Lego is actually Lego?) is not great for kids under three. We got there at 2pm and we were out of there by 4:10pm. I was so very proud of my son. I knew he didn't want to go...but he got his coat and shoes on and didn't give me a hard time about being the first ones to leave. I've learned from experience though, that in situations like this, I need to give him ample warning. So it was around 3:30pm that I told him we were leaving in a half hour, and then every ten minutes from there I repeated that he only had X more minutes to play. To whom this applies, parents of young ones and would-be parents, if you wait until you actually have to leave and then just announce that it's time to go, you get a meltdown-tantrum of epic proportions - don't fall into that trap! We made it home by 4:30pm which gave me enough time to have dinner and some family time before I had to turn around and leave at 5:50pm. Jae and I had agreed that I'd pick her up at 6:15pm so that we'd be to the Zumbathon by 6:30 when registration started.

Yep, Jae and I went together. One thing that I've come to know over the past 4+ years that is an absolute and indisputable fact: Zumba is great, and Zumba with a friend is the greatest. Would I have gone to the Zumbathon alone? Yes. Would it have been as much fun without her? No, not nearly. Plus, we did Timber by Pitbull and Ke$ha...so here's a second absolute and indisputable fact: When you have to "spin your partner round and round", it's way more fun if that partner is your friend. Well, we made it there in plenty of time. The first forty people to register got a free water bottle. The Zumbamommy's juggling of both the Zumba and the mommy has paid off! Heh. It was a fun evening. And an interesting one too. Interesting in that there were ten different instructors (or pairs/groups of instructors) that each did three or four songs. Interesting in that every instructor (or instructor team) had their own style. In a situation like that, some you fit with and some you don't, but either way it's a good challenge for your brain and your body to experience something different every so often. An especially good challenge is to do someone else's choreography to a song you already know choreography for; that happened more than once yesterday.

If you're trying to find me in the photo, I'm the one in the pink pants (neon cargoes indeed). Jae was directly to my right, but the picture didn't get all the people on that side of the room, so you can't see her.  I'm so glad that I was able to go, it's been over three years since I last got to go to a Zumbathon and I was way overdue.

Best advice: If you're going to a Zumbathon, bring lots of water. There's no guarantee that there will be any available when you get there. Those things are usually anywhere from two to three hours so you're gong to need extra water beyond what you'd take to a regular class if you're going to stay properly hydrated.