African Beat class

So this week, I mixed it up by taking an African Beat class instead of Zumba. That and I woke up early and didn't want to make up the same mistake I made last time (spending an hour hanging out and then going to Zumba hungry).

I'm glad I tried out the class! A lot of the basic motions were similar to things I had done in Kuchupudi (a classical Indian dance style), but the way they were done were so different. I feel like Kuchupudi was very controlled and the movements were almost stiff. With the African dancing though, everything seemed so fluid, but still controlled. The teacher was absolutely amazing and her body would just move so smoothly and easily. When she flung her arms around, it seemed so casual and fluid, but every time, her hands would end in the exact same place. I looked nowhere as graceful, but by the end of the class, I got a sense of how to be fluid and relaxed while dancing, and I think I danced decently well.

My neck hurts though. I must have thrown it around too much while dancing :)

Good day, bad day.

So this doesn't apply to today -- it applies to Thursday, but I just didn't have time to post.

Good day: The husband came running with me in the morning. It's always nice to spend more time with him :)

Good day: I gave my computer to the admin so she could set up the data transfer and get me a computer with Windows 7 to make my work programs run faster.

Good day: I went to lunch with a co-leader and a few girls from the Girl Scout troop I'm working with. It went really well! After obsessing about Taylor Swift for half an hour, the girls had some good ideas on how to improve their troop:

Bad day: The salad was meh, and I didn't have time to finish it so I was hungry when I left to go back to work.

Bad day: My manager called freaking out about the project, so I had to rush to the office to look over some documents.

Good day: My new computer was ready and it weighed half as much as the old one (and was much sleeker).

Bad day: Lotus Notes (yes, we use Lotus Notes instead of Outlook) wasn't set up yet so I had trouble getting the document I had to review.

Bad day: The rest of the day was a huge crazy fire drill for the project and I was stuck at work until 9 pm.

Good day: I had already roasted some hatch chile peppers to roll into chile relleno burritos, so we were able to eat dinner by 9:30. We basically stuffed the chiles with monterey jack cheese, and then wrapped it in a burrito with some refried beans and then a zucchini, corn, onion, and black bean mixture.

Bad day: The chile peppers were way too spicy so I couldn't eat finish the burritos and my esophagus hurt. (Besides that, the burritos were soooo good.)

And then it was time for bed.

Zumba, hey!

I took a Zumba class on Sunday courtesy of a groupon. It was fine when I was in the class (I did have to take off my shoes and do the exercises barefoot because my running shoes apparently don't provide any lateral support so my arches started to hurt) and I thought the class was pretty easy from an aerobic perspective. The dance moves themselves were harder. I had so much trouble moving the right arm/leg at the right time, and I especially struggled with the moves like shimmying. This old guy came with his wife to the class and sat down after 5 minutes of having to shimmy and shake his butt. I don't blame him.

So anyway, I woke up this morning and my back hurts, my elbow hurts, my calf hurts -- I just hurt all over. I guess that means the class actually worked muscles I never use, which is good, but it's hard to think positively when I'm so sore. And I still have 4 more classes to go to...

Posterous

I've started using Posterous in order to be able to write blog entries during my downtime -- while waiting to pick up my husband, waiting in line at a food truck, or just waiting around. So hopefully this means there will be more blog posts.

My latest celebrity sighting

So it wasn't really a sighting because it was sort of intentional, and it wasn't really a celebrity but it was still cool.  I volunteer at Dress for Success, and I led their Donation Day last weekend.  It turns out that people from Style Network (who have *awesome* shows like Jerseylicious and How do I look?) were volunteering at Donation Day because Style Network does a ton of stuff with Dress for Success.  One woman showed up with her daughter and only stayed for 30 minutes.  I gave her a tour of the office and showed her how we sort and hang up donations.  And then after she left, I found out that she's the president of Style Network.  Pretty legit job :)  So she's famous-ish, and I'm sure she's been to all of the red carpet events, which makes her somewhat of a celebrity.  And she was responsible for my two favorite Style Network shows, so she's somewhat of a personal hero. 

My latest celebrity sighting

So it wasn't really a sighting because it was sort of intentional, and it wasn't really a celebrity but it was still cool.  I volunteer at Dress for Success, and I led their Donation Day last weekend.  It turns out that people from Style Network (who have *awesome* shows like Jerseylicious and How do I look?) were volunteering at Donation Day because Style Network does a ton of stuff with Dress for Success.  One woman showed up with her daughter and only stayed for 30 minutes.  I gave her a tour of the office and showed her how we sort and hang up donations.  And then after she left, I found out that she's the president of Style Network.  Pretty legit job :)  So she's famous-ish, and I'm sure she's been to all of the red carpet events, which makes her somewhat of a celebrity.  And she was responsible for my two favorite Style Network shows, so she's somewhat of a personal hero. 

What happened last weekend

• Harry Potter Friday night with some new friends (The pre-movie dinner had the most amazing chocolate baklava... too bad the husband ate most of it.) My favorite part of the movie was the Snape backstory -- it was done so well!!
  
  
• Coworkers' going away party -- yummy sangria and amazing chicken tandoori (I got the box that the spice mix came in so I can make a paneer version). We left before the drinking games got started so we could make our reservation for...
  
  
• Dinner in Hollywood (no famous people, sort of meh food) -- a few of my dishes in no particular order were grits with mushrooms, passion fruit tart (would have been great if not for the coconut that was infecting it) and potato soup (the most redeeming dish). I was really hoping for some macaroni and cheese, but no dice. The husband was much more impressed with his food at least.
  
  
• Getty Center (pictures coming) -- We came here to see an exhibition on the "Gods of Angkor Wat" (basically Cambodian versions of Hindu gods and Buddha), and we got to the Getty and realized that the whole exhibit took up a space the size of a dorm room. There was a total of 20 little statues. So disappointing. The rest of the Getty was nice, if a little crowded. I want to go back, but perhaps on a Saturday after 5 pm when parking is free and we can eat dinner at the cute restaurant there with a great view.
  
  
• Mad Men -- The husband and I realized that Mad Men was available from Season 1 on Netflix instant demand so we started watching it. It's a little slow, but it's fascinating. I also love the clothes, and really wish I could dress like that every day.