Back to Class

It felt great to take a class last night.  I really needed to work off some pent-up energy, although I didn’t think I had any energy as I was driving there.  After not having a class in five days, it was a good workout, but this morning I am sore.  My back is sore, my hip is sore, and other parts are complaining, too.

Last night’s class was especially enjoyable for two reasons:

(1)    Only five students showed up.  Usually at least a dozen of us are crammed into the studio for this class.  But last night we had plenty of room to move around without smacking each other in the face.  Another plus is that we all had ample mirror space.  Nobody had to settle for a sliver or an occasional glimpse.  Being tall, sometimes I stand in the back so the shorter people can see themselves in the mirror.  I have accepted that it’s my fate in life to be relegated to the back row in group photographs. 

 

Another reason it was enjoyable was:

(2)    I can see progress!  It’s heartening and motivational to see the hours of practice and classes start to pay off, even a little.  I can do rib circles a little faster.  I can coordinate my arms, feet, and hip/rib movements a little better.  That makes it a lot more fun. 

I need to savor that feeling, because today at the El Sekka rehearsal class, I’ll feel like an uncoordinated mess again.

Last night when I got home, all I wanted was a glass of wine and to curl up in bed and watch some mindless TV.  I’m not a big TV watcher.  Maybe that’s because when my brothers and I were growing up, if the TV quit working, months would go by before Daddy got around to having it fixed.  Then there was the time someone pulled up in front of the house, went inside (we didn’t lock the doors back then), and left with our TV set.  He did it with such insouciance that the neighbors thought he was a repairman.  It took a long time to get that TV replaced.     

But I do have my favorites, like Friday Night Lights, which, alas, is in its last season.  It’s a shame that well acted, well written TV programs like that get cancelled and crappy stuff goes on for season after season.

However, for mindless TV, my favorite programs are what I call “M & M,” which stands for “murder and mayhem.”  You find these mostly on the ID channel, shows like Main Street Mysteries, On the Case with Paula Zahn, Deadly Women, and, my favorite, Dateline NBC with Keith Morrison.  He has a distinctive voice and intonation that’s just too easy to make fun of.  Check out the SNL spoof on YouTube.

These M&M shows are completely predictable.  Somebody gets murdered, the police bumble around for awhile, and eventually the perpetrator gets caught.  Then there’s the suspense of searching for the body.  This inevitably ends with a “grisly discovery” or, sometimes, a “gruesome discovery.”  Last night the narrator surprised us with a "heinous discovery.” 

I have no idea why these programs appeal to me.  Maybe because they are so comfortingly predictable.  Maybe because the bad guy always loses and the good guys always win (except the murder victim).  Or maybe I’m just seriously disturbed.  If so, there are a lot of people like me out there, because the M&M shows have multiplied in the last year or so.   

A belly dance class, followed by M&M TV and a glass of wine.  It doesn’t get much better than that.