Probably not, since I've only done it once before here on my blog...but it's Body Love Monday!  Time for me to tell you 10 things that I love/appreciate/am proud of about my body.  And I encourage you to do the same!  (About your own body, not mine.  Though I do love compliments.)

The rules are as follows:  TEN things, no qualifications (no ifs, no buts, no coconuts), and I cannot look back at previous lists.  That way I'm truly thinking about what I appreciate right now and also may discover new things that I hadn't thought of before.  (With the lists that I have done so far, I'm actually already up to 15 things.)

1. I have pretty eyes.  A friend called them "cat's eyes" today, which I thought was pretty awesome.
2. I have a coordinated body that can not only dance well, but can also bust out some decent punch combos on the heavy bag.
3. I have a smile that is uniquely mine...and my sister's.
4. I have strong arms that can lift heavy at the gym, and lift a 35-pound bucket of cat litter up two flights of stairs.
5. I have curvy hips that I can sway like the Zumba Mami I am.
6. I have muscular calves that look mighty fine during shorts season.
7. I have a prominent nose that was the bane of my existance as a middle-schooler but which has become one of my favorite features as an adult.
8. I have strong legs that can take me wherever I need or want to go.
9. I have expressive face which can go from stern look to frog face in the blink of an eye (or the cross of two eyes).
10. I have long and agile fingers, highly suited for piano--I can span a 10th, you know.

I'm pretty sure the nose is a new one, so I'm up to at least 16 things now that I know I love about my body.

Cool.

What do you love about your body?

". . .whether folks come here to Boston for just today or they stay here for years, they leave with a piece of this town tucked firmly into their hearts."  ~ President Barack Obama

It was just about 10 years ago that I took my beloved Maine license plates off of my car in exchange for a Massachusetts registration.  As I recall, I had a joking-but-not-really-joking little ceremony as I sadly retired my Maine plates and began the process of accepting my new residence, even if my heart resided elsewhere.

A lot of time (and a lot of apartments) have passed since then, and today I proudly proclaim:  Boston, you're my home.

I am so saddened today by the tragedy at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  It is so important that we all remember that while a small number of people have the capability of doing something so awful, far more people having the capability of doing good, rising above, helping those in peril.

My thoughts are with all those who have been touched by this tragedy, and my gratitude is with all those who did what they could to help.

The real one, not the metaphorical one.  Though I suppose in the process of getting rid of clothes that don't fit and/or flatter along with the clothes that fit and flatter so well that I have completely worn them out, that metaphorical closet got a bit of a cleaning, too. 

But the good news is that those in the first group of clothes will find new homes with someone who wants and/or needs them.  They're going to a better place and that makes me happy.

As for the latter...well, they may not be going to a better place and I am going to miss them dearly, but, much as I am working hard on loving my body the way it is, that doesn't mean that I need to show off my inner thighs to everyone who sees me in my jeans.

For those of you who have been reading my blog from the first post, it should be clear to you by now that the actual dates of holidays mean very little to me.  If I'm in the spirit, I'm going to celebrate!  (See my Happy New Year post here.)

Why the Christmas spirit, you ask?  Because when I came home from work this afternoon I had a package waiting on my doorstep with a bunch of presents that I bought for myself!

My excitement of these gifts to myself is two-fold.  First of all, yay for new clothes, none of which will need to be returned because they all fit great!  But the really exciting part is the reason I purchased them:  I am going to start teaching Zumbatomic (Zumba for kids) in just a couple of weeks.  Eeeeeeeeee!

If I may, I would like to expound for a few moments (or a bit longer) upon my love for Zumba and how it came into my life.  And, given that this is my blog, I believe that I do, indeed, have permission to do so.

I have always loved to dance.  The connection of music and body is something that brings me great joy.  I've never totally gotten the whole "dance like nobody's watching" thing.  I dance the same way whether anyone is watching or not--with gusto.  And so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I was invited to join a West African music and dance society.  And if you can imagine that thrill, you might also be able to imagine the disappointment I felt when I realized that it was not all it was cracked up to be.

The performance schedule was heavy and the rehearsals frequent and long, with a high-pressure emphasis on perfection.  Dance--that music/body fusion that had once made me so joyful--was becoming an obligation.  I dreaded going to rehearsals, hated giving up so many weekends for performances.

So I quit.

This wasn't a decision I came to easily.  I agonized over it for days (and cried more than once).  Part of what kept me hanging on for so long was my need to dance.  As much as I had begun to resent the obligation of all the rehearsals and performances, those rehearsals and performances were my only real opportunity to dance on a regular basis.  In the end though, I knew that quitting was the right thing for myself.  Still, I was sad.

Enter Zumba.

I needed a dance fix, and found myself on Zumba.com looking for classes in my area.  It was hooked after the first one.  It was just what I needed.  I was able to re-establish that blissful music/body connection without the unnecessary pressure of perfection.  Every Zumba class I have taken since has left me with a smile on my face.  (Well, except for one, where the "teacher" was far more concerned with her own good time than anyone else's in the class--but that was a personality issue, not a Zumba issue.)

Someone once told me that she didn't like the idea of Zumba because it wasn't "culturally relevant."  I could go on right now about the fallacy of a calling anything that has permeated cultures all over the world irrelevant, but really, why bother?  Zumba is relevant to me.  It brought the joy of movement back into my life in a time when such joy was in very short supply.

And for that, I am grateful.

And you thought this post was going to just be about my new clothes.

FINALLY.  Theme Song Thursday is here again.  I have been waiting since Saturday to post this song, which is my new obsession.  But first, let me tell you why Remix (I Like The) by New Kids on the Block is all sorts of awesome.

Musically speaking, it's got a sweet backbeat, great contrast, and three actual verses, which is something that seems to hardly ever happen in pop songs these days.  You're lucky if you get two verses and seventeen iterations of the refrain.  And speaking of those verses, as someone who is working on her own V.2, I totally dig the message.

But then--THEN--there's the video.  Artemis Pebdani is my new hero.  She rocks my socks.  And Donnie Wahlberg just plain rocks my world. Since discovering this video I've had more than one conversation with my mom about how hot Donnie Wahlberg is.  (Is that weird?  Probably.  But he's hot and we both agree on that.)  Plus, they're all wearing suits.  And synchronized swimming?  That's pretty much a win in any music video.

You'll have to follow the link to YouTube to watch it, since it's a VEVO video.  Trust me, it's worth the extra click.

You're welcome.

That big revelation that I had last week that started with me making a list of ten things I love/appreciate/am proud of about my body?

I have decided that I'm going to make that same(ish) list every Monday, but I will not be looking back at the previous week's list to do so.  I will have to generate a new list every week.  I am sure that some (most?) things will repeat from week to week, but I am hoping that not everything will.  Because if eight things stay the same this week and two are different, then combining with last week's list, I will have twelve things that I love/appreciate/am proud of about my body.

And that's kind of cool.

So, in no particular order...

1. I have strong legs that carried me for a seven-mile walk this weekend...and even felt like they could have gone further.
2. I have calves of steel.  They're strong, and they look damn fine.
3. I have a coordinated body that can dance  a mean salsa...or Gahu...or penguin dance.
4. I have beautiful hazel eyes, which look particularly nice when I'm in purple.  (How convenient, too, since it's one of my favorite colors!)
5. I have strong arms that can do 100 pushups (in nine minutes).
6. I have cute freckles that keep me looking young (and are coming out more and more with the outdoor walks and sunshine).
7. I have a huge smile that takes up half of my face when I want it to.
8. I have agile fingers that are adept at playing a number of musical instruments from recorder to piano, ukulele to djembe.
9. I have an expressive face that never fails to get my point across.
10. I have lovely (and cooperative) hair that is beautiful both curly and straight.

What do you love and appreciate about your body?  What things about your body make you proud?  Feel free to share in the comments!

The time has arrived, dear readers, for me to introduce you to my clowder.

It is Caturday, after all.

I suppose it is only fitting that I introduce the alpha cat first.

This is Sissy Hankshaw.  Note her big thumbs in the picture.  Tom Robbins fans should get the literary reference in her name.  Sissy is positively terrified of any new person who comes into her house, but she is most certainly the boss of the cats who live here.

I adopted Bonanza Jellybean (again with the Tom Robbins) at the same time as Sissy (February 2010).

Jellybean is the complete opposite of Sissy when it comes to interacting with new and interesting people.  She is all over anybody and everybody.  Hussy.

The newest addition to the clan (August 2012) is Curtis, whose name, to my knowledge, bears no particular reference to any characters, literary or otherwise.

Curtis was twelve years old when I took him in, so it didn't seem fair to change his name.  Plus I think Curtis is a pretty cool name for a cat--especially one with half of a handlebar mustache.  He's a very friendly guy and very talkative.

These are the three furry faces who greet me each day when I get home from work (or at least two out of three of them will), who make sure I wake up every morning (which I'm sure is more about serving their own interests than mine, but it's still nice to see their concern), and who purr me to sleep at night (that's mostly Jellybean's territory, but sometimes the other two visit).

Call me a crazy cat lady.  I don't mind.  Because they're my cats, and I am crazy about them.

It's Theme Song Thursday!!!

My original intent when I decided on Theme Song Thursdays for my blog (a whole five days ago) was to post inspirational songs.  The type of song that touches my soul, fills me with hope, or just generally reminds me what it's like to be human.

Well, scrap that.  The following song is none of those things.

But I have heard the themes to both Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 in just the past couple of days, so this is what you're getting.

Theme Song Thursday can be whatever I want it to be.  Because I'm in control.  Y-y-you know it.

So I had myself a little "a-ha" moment last night.

I was doing a little old-fashioned journaling (you know, the kind where you hold a pen in your hand and move it across a piece of paper) and mulling over the topic of body image.  I decided to make a list of 10 things that I love about my body and/or am proud of regarding my body.  Yes, TEN.  And no qualifications allowed.  No ifs, no buts, no coconuts.

I did it.  In only 20 minutes, too!

And while that exercise was great for putting a positive spin on my body image, it's the unexpected revelation that came out of it that sparked my "a-ha" moment.

I've finally figured out how to reconcile my efforts to love my body and my need to lose weight.  Loving my body means treating it with kindness and respect.  Treating my body with kindness and respect means keeping it in the best possible condition.  And how do I do that?  I feed my body healthy, nourishing food in reasonable portions and let it move every day.

I shouldn't be trying to lose weight because I hate my body.  I need to lose weight because I love my body.

A-HA!