“Stop, or I am going to fall,” I commanded my legs that had gone independent. They are moving roughly according to my will, but not exactly. I willed them to move in sync to the way my weight was shifting, yet they lagged just a bit and also took on some side-way motions. Just when I was about to gain control over my body parts, with precision timing, the ground jumped just an inch or so. So, naturally, highly un-dignified, I wiped this public concrete floor with my left face cheek.
“Geez! Are you OK?” Shari rushed over. “Did I tripped you?” asked Chris. That was a kind attempt of him to save my face. He was more than 10 feet ahead of me and could not possibly. I stood up and jogged toward the waiting gang, my ego bruised much worse than my face. Several minutes later, Jonathan, the trainer, arrived.
Shari introduced me as the new member. “Battle wound on the first day! Excellent.” Jonathan smiled broadly. “Welcome to the boot camp.” I grimaced back and made a lame joke. Everyone laughed politely.
Nerds have little defense against Shari. She is the girl that bring life to parties with smiling eyes and easy-going personality. When she asked, “Hey, do you want to…,” she gets “yes” most of the time. But Boot Camp?
It was a cold and drizzling day. We arrived Qwest stadium’s side corridor with about 7 or 8 fellow campers. The trainer was late so the senior campers started the session: warm-up followed by a series of passes up and down the corridor in different ways: lateral, skipping, hopping, etc. I was in heavy perspiration in no time.
Jonathan had us do strange, yet effective, moves without any equipment. He is not the “yell-in-your-face” drill sergeant. He demonstrated the move, told us how many repetitions, and just told us to start. He walked around the corrected our motions gently, but was always greeted with groans, “Hey, that makes it harder.” I was taking longer breaks to catch my breath and checking my watch every minute or so.
The five-minute walk back to the office was a difficult. I could hardly climb up the stairs. Of course I was ache and sore the next few days.
“So are you coming next week,” Shari checked on me the next day with a big smile. “Of course I am! I am in.” I smiled back.
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