This week is a week off school, but it also happens to by my “harvest time” at work. We’ve called it “20 days of hel— awesome” since we’re working 20 days in a row, and both weekends (including today) include 12 hour days. It’s fun, it’s hard, but it’ll all be done next Monday.

So, we’ll start a new session with some new (and some old!) tunes. The videos below may show a few new songs…. stay tuned!

As I discussed in class last week, the Cumbia step originated in Colombia, and, in particular, the Caribbean coastal region. Cumbia is the result of two cultures (the Amerindians and African slaves who settled in Northern Colombia) merging their musical and dance styles. Cumbia began as a courtship dance practiced among the slave population that was later mixed with the European instruments and influence.
(sources: http://www.dancing-latin.com/cumbia-dance.php, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbia)

Here’s a further breakdown of some Cumbia steps used often in Zumba® Fitness!

Zuco 103 – Na Mangueira

Here’s the video of the song that I use for the “conga line” or the dreaded “arms only” tracks.

Playlist for this week is as follows:
Sun is Up – Warmup – Inna
Taki Country – Celtic / Bluegrass – Zumba Fitness
Uno Sabe Bien – Latin Pop / Rock – Zumba Fitness
La Fiesta Ya Se Encendio – Merengue – Zumba Fitness
Rica Y Apretadita – Techno Cumbia – Zumba Fitness
Shake Senora (feat. T-Pain & Sean Paul) – Pitbull
Na Mangueira Rumba – Salsa / Reggaeton – Zumba Fitness
Save The Last Dance For Me – Cha-Cha – Zumba Fitness
Bolo Ta Ra Ra – Bollywood – Daler Mehndi
La Fiesta de Pilito – Salsa – Zumba Fitness
Beware – Punjabi MC feat Jay Z
Historia – Wyclef Jean
Mamavatu – Susheela Raman

For your enjoyment (or practice), here’s the Historia choreography. Have fun!

Graffiti performance art, Regina - May 2011

When I’m in a state of personal flux, I end up reading about myself indirectly through my Meyers Briggs personality type – INFJ. Apparently only 1% of the population has this personality type… and it is thought that Jesus and Ghandi were also INFJs. Wow… look what I get to live up to.

In the past when reading about my personality type, I focus more on the positive aspects of my personality – intuition, insight, wisdom, and idealism.

This morning, however, I was taking a look at the Personal Growth section of the website and took stock of the negative traits of the personality type to make sure that I address these traits, and understand the negatives to work on to make myself a better person. Here’s a passage describing how I’ve been reacting lately.

Some INFJs have difficulty fitting into our society. Their problems are generally associated with not knowing (or caring) how they come across to others, and with having unreasonable expectations for others’ behaviors. Both of these issues stem from using Extraverted Feeling primarily to dismiss external ideas, rather than to sort through their own intuitions.

An INFJ who uses Extraverted Feeling in this diminished manner may become so strongly opinionated that they form rigid and unreasonable expectations for others. They may feel so strongly about things that they become very passionate and agitated when they feel that something has gone wrong. In these cases, it’s not uncommon for the INFJ to express their displeasure with biting sarcasm. They become so emotionally upset that they are generally not aware of how their behavior comes across to others. Even if the consequences of their attitude and behavior is pointed out to them, they may be agitated to the point that they don’t care. This kind of situation can be devastating to the INFJ on many levels, and should be avoided. There isn’t much that can be done once the INFJ has reached the point where they are too upset to care about others, but the INFJ can prevent this problem from occurring by ensuring that they never get to that point.

(http://www.personalitypage.com/html/INFJ_per.html)

To those I have berated or offended lately with my short-tempered sarcasm, I sincerely apologize. I guess it is both a case of jealousy and INFJ-dom. Unfortunately, I can’t use the latter as an excuse.

There are so many positive traits to my INFJ type, but the most important (to me) is intuition.

INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.  [...]

INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get “feelings” about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff at, and the INFJ themself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. (http://www.personalitypage.com/html/INFJ.html)

In tempestuous waters, do you jump ship and swim for shore (if you can see the shore), or do you hang out in the boat because there was promise of bigger better things ahead, even though you have to struggle through the rough water?

There are so many amazing things about this house. Like, how it’s mine. We’ve changed some pretty ridiculous kitchen duct work, painted one bedroom, and attempted to remove some trees from the alley. Besides that, we haven’t needed to do a lot of work to this house. It was pretty solid when we moved in.

The addition of a garden in the backyard was really lovely. Next year we’ll plant more corn and raise the garden just a bit. We’ll add more flowers, more ferns and more rocks to the front yard, and perhaps plant a fruit bush in the back yard.

On the inside, I would like to add more visual interest and functionality to our bedroom by installing shelves above our bed. Perhaps a headboard (inspired by this photo. This is NOT my room). I’d love to have matching night tables, but right now that’s a stretch. In the livingroom I’d also like to clean up the clutter of too many LP boxes lying around and add a wall of shelving. We haven’t worked out how this will fit yet. The cabinet record player and pump organ take up a lot of the usable floor space.

Perhaps next year in our house will be a more interesting one. The livingroom will get a tiny makeover, and make it feel just a bit more like home.

I’m not going to count how many weddings I go to where I have an anxiety attack half-way through and end up running, crying from the venue. Or how many times I’m sick or have a debilitating headache, nausea, or some other ailment prior to the wedding.
It doesn’t seem to matter if the wedding is a person near and dear to me, or if it’s someone I’ve barely met. Apparently I’m just wedding-phobic.

This weekend is my dear friend Brian’s wedding. I’ve been psyching myself for this occasion for the past 2 years, ever since he told me of the wonderful lady he proposed to.  He made sure I’d be in the country for the event (and not still in NZ). I’m only slightly nervous (since I don’t know too many of his friend/family network), but he assured me that I’d only have to be “[my] awesome self” and I’d have a great time. I told Travis we could pretend to be completely different people because we don’t know ANYONE. Unfortunately, I’m not quick enough with the imagination to come up with a totally new persona and keep it up all night. HA!

I can always hide behind my camera, but then I’d be stealing Travis’s wedding-coping mechanism. (Yes, dear, I’ve figured you out).

(now that I think about it, the only wedding I felt truly comfortable at in the last few years was my sister’s wedding. What an event! Wonderful time. Then again, I was in the wedding party, was with my entire extended family, and danced the first dance with the lovely bride. Janci’s wedding was definitely an anomaly.)

I think I really like them. I did say to Travis, however, I feel like I look like a 16 year old kid circa 1989.