Novel Experience Day Forty-Eight: Sweating to the Oldies!

Dear Reader,

I am at a loss.  Just how does one start a blog posting that has anything to do with Richard Simmons?  Particularly, when it is about your attempt to do Sweating to the Oldies 4 with your 2 year-old son?  I guess the only choice I have is to start from the beginning, which takes us back to week one of this project.

During my first week of novel experiences, I spent a great deal of time fending off my fear of starting this experiment and failing...  completely, utterly, and publicly.  I had doubts about being able to identify 365 new experiences, when I've tried so many things in my lifetime already.  I also had doubts about my ability to maintain the myriad other responsibilities and commitments in my life while adding another, sometimes time consuming and challenging, task to the seemingly never ending to-do list.  Of course, I told myself, if it gets to be too much I can always just quit...  

Right.  However, there is one major, characterological flaw with this line of thought:  I am stubborn.  I often tell my clients that stubbornness can be a very good quality - if you direct it toward the right things, like attaining a goal, finishing a health-promoting project, or carrying out an important responsibility to its completion.  And I whole-heartedly believe this to be true.  However, in my case I am, perhaps to a pathological degree, not a quitter.  If I make a commitment, I will follow through, sometimes at high personal cost, to the absolute bitter end.  Knowing this about myself, I try very hard NOT to commit to anything that could be negative or push my life out of balance.  So while, of course, I could always back out of this experiment if it gets to be too much, I knew that if I publicly committed to starting it, I would feel compelled to see it to its completion at almost any cost.  

Note my use of the word "almost."  The major exceptions here are my children.  While I have many other responsibilities in my life, my commitment to my two little munchkins trumps everything else I have going on.  I felt certain that I would choose to quit if the experiment had a negative impact on them.  And while this is positive in many regards, this brings us right back to the fear I had of completely, utterly, and publicly failing.  

Which also brings us back to Richard Simmons!  While I went around in mental circles, knowing that I needed a project such as this one to fill a gap in my life, but fearing the possible negative consequences of committing, I decided to take a jaunt down to my basement and go on a hunt for future novel experiences.  Now, if you have been a faithful reader from early on, you might remember me talking about my basement?  And also about my mother, the fellow novelty seeker, who undoubtedly passed this propensity down to me?  (If not, you may wish to click here before reading on so that you can be up to speed on both matters!)  Well, doing just a little digging I found that I somehow owned a copy of Sweating to the Oldies 4 on VHS!  (Of course.  Doesn't everyone have this lurking in their basement somewhere?!)  So I brought this little gem upstairs and tucked it away for some future cheesy novelty fun.  

It took more than a month, but today I decided to pop this tape in and experience a Richard Simmons workout first hand.  After fast forwarding through all of the advertisements and previews this is what I got:

What a disappointment!  To think that I was given the precious gift of a used Richard Simmon's Sweating to the Oldies VHS tape, and it ends up being broken!  I had a vague memory from my childhood about a tracking adjustment on old VCR's, but my newfangled version does not appear to have one.  However, all was not lost.  Despite the picture, I could clearly hear the song "Shout," with Richard touting the importance of giving ourselves daily hugs.  I also, through the interference, could make out the basics of the dance moves.  So, as I had looked forward to this novel experience for a while now, my stubbornness kicked in and I decided to give it a shot regardless.  By the time the first song was complete, Liam was chanting "No, 'Shout!'  No dance!"  He clearly had had his fill of Richard Simmons.  And, although my original intention had been to complete the entire workout, I allowed my toddler to temper my resistance to quitting and shut the television off.  Clearly, there is much to learn from a two year-old!  

It's time for me to sign off and say "goodnight."  Don't forget to hug yourself today!

Christy