12 June 2002 - 1:01 a.m.

It's cumulative: the ballet and jazz classes would be completely kicking my ass if I hadn't logged in the past two months of jazzercise. As it is, the dance classes are mostly kicking my ass - I don't have a good sense of balance, and I have trouble telling left from right, and I'm not real adept at learning steps - but all of that said, I have more stamina and muscle tone than I did two months ago, and I'd be struggling even more to follow the routines if I hadn't been hanging in there over the past two months at the Y.

And I worked up the nerve to ask the instructor to break down how to "shimmy" my shoulders after class, because I just wasn't getting it. I still look like a dork, but now I understand which way my shoulders are supposed to move, and I can practice it some more on my own and someday I will look like I've always known how to shimmy.

And even though I currently look and move like a dork, I can say this for the class: I was looking forward to it all day, because there the rules make sense to me. And even though there is much about me I don't especially like at the moment, I can at least say this for myself: I show up. I try. It's a start.

Too cool: French street calligraphy!

One year ago, I was also up betimes posting a hasty entry...