Why does calm and encouraging matter? Well, I grew up in Southern California in a hardcore beach-volleyball-running-surfing-kayaking-sailing-skiing-snowboarding [AND ALL COMPETITIVELY G-D DAMMIT!!!!!!] kind of family. Need I mention that many members of my family are Type A competitives? In my childhood I used to hide behind the couch to avoid going to the beach one more time and as a teenager being a nice little punk/goth/weirdo/rock kid who is trying to achieve no tan at all was my rebellion against my family.

By the time I was in college, I worked out what I liked to do: hike, walk, read, ski, travel, paint, photograph, and cook. None of it as a professional competitive. My brother's rebellion was to take to the sand and desert with gasoline engines and sand rails (aka dune buggies).

Fast forward to yesterday, I was walking Scruffy in my new neighborhood and decided to walk by the Pilates studio I had seen a few blocks away. I was hoping to find that there would be some sort of listing of classes outside or at least a website address, but instead as we walked up, I saw some very scary SoCal overly athletic, overly plastic, middle aged frosted barbies in leotards pouncing upon one another. As I looked in, they looked back with a predatory gleam in their eyes, and Scruffy and I scooted down the sidewalk at a brisker pace.

Yikes!

I didn't even slow down to see if there was a listing of classes or a phone number or a website. As I walked farther down the block, I realized that was expecting to see some nice yoga-esque beach area surfer hippie types nicely and slowly going through their Pilates routines, not Alpha Barbies attacking. After I got over my shock, Scruffy and I turned back around as the only way back home was to walk back by the Alpha Barbie studio. As we walked back by, a few of them tumbled out in their leotards and hopped into their autos and sped off.

We kept walking. I was a bit at loss. I realized halfway down the next block that I really wanted nice low key hippie trippie surfer Pilates people not SoCal matrons staving off middle age. Sigh.

Where have all the hippies gone?