What do 1979 and 2021 have in common? Well, I can't say yet, but in 1979 I was at my tip top shape and I'm gunning for something closer to it. No, I don't think I'll ever be a size 4 again, that's not possible but I can get the rest of me into the shape I'm meant to be and not this shape - whatever it is. I'll tell you this, it's not so bad that I can't still dance. I proved that to both myself and my daughter today as I twirled this mass around and round, twisting, bending, flowing, mimicking my youthful self. I thought my daughter's eyes would pop out. I was in the living room, she in her room, there was no reason for her to freak out like she did, but it was fun to watch. Leaning back in her computer chair, forcing herself to stay balanced as she leaned further and further to see what I was up to -- she nearly fell to the ground. "MOM!", she shouted from under her headsets. She stood quickly, and abruptly closed her bedroom door. I wore my own earbuds with The Best of Bread blaring, but I could still hear the woman laughing with hysterics in her room trying to explain to her online cohorts what on EARTH her mum was doing in the family room - - I mean, I wouldn't want to see the video, but some day I will. I will do that again. I will.
The main differences between the Jude of 1979 and the Jude of 2020 is that 17 year old Jude wasn't afraid to be seen dancing. Dance! Dance! Dance! I woke up dancing, I would eat while I danced around the kitchen, I even brushed my hair dancing. When I didn't want to ride the bus I really did walk over two miles to school but most of the time I was skipping, dancing, moving along the roads and jumping over little fences, limbs or what I could to keep the muscles moving. Keep in mind, 1979 was WAY before walkmans, Mp3s or portable specific music. We had the RADIO people, we had the RADIO!! FM baby!
By the time I got to school I had my work out, but that didn't stop me from dancing up the stairs to get to class, or down the stairs to my locker, or out in the courtyard to get to the Library a bit faster than taking the halls. The Library...oh, books!! Yes, you know you're really talented when you can walk/dance home, read a book and tune to the latest tunes from Bee Gees, Billy Joel, Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Kansas, and of course, of course, Journey. Wait...you say, "What about Van Halen?" Well, I really wasn't a VH fan until after 1983 and I went out with Alex a couple of times.
That's an entirely different blog -- maybe. 
Dancing is the answer. I may not be able to lose this fluff by dieting and suffering through the sugar withdraws from choosing to put the bread down but I can sure as heck dance. I don't ask permission, I never have. I don't remember ever asking mom or dad, "Hey do you mind very much if I just interrupt your life, your show, your date, your coffee, while I dance?" Nope, they just moved out of my way. I was about 118 pounds when I graduated from high school that late May afternoon. I wore jeans the size of a a thimble with really really long legs attached. I won't be able to do backflips again, not until I'm in Heaven, those moments are capped, but dancing...I can dance. Expressive, slow, fast, abstract, and I may just be crazy enough to try and make myself laugh by doing a precisely placed "robot" move. Who knows? I've made up my mind. This mind. This ENTJ, Scorpio-born, Year of the Ox mind. MY MIND, the place I can truly call my own. I will dance my ass off as well as my stomach, thighs, arms, breasts, belly, gut you name it, if it's fat it is coming off. Bet.
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