Meet my FXB Instructors: Olive

Olive: a.k.a. Teresa

OK, so I’m a bit behind on this one. I wanted to get this one posted before the summer since Teresa and The Intimidator opened FXB Bloomington in July, but I was on ‘mom duty’ and didn’t get it done. But that’s neither here nor there . . .

So why is Teresa now Olive in my mind?

I can assure you it’s not a reference to this Olive.

For one, Olive Oyl is much too wimpy to represent Teresa. Olive Oyl could benefit from an FXB 10 Week session, that’s for sure. Second, based on the personality description for Olive Oyl on Wikipedia there is no way she’d be a good fit for Teresa. I’ve pulled part of that description (with arguments against) to share here:

• Olive Oyl is a typical “damsel-in-distress” character

If Teresa would ever find herself in a “damsel-in-distress” situation, she wouldn’t wait for Popeye to come and save her. She’d kick the crap out of the villain herself!

• Olive Oyl has an “Oh, dear!”expression, and tone of voice, which resembles film actress ZaSu Pitts.

I’ll admit that I had to look up ZaSu Pitts to get the reference. Personally, I’d say that rather than an “Oh, dear!” expression, Teresa’s is more like “Now isn’t that special.” (which would often be directed at her fellow FXB instructors . . .)

• Olive Oyl is also absent-minded, short-tempered, cowardly, foolish, shallow, inattentive and rarely seems to be brave.

Um . . . just no.

Now I bet you’re really curious as to why I would call Teresa “Olive”. Well, it’s because of this Olive.

I didn’t come to think of Teresa as Olive because she rocks a similar style—although I think she could totally pull this off for a Freaky Friday!

It’s because Teresa is like a constant ray of sunshine, and the Olive depicted above is who comes to mind when I think of the phrase Little Miss Sunshine. (Because, you know, that’s the name of the movie.)

For those who know Teresa, I’m sure you can agree. Her energy electrifies the room and her smile can brighten the darkest of corners. It’s infectious. I’ve never smiled more during a workout than I have when she was at the front of the mat. Heck, she doesn’t even have to be at the front of the mat to make the workouts brighter! Sunshine is the only accurate description.

I’ve become fond of using urbandictionary.com to validate many of my nicknames, and I had to do a little research again. There are several definitions of sunshine listed (some appropriate and some. . . not), but this one is particularly funny (typos left in for effect):

“A name given to a good friend who enlightens your day. Usually a girl who doesn't look themself up on urban dictionary unless someone mentions it. She also has a mom who hasn't met you yet and is dieing too. Point is, sunshine is a great person who likes smiling :]”

Since (based on this definition) it’s unlikely that Olive will look herself up on Urban Dictionary, I did it for her. Pretty accurate!

“A bodacious beauty with full lips, luscious locks and dark mysterious eyes.
Most Teresas are sensitive, caring listeners, but they also have their mischievous, fun-loving sides.
A great girl that any one would be lucky to have as a friend or special someone.”

Back to that original definition of sunshine—I haven’t met Olive’s mom, but I’m sure she’s dying to meet me and the other people in Olive’s life. I say this because based on the pictures I’ve seen on Olive’s social media site, the sunshine doesn’t seem to fall too far from the sun ;-)

So why not just give Olive the nickname ‘Little Miss Sunshine’? Because that would be too obvious. Olive is much too cool for that.

I do believe B-town just got a little bit brighter. Olive, please visit Columbus FXB (preferably 8:45) from time to time and chase away the clouds!