Old School Water Fitness

Yesterday I went to this Aquafit class at the YMCA. I am starting out this pregnancy by being pretty overweight. Let's put it this way: I am no longer a buck-fifty. Ladies, that's pretty bad, for me. And my right knee has started bugging me, like it's got water on it (surely one of THE worst feelings ever). When I do the treadmill, it aggravates my knee. So finally I surrendered to the idea of water fitness.
The thing is, I was kind of putting this off for awhile. It's not that I can't swim. No, I took yearly swim lessons as a child, and of course there was the summer when my own mother literally threw me into the deep end (okay, four feet of water, but it was frightening nonetheless). In front of all of my peers. While I cried, and screamed that I was drowning.
The reason I was avoiding this class is because I HATE getting in a bathing suit in front of the general public. But, I found a cute bathing suit (which also happens to be a maternity bathing suit), and I felt much better. Besides, I thought, this class will be filled with elderly folks. No biggie.
When I approached the pool, my suspicions were confirmed. A class for senior citizens. And they were all women! Not even a creepy old pervy guy (one of my other fears). I thought, "Awesome! This won't be intimidating at all!"
Pretty much the exact moment that I had that thought, a Mario Lopez look a like walks over to us with a bunch of water weights. "Oh here he is!!!" The old ladies started hissing. "Hell-ooo, Phil!" they call, and I swear some of them were, like, winking at him.
"He's a dancer!" one of the ladies told me.
I'm not gonna lie. Relief swept over me almost instantly.
By this time, I had already started making friends and wound up with these ladies who were obviously the troublemakers of the group (this is a group that I perpetually find myself in throughout my life).They were the loudest ladies of the group, cracking jokes, cackling loudly and trying not to inhale the water. They introduced themselves this way "We're Mary. We're both named Mary."
Of course you are. It's the Feast of the Annunciation. What else would your names be???
The class was great. It was fun. It was the best workout I've gotten in a seriously long time. It didn't bug my knee in the least, and the ladies in the class were wonderful. Mario Lopez wasn't too bad either. He took the teasing from the old ladies with a huge grin and teased them right back. I didn't care that the parents who were watching their children's swim lessons on the other side of the pool were also watching us and laughing.Besides, I'm fairly certain that those old ladies could give those young parents a pretty serious beatdown (pool noodles notwithstanding).
I will definitely go back to this class again.