Quiet At The Office, Quiet In The Gym

Normally, I haven't been wishing for work days at church to end quickly, but I did today.  Other than a meeting about identifying what maintenance needs the church has, Pastor and I still didn't have much to say to each other.  After Ken and Burk, who were also in that meeting, left, the church was very quiet.  It was just as well because I needed to think about some other things I need to deal with, at work and at home.

One of the other matters I need to deal with is my habit of being a bit lazy during training at the gym.  I didn't spar today because no one was available.  Alan teased Amy about sparring, Vachel didn't want to, and mostly everybody else in the gym were the new people who are not ready to spar just yet.  I shadow boxed and worked the bags, pushing myself to do a little more than I have been lately.  

However, brothers Sebastian (on the left) and Gabriel (on the right) were ready to go.  They have training in Muay Thai boxing, which explained why they seemed so comfortable in the ring.  

They were talking a lot with Louis, who got into the ring with Sebastian for a few rounds.  Later in the evening, Sebastian was telling Louis that he was about going to college right now.  "I'm 28 years old, and I'm just now trying to get a degree," he said.  "Don't feel bad.  I was 35 when I finally got my degree," I told him.  "I'm serious about getting my education, but in classes with mostly 19-year-olds who don't want to be there.  You know how it is," Sebastian said, and I nodded.  Sometimes, having to coordinate and complete class projects with some younger students whose minds were more on partying and playing around was a major challenge.

It was so quiet in the gym that at one point, Vachel started clapping her hands as she commented on the lack of sound.  "That must mean that everybody is really working out," she laughed.  Colonel wasn't there, so we didn't have his music, so we had to turn on the radio and put up with the bad hip-hop and rap that's played on WGCI.  

Josh came in late, as usual, but he surprised me by announcing that he signed up for the gym.  I know Alan had been admonishing Josh about getting that done for awhile.  He arrived just in time to see Sebastian and Gabriel going another round in the ring, and he immediately took interest.

The Portage Park field house allegedly has a beautiful new boxing gym with new equipment, but no coach to run the program.  I called to see what was up, and I was told they don't want to run the gym with volunteers at the moment, they want the Chicago Park District to hurry up and hire a coach.  Maybe if that gets listed on the job section of their web site -- I haven't seen it yet -- I'll apply for it.  A friend of mine, Eva, stopped in the gym and told me she had inquired about having boxing in the field house over in Willie White Park.  Eva sits on the advisory boards of Loyola Park and White Park.  There's no space for a boxing gym at White Park.  "That would have been great because you could have been over there working with the kids in that type of program," she told me.

Nathaniel (in the red shorts; Casey, one of the new people, is on the right) asked if anyone in the gym was in the Golden Gloves.  I explained about how Andre was going to compete until his first fight was scheduled in conflict with a class he had to be in that evening.  Kevin is also supposed to be competing, but like I told Nathaniel, Alan and I haven't seen him in weeks.

I showed Casey how to throw the jab and the cross.  We discovered she's a southpaw.  I also gave Bean some pointers on the speed bag, and he seemed to pick up the concept quickly.  Lenia (I hope I have the spelling right) and Ashley took one look at the bag and begged off learning it how to use it for the moment.  "We're not that advanced yet," Lenia laughed.  

Doug, another new person in the gym, takes on the heavy bag in this photo.

Here's my newly remodeled office at work.  Today was a secretarial work day, and I was happy, even though I don't have a new desk or file cabinet yet, to stay in my office and away from Pastor.  In case you're wondering, I don't think he reads this blog, but some others from church do from time to time.  Even if Pastor does, he already knows from my demeanor in the office that I'm still pissed, so what I write here won't be a surprise to him.  

This is another shot of the office facing the entry door.  It's going to look very nice once everything is organized.  I've toyed with the idea of putting up boxing pictures like I used to have in my old office at the social service agency.