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I Try Pole Dancing
And yes, it was I who lunched yesterday on fancypants Newbury Street, the Rodeo Drive of Boston, with my CoffeeShopBloggers group — my “self-help” mom bloggers group (not to stop blogging but to get better at it). We met with a lovely gentleman from litl who is a power TweetDeck user and he taught us the ins and outs of Tweetdeck and Twitter. If you don’t use Tweetdeck because of that annoying “bloop” sound that it makes every time there is a new tweet from the folks you follow, now I know how to turn that blasted thing off (under settings). Tweetdeck is awesome because it helps you to sort your incoming tweets so you are read the ones that most apply to your interests PLUS it connects to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace. You need it if you follow thousands of people.
So we had a lovely meeting at our favorite cafe which has a Back Bay location in addition to our usual haunt in West Newton. This was followed by a quick stop into the “new-to-us but been-there-since-October” Jonathan Adler store. DesignTrackMind was all over Jonathan Adler, her fav designer. And as her birthday is today, a little present was in order. Capability:Mom and I were delighted to also meet the COO of Jonathan Adler who happened to be at the store, also lovely. As she was interested in blog posts on their store from mom and design bloggers, and we delight in pimping DesignTrackMind, an exchange of business cards was conducted. Lunching with ladies (a.k.a. blogging mom group) plus shopping made for a productive and energizing afternoon.
Cut to five hours later, same Back Bay location but down the street to Gypsy Rose. Add in Olympian Mom who probably has some kind of World Cup/Olympic metal stashed away for her soccer skills but is too modest to bust it out. She turned 40 and her birthday party, a surprise to her, was this pole dancing fete. Our instructor, scantily clad in a “Little Red Riding Hood” was a little cute thing and was too professional not to be a professional. Add in 4 poles and a dozen moms — some iffy about pole dancing and some game — and there you have my evening.
We all agreed that the Birthday Girl needed to be decked out in a special outfit which included thigh-high 8-inch platform boots and an umpire outfit not really fit for the soccer field. Turns out that those teeny tiny outfits that we opted out of are really helpful for pole dancing because you need bare skin to get traction on the pole. And the high heels help you stay on the outside of your toes to create torque to spin. Who knew?
So we learned: the floor hump (kind of a yoga move), the air hump (definitely a yoga move: an active version of the bridge), the sexy walk (ok, not a yoga move), the hip grind (a Zumba move), and oh la la, the money shot! So we learned the floor routine. And then the chair routine (the chair is your lover). Next were the poles (the pole is your friend but avoid the circle of death — a three-inch radius around the pole that catches your foot and prevents you from spinning). Next we learned three different and complicated spin moves. Warning to the ladies: you would not realize this but this takes arm strength. We convinced our instructor to teach us intermediate moves which she did not think we were ready for but agreed to show us how to scale the pole, but not to hang upside down; probably a liability issue!
Anyway, it was a crazy, silly night that our husbands enjoy thinking about and their imaginary version of our lesson was probably very different from what we actually did. But I can say: pole dancing is not so easy! A newfound respect for strippers! Harder to do than one would think! Requires arm strength and coordination (and we did not learn the stripping aspect; that must be the advanced class). It’s quite acrobatic. It requires a strength-to-weight ratio that most of us don’t have. I can see why it’s a Hollywood favorite way to exercise!
The last hurrah was picking up money with our butts. First of all, a $10 bill is not enough. If you do it, insist on at least $50! Secondly, the money needs to be crisp. And lastly, we all can do it. Yes, ladies who lunch can pick up money with our butts! There is a little secret to this trick but you’ll have to enroll at Gypsy Rose. My lips are sealed. An interesting day, to say the least.
Seriously, this is a fun party for a mom’s birthday. Perfect for a bachelorette party. Or a crazy Moms’ Night Out post Sex and the City II. If you live near Boston, I do recommend Gypsy Rose. Our instructor was lovely, patient, and fun. And cap it off with margaritas at Cottonwood Cafe. We all had a good chuckle the next day at yoga. As for our husbands, they volunteered to watch the kids anytime we wanted to go out again. And most stayed up late waiting for our return…
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Wow! Who knew there were practical reasons for the attire of pole dancers? Thanks, Pragmatic Mom – good info and sounds like it was fun – I was at a book release party, no pole dancing there.