... And We'll Travel the Countryside and Sing in a Family Band...

OOOOHHHHH my goodness, I've found a television show that I now am so completely addicted to it's insane- and I'm not much of an avid TV watcher.  I sometimes like the news on for background noise in the morning so I can hear the weather and traffic, but I get a little antsy sitting too long in front of the TV.


Anyway, last night BF and I were just exhausted.  He's in the last few days of teaching 1st grade and the end of the school year is hectic.  I've had busy times at work and things are just ramping up as we continue through June.  We didn't feel very motivated to get out and do much or go to the gym, so we ran our necessary errands and plopped down on the couch with the dog to veg out.

Flipping through the channels I saw a word that caught my eye and without reading the rest of the title or any of the show info I selected it.  That word was "Gypsy" and if you've been living under a rock like I have (or just not a big television watcher) you may have missed a little show called "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding".  It's a show from the UK and it's enthralling.

I cannot even describe to you what happens in this show because it SO MUCH MORE than wedding stuff.  It's a peek into the lives of a group of people I didn't even know existed in the world anymore.  There's really no politically correct way to explain them, so here's my attempt at describing this show and this group - my apologies if anyone is offended, NOT my intentions at all.

Here in the United States we are familiar with "white trash".  We are also familiar with all of the culturally diverse groups that have immigrated here over the years.  Then we have a phenomenon in which older, usually retired couples purchase RV's and travel around the USA staying in State Parks and campgrounds.  Take all these groups, put them in a blender, add some hard to decipher accents and you've got this show.  At first glance, the "travellers" remind me of what some may call "white trash"; they have flashy, not always matching taste in clothing, cars, hairstyles, furniture yet they don't live in traditional home.  Most live in trailers and RV's or mobile homes but I don't really understand the land-ownership thing.  Some say they own the land they live on, but then it's confusing because how can the towns/villages/cities kick them off of land that they rightfully own?  There may be zoning laws, etc that I have no idea about that are involved... sorry for the sidetrack.  To summarize, a lot of the "Travellers" or "Gypsy" settlements get buldozed down if the people don't vacate them.  They (the travellers) say it's because they aren't liked and understood... I didn't hear any reasoning from the other side...

Anyway, so you have these folks running around with prom dresses and mullets and neon high heels on in hot pink limosines but the surprising thing about them is how religiously/morally conservative they are.  A lot them are Catholic in some respect and they don't curse (one girl on the show was adamant that she would NEVER  EVER curse in front of a man because it was so vulgar), they don't believe in pre-marital sex or living together before marriage, they take part in first communion, they reference prayer and the like in most conversations, etc.  It feels a little bipolar- what I mean is that I find it odd that they take part in first communion and then all of the little girls are dressed up in bright, flashy, sometimes and revealing dresses at age 6 or 8 and have a party the likes of a rave, dancing around like adult pop stars.  Not that I'm judging... just trying to paint a picture for you.

Apart from all of the big weddings, parties, etc (they do EVERYTHING big, like Texas) I was really interested in their actual day to day activities.  The men work, usually very hard in trade work and the likes and the women usually stay home and keep house.  Most of the living spaces were immaculately kept and the amount of effort they put into things was amazing- you could see that they truly cared about their kids, family and community. 

I was most excited by one wedding in particular where the Bride and Groom hired an owl handler to have his owl swoop down during the ceremony and deliver the rings!  You now know what I'm going to do because it was SO AWESOME.

So we watched this show for a few hours (thank you TV marathons) learning about this community of people and the way they live.  I'll definitely be watching more.

Jillian Michaels Made Me Cry... Twice

I don't really watch The Biggest Loser... mostly because I have other things I'd rather be doing. Last night, however, I had NOTHING to do after working out and eating dinner. **Pause** I need to back up and tell you about working out first.

A few months ago I had a leftover giftcard to a place that sells media stuff, and I had nothing that I needed or really wanted to buy so I went shopping for nothing and ended up buying a Jillian Michaels work out dvd because it sounded interesting and looked like something I would do. That dvd has since been used ZERO times until yesterday when I decided that I should probably do more for myself than running, crunches and push ups.

Ok, so the premise of this DVD is that you do cardio, weights and ab training in a 3-2-1 circuit for almost half an hour to burn more calories and build more lean muscle than just doing those things separately. Sounds good. I grabbed my hand weights and yoga mat and set to it. The warm up was easy and the first set of weights, cardio, abs was pretty easy, and then for some reason Ms. Michaels thought it would be a great idea to kill me with squats, lunges, and crazy arm things ALL AT ONCE. Sets 2 and 3 of this circuit did not go so well. I didn't stop, but what started as full moves quickly became "modified" sissy versions because my butt was burning, my legs were shaking and I couldn't feel my arms. I couldn't stop until the end of the workout because I was terrified that Jillian Michaels was going to jump through my television and verbally berate me if I did.

When I was done, I laid myself flat on the floor and let a couple of tears fall. Because I HURT EVERYWHERE.

Once I was able to get myself off of the floor and walking, I took a shower and made some dinner. I also rearranged some books on the shelves and finished alphabetizing my cd's. There was nothing on television except The Biggest Loser, so I watched it.

This is not my favorite show, but it is mildly entertaining. This particular episode the contestants had a challenge where the prize was being able to go home for a week to see their families (they had been away from them for 6 weeks at this point) so half of the contestants went home and the other half stayed. There is one kid on the show who was on the show before and he got to go home for a week. When they all returned they all did what is called the "last chance" workout before their big weigh-in. This kid was having a tough time, and I felt bad for him because not only is he the youngest on the show, but this is his second time trying to lose all this weight and he really wants to do it. Sometimes you have really great workouts and sometimes you have TERRIBLE workouts. He was having a terrible one. Jillian Michaels was trying to motivate him and got frustrated (as I'm sure I would have to), so she starts yelling to get him moving and he totally broke down. And I'm sitting on the couched sniffling and wiping away the tiny tears before they can make it down my cheek. I just felt so bad for this kid because there are a lot of issues that go along with being morbidly obese... and trying to move in general when you are that large has got to be a struggle anyway, so dealing with everything all at once seems pretty near impossible to me.

I had to change the channel when it showed that this kid gained a pound at the final weigh-in. I couldn't take anymore.

This morning I was so sore, but it kind of feels great. I'm totally doing the next circuit with JM tonight, and I may cry again when my hamstrings are so tight they feel as if they might snap at the end of the workout. May.