Do you remember?

So life sometimes has many ups and downs, we get caught so often in the down part it’s hard to remember the up parts. Today I was reflecting on life and feeling sad and weepy, I was driving in my car and remembered a story that by the end of the memory had me laughing out loud to myself. To my sister Wendy and cousin Leanne do you remember when we took kick boxing?

Let me refresh your memory. Wendy had a genius idea we were going to get in shape and have fun doing it. She had heard about a kick boxing group class at a local karate studio, and we could try it for free! It doesn’t get much better than that…Right? So the three of us walk into the class and I’m feeling pretty cocky at this point. I think I’m in pretty good shape and this should be easy for me. If you know my personality you know I’m competitive, like to stand out, give it my all, Full of myself, so many additional things I could say here. However this is only in the exercise world, that I feel so confident. I am also good at laughing at myself, making a fool out of myself, and finding humor in things. Back to the story, class starts and we are bouncing, punching, kicking, and squatting, I am thinking easy, piece of cake.  I look in the mirror, I see Wendy and Leanne are cracking up at themselves trying to stay with the class they are either one step behind, or punching with the wrong hand, we are all giggling now. The sweat starts to trickle down and we are feeling good. We are tired and after 100 punches my arms feel like they can’t throw another punch. That’s when I hear it “OK warm up is done”. I look at the clock, and then at Wendy and Leanne, we all have the same look and it says only 30 minutes longer. I think to myself why did I try so hard, I exerted all my energy trying to look good, or make it look like I was a natural…WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!!! The punching bags come out and along with these come the words that hurt my ears “YES SIR MASTER CHUNG”. Yes that is right we have to answer the instructor with every question or direction with “yes sir master Chung”. The woman I am finds this very hard to stomach, however we have Leanne here to make us die with laughter every time we have to say the phrase, this makes it tolerable. We are punching and kicking hard with bare feet and hands. I think blood is going to start leaking out of my knuckles at any point. Then the next thing you know master Chung is in your ear yelling harder, faster, higher, lower “yes sir master Chung”. Then you spot the smiles on the others faces when you are under the pressure of Master Chung. I am staring at the clock covered in sweat and think the hour is up, THANK YOU GOD!”. I am wrong master Chung tells everyone to line up so we do. We still have half an hour class. Yes that is right, an hour and half long….grrrreat. Now all I can remember next is grown women having to do the crab walk around the entire studio. We are laughing so hard and Master Chung does not appreciate the humor in this. We go a few feet and fall,  is a lot harder than it was when you were a child trust me here. It is also not nearly as pretty and graceful. I am thinking great next we are going to have to do the wheel barrow race. We make it through the humiliation and amazingly hard workout in one piece, and to cap it off not only do I have to say “Yes Sir Master Chung” now I have to bow down to a little man.

Few glad was over…right? No because now is the sales pitch by Master Chung himself. Guess what Wendy signed up and proceeded to be harassed and stalked by master Chung if she did not attend class at least three nights a week…Wendy all I could and still can say to you for this is what were you thinking?  To end this story let me leave you with a few memory’s. Wendy and Leanne do you remember not being able to move for a full week? Do you remember not being able to squat to sit on the toilet, and when we did finally make it to sitting position how bad it hurt when we sat. Do you remember how we couldn’t walk down stairs, or Put on clothes, or buckle our bra’s? Do you remember wanting to cry from the pain but wound up laughing and calling each other to see if the other one felt equally as bad? When I reminded Wendy of this story today all she could say is “I had no idea shins could bruise from the inside. I remember being black and blue for weeks. First case of Plantar Fascitis. So much pain to look good, thank you master Chung”.

Laura, do you remember the slip and slide, or my foot needs hot coco?

Lesa, do you remember falling through the ice into 12 inches of water but happened to get fully dunked?

Sandee do you remember the flip in kick line?

Sherrie, do you remembering making us write sentences for sneaking out?

Sheila, do you remember being the “responsible one” so you drove us to toilet papering?

Mary Jo, do you remember the smell at the girls dance class?

Jenny, do you remember toilet papering the Kampers?

Michelle and Jenny, do you remember me showing you the splits at my 30th birthday party?

In closing I want to say, I am glad for all the “Do You Remembers” in my life. They pick you up when you are down.