The Day Before Election Day

I came in the back emergency door when I got to the field house Monday night.  That is a no-no, but I saw several guys standing around inside, and the door was open.  Adam brought in a guy whom he introduced to Alan as his brother-in-law, I believe.  His brother-in-law was giving him boxing pointers.

That was especially true when Adam sparred with Rich.  I saw both the brother-in-law and Alan in the corner between rounds giving advice to Adam.  From what I saw of their pairing, Adam and Rich were feeling each other out, trying to figure out the best way to get in punches on each other. 

Matt told me to feel free to spar with him, but just not that night.  He wants a pair of boxing shoes.  "I'm tired of going around in the ring with street shoes on," he told me.   His pair of athletic shoes were messed up when he accidentally stepped into a pile of number two somewhere on the street.  Matt said the clean up was a lot of work.  His shoes were still recovering at home as they dry.

Colonel came in, but not Kenny.  Kenny was working on the two books he's writing, one about graffiti, and the other, a children's book.  Colonel's been having problems lately with his wrist because of arthritis.  A couple of knuckles on his other hand were swollen.  He thought that might have been due to some medication he's been taking.  "This stuff sucks," Colonel grumbled.  I always felt that I had to look out for Alan when he was still sparring with others.  Now I find myself looking out for Colonel, who despite health issues, still carries on with his training. 

I threw a medicine ball on Colonel's stomach as he laid down on the canvas in the ring.  He'd catch it, then throw it back up to me.  I threw the ball thirty times.  Alan told Colonel, "Hey, make sure your 'junk' is tucked in before that ball comes in."  I was worried about that too, to tell the truth.  I was watching very carefully how I was throwing that ball.  But it was fine. 

Sarah and I sparred, and I tried to take a different approach.  I wanted to focus a lot on defense.  Alan kept telling me to catch her jab with my right and return a jab of my own.  When I did that, he cracked, "All these years in here, and now you're finally doing it right."  I tagged Sarah in the face a couple of times -- not hard -- and even got in a right hook.  But I had to mostly revert back to going for the body.  In between rounds, Paul told me to give her right hooks to the head and body.  But Sarah always puts her long arms to good use.  I'm never able to double up on hooks like that with her, no matter how hard I try.

After I snapped this photo of Renee, she protested, "Aw!  You caught me looking all tired!"  She was watching Adam and Rich sparring.

Yesterday, I went to the condo Brandy shares with her boyfriend, Nick.  Nice, cozy place.  They have a dog named Biscuit, and a rabbit named Turkey.  I met a couple of their friends, David, who just got married about two weeks ago, and Todd, who plays guitar.  Brandy and Nick ran a 15K marathon that morning, and they invited people over afterwards for a gathering.  There was quiche, cheesecake, veggie sticks, and cookies.  I had a couple of mimosas.  Never had that drink before, and they were tasty.  Brandy said she'd like to return to the gym at some point.  She remembered how tough it was to lose weight before she fought in the Golden Gloves earlier this year.  She and Vanessa -- the woman she fought against -- are now buddies on Facebook. 

Franco, seen here rolling up his hand wraps, told me he had traveled to Italy back in April.  Turns out he a first generation Italian-American; his parents and grandparents are from a town in the old country.  He told me that Italy is very pretty, and the culture is way different from America.  Sigh. . .I wish I could do some traveling. There was a time when I was game to go everywhere, but I never had money to travel to places I really wanted to go like California and England.   I've never been on an airplane in my life, and I've only been to five states: Wisconsin (a few times when I was a baby, and twice as an adult), Mississippi when I was a toddler, Missouri with an ex (and now deceased) boyfriend, Michigan on a day trip with Pastor Roger and others to a Christian book store, and Indiana by mistake (an ex-boss accidentally drove us into Hammond).  I'll tell you a secret: in recent years, I haven't been big on being far away from home. It's a silly phobia I should have gotten over some time ago, but it keeps hanging on.

Alan called Seward Park, inquiring about a boxing show that's on the schedule there for later this week.  The coach there told Alan he wasn't sure if the fights were going to take place.  There have been some boxing shows that were canceled this year, but not the high number of cancellations like there were a couple of years ago.  I thought that was odd that the coach at that field house wasn't sure about whether or not a boxing show was happening.  Hopefully by Wednesday, more details will surface.