Community (Not the Show)

Although yes you should totally rewatch the show.

I had a pretty uplifting experience this morning and I thought I’d share. I recently lost two very close friends, I’m not sure why, people just stop liking you sometimes. It’s been devastating and in the midst of a very, very hard year losing deeply important members of your community is a really tough thing to deal with. It feels a lot like a breakup and I’ve been having a rough time. At the same time, after a long, long year of being banned from working out by my doctors, I was allowed to do yoga and only yoga (I am still banned from doing the greatest thing a human being can ever do with their body- running) and after a false start at a hot yoga studio with a Qanon owner who believes that infrared lights kill COVID (spoiler: they don’t) I found a new place down the street.

I am almost 40 and at this age two things that are incredibly tough are a) making new friends and b) getting back in shape. And now I’m trying to do both at a time when inflation has stolen all of my money and the year has been extremely difficult and although I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel I have a lot of work and suffering to go through before I get there. So what I really needed was a tough workout to spark my endorphins and make me feel proud of myself and boy did I find one.

I don’t know if any of you have ever been to CorePower Yoga but they have a class called YogaSculpt that is absolute murder. I love a hard workout. I love Crossfit. I spent $35 a week in D.C. for one SolidCore class that had me in tears every time. During COVID I ran a half marathon every weekend and then came home and did 100 Spartan exercises. If a workout will take you to the edge of death and have you screaming for redemption, it’s the one for me. Yes, I obviously own all of the P90x DVDs. So when I tell you that YogaSculpt is HARD, believe me. I love it so much.

Today I was suffering through a late morning YS class and my mat was behind possibly the most attractive woman I have ever seen in my life. She was an LA 11. It was both mortifying and inspirational. She was cruising through the class like it was nothing. When I started last week I got stomach cramps after three crunches. That is not a joke. So here I am trying not to look at myself in the mirror and the third hottest woman in Los Angeles County is just flouncing through the moves with heavy weights and I am in total awe while also in epic pain. Another good thing about tough workouts is that you can’t really think about your problems. I walked in feeling sad and replaying events over and over in my head and by the 8th crunch I was just trying to shake the sweat out of my eyes and not embarrass myself too much.

Finally, towards the end of class even LA 11 had had enough and, being extremely hot and thus not shy at all she was loudly vocalizing that her arms felt like jelly and she couldn’t make it through, which was honestly the nicest thing she could have done for the rest of us. As we were struggling through our 100th set of mountain climbers she was seriously flagging when the middle aged European woman next to her said in heavily accented English “YOU CAN DO IT!” and she was like “I CAN DO IT!” and I was like “I CAN DO IT TOO!” (in my head) and WE ALL DID IT! And it was so exciting! And then we had to do shoulder presses in crescent lunge and I was sad again.

But it was that moment of community that made me remember that there is still love in the world and there are still people who care and with any luck I won’t die friendless and alone. And also I want to be tough enough to be a CorePower instructor because I feel like if you can do that then Navy SEAL training is nothing.

I know that right now so many of us are feeling lonely and sad and rejected. Summer is here and we’re not all in the super fun social positions that we fantasized about during COVID and it sucks. But today I remembered that there are literally billions of people in the world and we each only need like 5 of them to be our friends and that feels pretty doable. So I’m heading into summer ready to heal and try again and I hope that you are too.

And also it’s a great time to rewatch Community because it is an incredible show about a group of wildly different people who become family and also there are just so many epic paintball wars.

Watch:

Web of Make Believe (Netflix): This scary and infuriating docuseries is about what happens when the dark side of the internet collides with real life.

Navalny (HBO Max): When I saw this docu at Sundance Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine yet and it was still explosive. Now, it’s an absolute must see.

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande (Hulu): I love it when the best of Sundance finally comes to the world. This is without a doubt Emma Thompson’s career performance. It is also a movie that anyone who has ever felt lonely or unloved or unsexy, which I assume is 100% of the world’s population, will deeply love.

Listen:

The Seduction (podcast): DATELINE HAS A NEW PODCAST. I mean do you need to know anything else?

Spectacle: True Crime (podcast): Spectacle’s upcoming new season is about the history of True Crime. While you’re waiting for it to start I recommend listening to their seasons on the histories of Las Vegas and Reality TV.

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (soundtrack): I’m a little behind the Broadway times on this but I have recently become obsessed with the soundtrack to this incredible musical based on a 70 page segment from War & Peace. Which you should read. And Anna K, one of the best books of all time. And really all Russian literature.

Read:

Welp, we’re back to starving children again.

LOL to all of us who are flying this summer.

Goddess of Scam Anna Delvey tries to reinvent herself as not-scammer by selling NFTs. Sure, Jan.