Bobbing in time

This past Saturday I went to my first AquaBox class at the gym. Here's how it went...

I arrived about 7 minutes before the class was to begin. As I walked past the pool to my locker, I noticed about a half dozen buoyant ladies gently bobbing up and down in the pool. "Whoa, I'm late...," I thought as I scurried to throw my clothes in the locker and get out to the pool. I grabbed my new aqua shoes (black with pink trim and a zipper closure, very chic) and went inside the pool area.

"Are you coming to class today?" asked a bobbing lady. She was very smiley, and as I looked around, I noticed that most of the ladies looked very good-natured, if not what might be considered 'in shape'. Several of them were wearing shower caps and a couple had those swim caps that buckle under your chin. I believe that I may have been the youngest in the pool by a good 35 or 40 years or so. "I am!" I replied. "Is it hard?" "Oh, no!" said the bobbing lady, "It's much easier than on land." (This actually made me a little apprehensive because I really did want a good workout and I was VERY hopeful that this would be a good class because the meeting time worked out so well with my schedule during the year).

I hopped in the pool by the stairs, which was about 3' deep. The bobbing ladies were already spaced evenly in 2 rows, and I could tell they were exactly where they wanted to be, so I squished in by the steps. Behind me, the pool gently sloped down to a total of 5'. Before we started, I noticed a nice older lady right behind me with white hair and very red eyes. I can only assume her eyes were that red because she kept going below the surface of the water at regular intervals, seeing as she was approximately 4'5", and the water was 4'4". I suggested we switch places since I was taller, but she assured me that no, thank you, she was fine. Okey-doke.

So the music starts and we begin. And really, it literally is kickboxing under water. Contrary to what the nice bobbing lady told me, if you're doing it right, IT'S REALLY HARD!!! So as I continued to struggle against the water, I began to laugh a little bit here and there because I couldn't believe HOW HARD THIS WAS! One by one the bobbing ladies would turn toward me and laugh a little bit themselves. "Don't worry, dear, it gets easier," one of them said. Thank god!

I was getting into a good groove, really giving the water a serious thrashing, when I felt a little tap on my shoulder. There was the little white-haired lady looking a little panic-stricken. "Excuse me," she gasped, spitting out a little bit of pool water, "would you mind if we traded places now?" Good grief! "No, please!"

After the class ended, I got out of the pool and started to head toward the locker when I noticed that almost the entire class moved directly from the pool to the huge whirlpool tub. I thought that looked pretty good, so I hopped in, too. "Wow," I said to no one in particular, "that was pretty tough!" Mm-hmm, murmured the now-still ladies. They tilted their shower cap-clad heads back and closed their eyes, and I relaxed a little bit more, perfectly happy to be exactly where I was.