the man, the magic

There is a portal in Beverly Hills that recently allowed me to travel back a couple decades to the happy, sparkly days of my youth. This portal has nothing to do with plastic surgery and EVERYTHING to do with America's Aerobics Darling - the one, the only Richard Simmons!

A $12 Sweat! class with Richard Simmons is everything you'd dream it to be and more. Yes, he wears teeny tiny striped shorts and a sparkly tank top, scrunchy socks and hi-top shoes, and I confirm that his hair is big. The class was indeed filled with the sort of people you'd see in his videos - lots of middle-aged moms, lots of spandex! He uses a record player to play his aerobicized versions of Whitney Houston doing "I Will Always Love You", a little bit of Kelly Clarkson "Breakaway" (to which we did get to flap our arms as if flying, and then reach out and grab our figurative dreams...), a gospel medley, and - my FAVORITE - "Flashdance...What a Feeling!"

Please note, 4 year old leg-warmer-ed Wendy had said 'Flashdance' record and would dance around the room for as many repeats of the song as mom & dad could stand. So the opportunity this weekend to dance around the room with an icon of my childhood to one of my iconic childhood songs - it was truly magical. I sang at the top of my lungs and performed each movement with gusto.

Cap'n Sparklepants and I dressed for the occasion. Richard loved my legwarmers (yes!), and we were thrilled to be the recipients of hugs and kisses from him at the class's end. This was followed up by, oddly, some discussion of my work and the unfortunate rising costs of licensing music for the videos he puts out.

If you were driving through Beverly Hills Saturday afternoon and saw two stunningly-dressed girls running and leaping with joy and jazz hands...just know, that's the kind of happiness Richard Simmons brings into the world when he helps you sweat to the oldies.

*ps - after class was done, as i was waiting to thank him, i half overheard a conversation he was having with a fellow classmember. this girl was definitely asking richard for relationship advice, and he was definitely giving some to her. in addition to having great legs, mr. simmons is apparently also an oprah to the fitness-challenged and unhappy.