Pretty Girl and Maintenance Issues

Professor and Martin watch the sparring at Loyola Park gym.  Martin hasn't been in the gym in awhile, but he's planning to sign up again.  He told me about Grauben, whom I also haven't seen in awhile.  Grauben would like to return as well, but he lives way out on the south side these days.

I sparred with Kathy.  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get in close enough to throw any hooks to the body.  "Catch her in corner," Alan said, and I only managed to do that once.  My head was easy pickings for Kathy.  I fared a little better with Melissa, but only because she is still new to the boxing game.  I was able to get a lot of body shots in, and a few good ones to Melissa's head.

Ben and Connor's first fights at the Chicago Golden Gloves take place this week. I'm planning to see Ben's fight, but because my niece and her husband are coming to town later, I may not get to see Connor's fight.  Kathy's fight is still not on the schedule according to what I saw on the Golden Gloves web site.

Meanwhile at LaFollette, most of the boxing equipment is still in plastic bags.  The painters responsible for fixing up the supply room have barely done anything.  I do know that at least one of them sat at my desk in the supply and leisurely worked on a puzzle in the newspaper.  Yesterday, I loaded up the top of the desk with bags of equipment so that whoever that person was will have to find another spot to sit and read the newspaper and eat,  and whatever else they've been doing at my desk.

Now the painters are claiming that more things have to be moved around and perhaps out of the supply room so they can do their jobs.  Well maybe that would have been a good thing for them to communicate up front so the painting job would have been done by now.  I'm not going to have my program and its participants disrupted and inconvenienced; the painters will have to work around us, not the other way around.  I'm still salty about the two months it took them to finish painting the gym last year.  It took me awhile to build back up the boxing program, which had been shut down all that time, because of that.  And trust me, it should NOT have taken two months to paint that gym.

Ben sparred with Xavier.  "It's going to be my funeral", he told me beforehand.  Xavier is bigger than Ben and older by three years.  But Xavier was giving pointers to Ben while they were in the ring, which I appreciated.  Ben's father was helpful as well in encouraging his son.  But Ben wasn't answering many of Xavier's punches, and he could not figure out the older boy's moves.  Ben received some good head shots and body shots.  "He'll be alright.  Ben is just mad," Ben's father said afterwards.

One of the teen girls whom I believe is a part of the gymnastics program told me she's like to sign up for boxing.  Yeah, right.  It's become easier for me to recognize the kids and teens who are all talk and have no strong interest in the sport.  Ever since I was a little kid, I've recognized the girly girl issues some females, no matter how old they are, have.  I don't have time for pretty girl issues in my gym.  You know the type. . . ."I can't have my hair and nails messed up!", "I don't like to sweat!" and other types of nonsense.  Those types of girls need to find something else to do other than come to my gym.