Be Witchin'

Last weekend my sisters, mom, & I went to Gardener Village's "Witches' Night Out". It's a magical night of the year where it's cool to wear hats that can poke someone's eye out and fabulous stockings that you secretly want to wear year round. This year I decided to go platinum. Don called me Lady Gaga for days. I'm so much cooler.

Anyway, if you've never been to Witches' Night Out, I strongly suggest you go. Witches' Night Out is for any woman who's ever wished that she could be a witch. I'm pretty sure that applies to all of the female species.

"I found myself wishing that I could use a spell that would make it so that not a speck of dirt stuck to any surface of my bathroom the other day," I tell my sisters and mom in the car on the way over.

"Oh. So you'd use your magic to do good stuff?" Aubrey asks with a wide eyed tone.

"That and the ability to smack people without them seeing me."

If getting into the Halloween spirit isn't enough to make you go, then go for the caramel apples. And they have witchin' coupons. At any rate go so you can dance like a fool with your girls. I can't tell you how many times we've had to pull my mom out of the Congo line. She thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread.

Note: I don't have any pics of mom, because she came late and it was too dark to take pics. I did get one of of her outrageously twinkly/flashing wig, but I don't know if she wants me to share.

Granna & LiLi

LiLi & I spent the day with Granna. We looked at a photography exhibit, ate oatmeal cookies & sipped soda pop under the sun. LiLi showed Granna all of the cool things that she could do, like click her tongue. The last time we saw Granna was Christmas, so there was a lot to show and tell.

My mom always has a way of summing up things. Today she said it all when she looked at LiLi and said,

"we're going to be great friends."

Thanks for the great day Mom.

Zumba with Aunt Kyla

With the beginning of the New Year came some resolutions. One of which was to work out. Original, I know. Luckily my Christmas gift from Don went hand-in-hand with it: a membership to the Bountiful Rec Center for a year. A few weeks ago I went to my first official Zumba class.

"What's Zumba?" my mother asked after I began telling her about my experience.
"Zumba is a mix of Latin Dancing and Aerobics."
"It sounds carnal."
"It is."

Maybe too carnal to me. I find myself willing that small 1/8th part of Filipino to show itself during the classes. It's the closest thing I have to Latina blood. Maybe it is considered Latina. But if it's even trying to come out, it's being crushed by that dang 7/8ths of Caucasian. I don't know if my hips work like that. I try, oh do I ever try. I used to dance in high school, but they didn't teach us anything like that. Maybe I took all the wrong classes. But I'm pretty sure that Richfield High didn't even have hip-hop. Nope. Now that I think about it, my dance instructor was stuck in the 80's. Even her car and bangs were 80's. She had the closest thing to the 80's claw that I had seen in at least a decade. So a lot of good all my dancing does me now. That and I'm rusty. I feel like the girl on Dirty Dancing, the part where she's just barely beginning to dance and can't get her feet and legs to get in sync. That's me. It's a nice contrast from my Zumba instructor who's tied ribbons to the back of her pants to accentuate how well she can move her hips. Show off.
In my agony I look over and see a woman who seems to have figured it out. I look harder, and stop. It's my Aunt Kyla! And she's better than me! No wonder all of her daughters can dance. Not that that seems to make a difference, as a lot of the steps we're doing in our class my mother seems to have done naturally all of her life. The pony, for example, is one that's practically my mother's trademark, and it's taken me these twenty-something years to master. So, on that note, I'll end with a plea: Dear Mom, please come with me to Zumba so you can teach me how to do it. But, please refrain from joining forces with Aunt Kyla and showing me up. The sooner the better. Thank you.