Take a belly dancing class (Maryanne Courtney & Bev Scott)

Yes, yes, yes! I tried to start this in January and then put it off, scheduling, snow, excuse, excuse, excuse. When my friend, Anne, mentioned that her East Boston YMCA offered belly dancing, I jumped on it. She tried it once and was willing to go back. I was definitely in.

My experience...
I loved it! Everyone in the class was so upbeat and had different skill levels, so it felt very comfortable. I learned some new tricks, like how to shake my chest by only moving my shoulders and how to punch with my hip. I am still working on my "shimmy". I am definitely shaking it, but if what I am doing is actually a shimmy, I just don't know yet. I will keep working on it. It was an abdominal workout, but it is so much fun I just wanted to keep twisting and isolating. I am glad that this was a dare, and I got to share my first belly dancing experience with Anne.

I know Maryanne is planning on taking this up after her big spring work push is over. I highly recommend it and look forward to hearing how your firs class goes. Good luck; shimmy, shimmy, shimmy!

Thanks, y'all!

Engage Lola in a dog sport or train her to be a therapy dog (Karen Courtney)

So many options of what to do... and I failed...

Ball = mine

This was one of two dares from the same person, dearest sister, and I know that I just cannot commit that time in such an organized fashion.

Lola is a free spirit and I believe her heart's desire is to play fetch with me and chase other dogs in the dog park.  Although I will take this chance to show case my favorite Lola moments....

She has got "sit" down.

Halloween romping with Gus

Fetch!

 

 

 

 

 

Read two books by Truman Capote (Marge Benham-Hutchins)

Two... I read one book by Truman Capote, In Cold Blood.

This was my second reading dare. That post describes my feelings about reading, so I won't bore you with repeating the details. Keeping that in mind, please know that reading fiction is truly a challenge for me, and I have encountered many friends that believe that if I would just read an inspiring book/author, I would embrace fiction. I just cannot say that is the case with me.

However, I am happy to say that I have made my way through one more fiction book. Yes, I do consider Capote's true crime genre fiction. By making it through one more book, I now have one more topic to fall back on during cocktail hour and that is success for me!

Thanks, Marge, for challenging me to try again!