Celebrating Dirty Thirty

Well, it happened. I turned 30!

After an incredibly hard week at work, I started my birthday weekend off with Mrs. Fatass doing a 30 minute Zumba Sentao demo at 12:15. It went so well! We had done our first demo on Thursday night and I think each time we do it, it gets better and easier to do (in terms of teaching!)!  I went back to work, got as much done as possible and left at 4:45 to go get my eyebrows tamed before my dinner party.

We went out to a local place called Jac's for dinner. It was DELICIOUS! 

I had reserved the private dining room for the evening and as we were being walked to the room the hostess was giggling - people had been by already. Sue and a coworker, Ann had been by to drop off flowers for me. Sue's was festooned with the "It's My Fucking Birthday" button attached to the vase. I giggled like mad.

Dinner was so good. First there was spinach artichoke dip with pita bread and warm fresh bread with a sweet butter. My meal. Chicken breast, broccolini, and garlic mashed potatoes in a smoked Gouda cream sauce. My birthday cake? Caramel, banana fried cheesecake with vanilla ice cream and caramel and chocolate drizzle. Dead! 

Italian Wedding Cake Martini

Also a Glo-Toni and an Italian Wedding Cake martini. So awesome. So tasty. So tipsy.

Glo-Tini

The party moved to a local bar, O'Cools, where we had some more drinks, shared nachos and just hung out. I fell in love with the new chairs on the patio. They're perfect for Sentao. Sadly, they run like $500 for 14 of them. Ouch!

I came home and went to bed right around midnight. It was a very restful sleep.

Saturday, my birthday started off by being bombarded with texts, calls and Facebook messages from friends and family. I couldn't stop smiling. 

I hustled over to the studio to do 30 minutes of Zumba with Sarah and the crew there. I was welcomed by a giant birthday card, gifts from students, a board that they were fastening stars with positive messages on to. I cried a little. So much love! 

Those 30 minutes were full of joy and glee and a ton of sweat. I ran out to teach over at the YMCA. I was greeted by cards and a pretty pink tiara to wear. The tiara actually stayed on for 99.9% of class. Resilient thing!

Note the Tiara. And the pink socks to match.

60 minutes of more sweat to my favorite songs followed.  The smile couldn't have been removed from my face with a jackhammer!

Then came my spoiling myself. Lunch at El Tap with Marsh, Matt, Chip, Sarah and Maryana. Then off to Sacred Flame to get my new tattoo. A quick run to Raleigh followed where I bought my new, fancy iPad!

Here's the tattoo.  I posted from the iPad.

He's a good boy. I got the new iPad, with 64gig of storage in black and blue Smart Cover. I don't like the cover. I can't plug my headphones in flush against it. Fail.

We ate dinner at a great Irish pub in Raleigh where I nommed pub chips, Shepard's Pie with arugula salad and a brownie salad. So sinful!

I was up till almost 1am playing with my iPad. It's so nice!  I think the iPad's name is Gizmo.  Like from Gremlins.

Today was another day of crazy Zumba. Sentao demo, Zumbatomic and a 75 minute Zumba class. 3 hours total. I am so sore. I love it though!!! I know I couldn't have done all of that in one day when I was 25.  Maybe not even when I was 28! Progress!

I am very pleased with turning 30. I'm feeling healthy, strong, loved and like I'm finally finding my place in this world. 

Currently, I'm working on a new goals list. 30 things I want to accomplish in the next year. Personal, fitness, financial and general goals to give me a chance to really fill the coming year with all the best things. 

Simplicity is going to be the theme for the year. Keeping things low key and simple and close to the heart. Watch out 30, I'm coming for you!!! 

Beware Mr. Tomic.

Beware! Beware! Mrs. Fatass and I are now coming for the little ones.  ZumbAtomic is coming and coming soon.

Today we drove to Virginia to spend the day with the lovely, talented, joyous Loretta Bates.  She doesn't know it, but she's totally my new BFF.

See. She totally feels the ZumbaLove with me. 

Most importantly, she taught an INCREDIBLE course on teaching ZumbAtomic classes, sessions and birthday parties. 

Trio Fitness is ready to hit the ground running and bring the Zumba love to everyone regardless of age. 

I still need to get my Gold license but that's coming.

ALSO! Speaking of trainings. 

The Saturday before my 30th birthday I will be taking the Zumba Sentao training. Then, once I find a Gold class that I can get to. I will be missing only the Aqua circle on my profile.  GET ALL THE CIRCLES!!!!

Also... I need pretty Toning clothing now... I just realized my Zumbawear is short a Toning Instructor top.  Boo!

Anyway... today was great not just because of how awesome Loretta and Zumbatomic are but because I got to spend the day with Sue.

It's been a while she she and I could just talk.  And we did... for 2.5 hours up and then dinner and 3 hours back.  We laughed, had a few weepy moments and shared stuff we likely wouldn't have had a chance to talk about otherwise and I loved every bit of it. 

I am now exhausted and sore and realizing that trying to dance like a 7 year old is harder than I thought.  Trying to control my out of control hips when learning to modify was HARD.  I need to shake it extra hard tomorrow to let my muscles have some fun!!!!

Just sharing the glee...

For those of you who follow me on Facebook - you've heard me squee about this before.  I had my Peak Health appointment yesterday and I am THRILLED at what I learned.

Since my previous appointment 3 months ago I've lost 14 pounds and almost 2% body fat!!!

Talk about validation! That's HUGE! I knew the weight would be down but the nurse was really harping on the body fat percentage so a leap of almost 2% tells me I really am gaining muscle while burning off the fat.

Celebration time!!! WOOHOO!

It almost made up for the fact that my tetanus shot from Monday made me a bad instructor last night.  Having only one good arm (the right arm, where they gave the shot, hurt to move above shoulder level) to cue with and to participate with made for an awkward and hilarious class.

So terribly excited to see what she says in another 3 months!

Hip Hip Hooray for Hip Hop Hustle!

I did it.  I DID IT! I taught a Hip Hop Hustle class tonight and it was fantastic! I was so scared going in to tonight but I am 100% walking on air now.

Me and 33 fellow Hustlers!

I left work early to go teach Zumba at the YMCA tonight and I pushed myself hard there to sweat out as much nervous energy as I could. 

I got to the studio, changed in to a new set of workout clothes and paced.  I was so scared I was actually sick to my stomach.  I was really scared I was going to puke right before hand. 

So many of my friends showed up to be supportive and so many new faces came to see what the Hustle was all about. 

I did a warm up that walked the class through the most used Hip Hop Hustle moves and then we moved right on in to Block 1.  They picked it up so fast that I wound up getting through all but the last 32 counts of Block 2!  They kicked so much tail that we just busted right on through. 

A personal victory? There's part of Block 1 that has a criss cross jump that killed me during training and scared me crap out of me.  I pushed through and aside from a few times where I turned around to watch the class do it, I did it over and over through the whole class.  I was really afraid that I was going to need to modify it so much more than I did.

I had an amazing time and I can only hope the class had half the fun I did.  I also burned nearly 100 calories during class! Which is AWESOME.

I'm so utterly out of my mind happy right now.  I wanted to feel like this has a chance of taking off, of being something we can get on the schedule more at the Studio and at the YMCA.  I love Chalene Johnsons formats and I want to see them succeed in our little town.

I am totally excited to teach it again next Thursday night.  We're gonna get to the end of Block 2 and maybe even do a mini video of the two blocks together the week after that. 

Gratuitous Silly Picture!