Mama Said Knock You Out

Mary brought up the subject of having the gym closed after the spring session ends next Friday. "The coach's position is not yet listed online, and I'm not signing up any new people. I don't want people to be upset if they begin the summer session and there's no coach present," she said. Dealing with the real possibility of irate customers wanting their money back in that case is something the Loyola Park staff doesn't want to deal with. I don't blame them.

Mary and I will discuss plans regarding having the adult boxing gym open further next week. My original thought was to not have the gym open that week in-between the end of the spring session and the beginning of the summer session to keep looky-loos from just roaming into the place. It is now making a lot of sense to me to have the place closed temporarily until a new coach is in place. Of course, the kids' gym time on Tuesdays and Thursdays will continue as usual.

She told me that "the intense guy" had arrived at the gym before I had, and was hanging out in the basketball gym. Mary didn't remember his name, but I knew instantly that it was Jordan. "His name is not on the class list. He didn't sign up for this session," I said.

Mary left shortly afterwards, and I turned on the bell. As I was heading towards the radio, I heard footsteps on the stairs outside of the gym. I sighed and turned around to see Jordan. His hair was jacked up. Why he had a portion of it tied up with a rubber band was a mystery to me. "Where's Steve?" he asked in his usual clueless manner. "He resigned a couple of weeks ago," I said in my best cold business-like voice. Jordan, like everyone else, had been told months ago that Steve would be gone now. "I'll be in next Wednesday and Friday," he said. Don't do me any favors, I thought, as I turned my back on Jordan and turned the radio on. He didn't have any workout gear or clothes with him, so I thought he would leave.

"Who's coaching?" he asked. "No one," I said, not feeling the need to explain to him that I was temporarily in charge of watching the gym. Fortunately, Carla and Deb came in, so I could justify ignorning him. Unfortunately, Jordan is one of those guys that doesn't take hints because he doesn't have the brain power to realize when one has been given to him. "Who else is coming in?" he asked. Do I look like a psychic? I thought. Out loud I replied, "I have no idea, Jordan, until they come in here." He was probably looking for JJ and/or Mike to show up. Or any guy, for that matter, so he could brag about what he doesn't know.

Jordan was hitting the smaller heavy bag with no gloves on. "You shouldn't hit the bags without gloves on," I said, repeating something that Steve had told him many times. Jordan stops and gives me this -- attitude -- looking at me like I was some bug that he needed to swat away. He mumbled something about "it doesn't matter". In that second, I wanted to pick up something and knock his ass out in the middle of the floor.

He went back to hitting the bag, but I wasn't going to let it go. "Look, Jordan, that bag is practically brand new. Don't mess it up by hitting it with your bare hands!" I forcefully told him. I didn't give a damn if he didn't care about hurting his hands, but he was going to at least have some respect for the equipment. I got the feeling that he acted like the place was his personal gym. Just before this exchange, he asked to have the radio changed from V103 (an adult urban contemporary station) to B96 (a top-40 station). Usually, I had no comment about the music most of the guys liked to hear while in the gym. I don't normally listen to what they like when I'm not at the gym. It really wasn't worth me arguing with Jordan about it, so I changed the station. But I did tell him, "There, I put it on your crappy station."

He asked Carla to help him figure out his weight on the scale near the mirrors. The scale is not hard to figure out, but then this is Jordan we're talking about. I doubt that he was an honor student in school.

Seeing how he failed to intimidate me and the fact that none of the guys came in, caused Jordan to give it up for the evening. He left like he always does, with no acknowledgement of who is in the room. I immediately changed the radio station.