Day 4: Not Exactly The Girl in the Red Velvet Dress

Today's exercise: yoga class

Breakfast: 1 cup of Post Raisin Bran with 2% milk (Does anyone else remember when the raisins in Raisin Bran used to be coated with sugar?)

Mid Morning Snack: 1 Red Delicious Apple (You know what they say about an apple a day... and I hate doctors, they always find something wrong with you)

Lunch: Another serving of last night's Chicken Tagine and steamed broccoli with a tbsp of fat free feta cheese to make it interesting

Mid Afternoon Snack: 1 Kozy Shack 60 calorie No Sugar Added Bananas Foster pudding cup

Dinner: 1 serving of the French Potato and Chicken Salad and steamed broccoli with a tbsp of fat free feta (gotta be quick and easy so I can get to class on time)

Any woman who has seen the movie "The Fabulous Baker Boys" with Jeff and Beau Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer will know exactly which scene I am talking about. Any piano man probably will too since they've likely had to deal with the fantasies that resulted. It's that New Year's Eve scene where Michelle Pfeiffer is crawling on top of the piano singing "Makin' Whoopee" in that red velvet dress, ohmygod SO sexy. Topped only by the scene a few moments later where Jeff Bridges is sitting on the edge of the stage with her afterwards and he starts massaging her neck and eventually moves down her back and unzips her dress and moves his hands forward underneath... I'm getting all flushed thinking about it. Give me a moment...

Okay. Anyway, that movie didn't start my fascination with piano players and piano bars (for that we can blame My Brian, my best friend from college, my great unrequited love and a talented piano player), but it certainly helped it along. I mean after seeing that scene how can you not fantasize about writhing on top of a piano in a slinky red velvet dress while Jeff Bridges plays? I'm only human.

Now I've never actually writhed on top of a piano in a slinky red velvet dress, but I have ridden a piano or two in my time. And for that you can blame Ron Pass (Rides on the piano are free, but rides on the organ will cost ya!). He let me ride my first piano in the Lindy Hop piano bar on the Carnival Valor in July of 2006. On the newer Carnival ships the piano is on a platform that rotates (and on the newest ships, it goes both ways!), so I could say that it's a great vantage point from which to see the entire room. But the truth of the matter is I'm just a big ol' ham and when I go out drinking I occasionally cut a little too loose. (Plus, I will admit, I enjoy the vibrations... LOL). Riding the piano has been sort of a habit with me ever since.

On the next cruise I took on the Carnival Valor again the following summer, the piano man (Carl Evans) not only let me ride me the piano, but he gave me the damn microphone and had me sing "Makin' Whoopee". Oy vey! So I sang it, in the key of C apparently. I was just happy that there was a key involved. I know I embarrassed my niece, who happened to walk by the piano bar just at that point. And I would say I embarrassed myself, but I think I had a little too much gin in my system for that to happen, so I do have some fuzzy fond memories of the performance.

I've tried to limit my piano riding to the Carnival ships (they don't call them the Fun Ships for nothing!) however, I managed to end up on top of the piano at Howl At The Moon in Orlando a couple of weeks ago. So it seems to be spreading... hmmm.



Not exactly Michelle Pfeiffer, right?






So now, I'm thinking if I make my goal by the time the Bloggers Cruise v.2.0, perhaps to celebrate I will buy a slinky red dress (I think velvet would be a little too heavy for the Caribbean, lol) and really do the piano ride right. It's always good to reward yourself for accomplishing goals, isnt it?

My yoga teacher tried to kill me tonight. Now, I know you're thinking that's not very "yogi" of her. And you're possibly thinking that I might be over exaggerating a tad. Well, you might be right about the exaggeration. But on the first count, well, Jody is not your typical "yogi" and I think that's why I like her so much. I know for years my perception of yoga and the people who practiced it had a lot to do with crunchy granola, ultra mellow, vegans. In the past few years as yoga has come into vogue as an exercise, that obviously has changed a bit. Then I met Jody. Jody is, as my friend Ray is fond of calling me, a sassy, brassy Joisey girl. And bit of a smartass to boot. She can curse a blue streak, freely admits that she can be impatient and obnoxious but she's working on that through yoga. And if you make smartass remarks to her before class, she will try to kill you with the poses. It certainly seemed tougher this week than weeks previous, plus it was hot as hades in the room and I was sweating like two dollar hooker at a Shriner's convention. I didn't sign on for Bikram yoga! When I got home my muscles were still quivering, which, ultimately, I suppose is a good thing. But still, I think I'll keep my smart comments to myself next time until after class.

We're over the hump and halfway through week one! Hooray! But it's a long road ahead... Happy and healthy travels to all those on that road with me!