New Appearances

Three more new people showed up last night. Steve and I were baffled why they showed up just then, considering the summer session began three weeks ago. He asked me to go over the initial lessons with them, while he went forward with the other new people.

Bridget showed up with her daughter Penny, a cute 7-year-old. Bridget has taken Tae Kwon Do, so she was not unfamilar with fighting techniques. Ahmed is long and tall, and the third person -- a husky guy whose name I can't remember -- is a MMA fighter. The third person basically just wanted to work out, so the lesson was geared towards Bridget and Ahmed. We went over how to stand, the left jab and the right cross. Bridget showed good form while Ahmed. . . well, he didn't seem to be very coordinated. Instead of throwing the jab straight out, he flung it in the air, and he couldn't seem to get the concept of turning his body and putting his weight into the right cross. Time will tell how well he'll progress.

The gym was busy last night, between the other new people continuing their lessons, and a few of the regulars sparring and/or doing drills. Willie stopped in to get in a quick workout, and I held the pads for him. I have to be very mindful of how I'm holding them, because he hits very hard. However, judging how poorly things have been going at my job lately, it might be a blessing to be laid up because of punch that missed its mark.

Dealing with constant annoyances, irritations and frustrations on my job always make me wish I had a punching bag at home. It would warm my heart to tape either a picture or the name of the person(s) who pissed me off on a heavy bag then beat the bag down. There have been too many of those over the past two weeks. For example, last week, Les had me take the pictures of entertainers down off my wall, because he felt they did not contribute to a professional office. It was more like him worrying about what someone else was going to think -- probably about the new COO who keeps an office on our floor, who has been in and out of my office with nary a comment as to what was up on the walls -- as usual. Irked the hell out of me. For five years, the pictures posed no problem, now all of a sudden, they do? My office suddenly looked like a bare tomb. After a couple of days, I couldn't take the lack of color anymore, so I had some family photos copied and blown up, and now they are up on the office walls.

G announced that his wife had a baby girl the other day. I didn't know he was married and already had a 2-year-old daughter. I find out something new every day.