And...we're back.

Hi Everyone,

(Or at least those still reading...)

I'm sitting here at the Center and it's the quiet time I've missed every Saturday for the last 4 weeks. I've loved being home with my family, getting up later and eating breakfast together but...I've also terribly missed my other love-teaching.

It feels a bit like the first day back at school and I truly wanted to get up at 4am and come over here...I didn't, but I certainly wanted to.

You know, lots of people have jobs they love and lots of people have jobs they do not love. Then there are those of us who have a calling in life and we're lucky enough to do that as our 'job'. I am one of those lucky few. And, I put job in quotes because, well, it's not a job if you love what you do with just about your whole heart.

See, in 1981 I found Jazz. I was in high school and they were holding classes at the State Fair grounds, right next to the cow paddock. (Yes, it smelled in the summer.) It was 'dancing' exercise and, since I have THIGHS, I wasn't allowed in a real dance class (20-somethings, back in the olden days girls with thighs weren't allowed in dance class, thankfully that's changed now). So, it was perfect for me. We danced in stirrup tights and bare feet (hold on...that was the style back then AND there were no shoes invented for exercise yet). I performed in public for the first time on the back of a flatbed truck at the State Fair, surrounded by hay. I'm convinced that's where my hay fever comes from...

I was hooked.

Years later, I realized that my calling in life is to hook YOU...and by 'hook' I do NOT mean 'get your money and not care if you're really fit/healthy'. You know, like the regular gyms do. Our mission here IS to make you fit and healthy FIRST both inside and out. And, if you've taken even a few classes with us, you know what the word 'hook' means. It means love, it means joy and it means fun.

So, now that I'm back to 'yell' at you and push you-try and remember that, when you have a calling in life-there's PASSION in what you do. What you're hearing is me and my passion for keeping you fit and healthy. You know-like the favorite teacher you HATED in school, who pushed you, who knew you could do better and MADE YOU DO IT. At the time you called him/her every name in the book but, later, you realized they wanted the best for you and pushed you because they cared. I care. We all do.

If I didn't care I would have given up teaching when my pain was so bad I could barely move. I would have quit when I could barely walk and was taking more Advil than any human being should take in one day. If I didn't care I would have quit when I was told, at age 45, that I had a birth defect and surgery was my only option. I would have quit after the first surgery when most people (and thankfully NOT my surgeons) told me I couldn't do it anymore. I would have quit when the mean girls were getting me down. I would have quit after this second surgery when I found out there are NO OTHER Jazz instructors in the WORLD with 2 hip replacements.

I don't quit.

And you better not either.

I lead by example, I live what I say.

That is passion, that is integrity and that's how we run this place, every single day.

So, when you're making faces at me in the back row when I'm yelling at you to work harder-do it. Because...

I'm going to save your life whether you like it or not.

You can thank me later! ;)