Boot Camp Update and Micheal Jackson

I haven't been posting the last couple of days for a number of reasons. I started my BootCamp on Monday. It is really kicking my butt. I'm gonna stick with it though. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up a reduced workout schedule once my month is over. I'm not the worst one in the class but I can give her a high five without extending my arm all the way. Oh well. I think this is good for me. I needed to kick start my exercise program and this is a very strong kick in the behind.
I am still processing the whole Michael Jackson is dead thing. I was in the mall when I found out. It sounds silly but it was kind of in slow motion. This girl next to me at the Sephora store let out a shriek and started babbling about how she couldn't believe it. Me being the nosy person I am, asked her what was wrong. Her sister had just sent her a text that Michael was dead. It took a minute to sink in. I found myself strangely sad. Not in the dramatic throw yourself on the coffin way but a little more than the "a human being just left this earth" way. I don't know if I'm making sense. Whenever I hear about any death I feel a base level of sadness. Mostly for the surviving relatives and friends and just acknowledging that a fellow being is no longer alive. This was a little more than that. Maybe the kind of sadness associated with an acquaintance, but not a relative. Which is strange in and of itself because I never met him. I've decided the sadness is mostly because when I forget about the most recent scandals associated with him I can remember good things. I remember excellent parts of my childhood that involved his music. Kind of like if your Grandma always baked pumpkin pie for Christmas and you randomly smell pumpkin pie baking you think of Christmas with Grandma. So without further ado here is a short list of thank yous for the now deceased Michael Jackson.

• Thank you for the hours I spent singing ABC and Rockin' Robyn into my pink portable "sing with me" cassette player and matching microphone.
• Thank you for Thriller and the memory I have of a lot of my extended family gathered around the t.v. watching it. I remember my baby brother who would be embarrassed to know that I remember he was afraid of the werewolf. He grabbed my leg. Strangely the zombies didn't bother him.
• Thank you for the genius that is PYT that song has been in heavy rotation with me since I first heard it.
  
• The moonwalk. I never could get it right but my older brother could do it.
• Red or black zipper jackets. I wanted one so bad because my brothers had them. My aunt did buy me a sequined glove to make up for the fact that I didn't get the jacket.
• Thanks for the countless bruises to my shin whenever I didn't judge distance correctly trying to do your dances. I kicked many tables and chairs in my quest to "do the Michael Jackson".
• Thanks for the black eye I got when my younger brother and I re-enacted the knife fight from Beat It using a jump rope to tie our hands and licorice as knives. His hand slipped and he clocked me a good one.
  
• Thanks for always putting on a performance worthy of the excitement I felt when I knew you were going to perform.
• Thanks for being a hot mess after plastic surgery so I knew I better love my face because surgery doesn't always improve.
  
• This last thank you is a little sad, but here goes. Thanks for providing fodder for countless Michael Jackson jokes as the years wore on. I should be ashamed because some of the jokes were inspired by your no doubt drug induced behavior, but they were funny and I laughed.

I hope you are at peace now. I went to a bar on Saturday and the DJ played three and a half hours of Michael's music. I danced the night away and just celebrated with a room full of people who felt the same way I did. Michael and his music was just such a fixture in my life I never even considered he wouldn't be around anymore. I'm sorry your life was so troubled, but I'm very happy that I have a long list of things to thank you for.