It must be my week. . .first a male CTA bus driver irritates me off, then Pastor Roger ticks me off , all on Monday (a two-fer!), then I get to the gym, and lo and behold, Igor is there. "Who will win for President?" Igor asked Alan. "I don't know, that's why you've got to vote," the coach answered. Igor kept going on to Alan about, "Russians love Obama! He good guy!" Alan, who's more politically conservative, smiled at me and said, "See, you've got a fan!" "Uh-huh," I deadpanned, not wishing to get into a political conversation with Igor.
Paul gloved up and stepped into the ring with Andres. I had my back to the action most of the time, as I was working out. I turned around at one point to see Paul bent over. He came out of the ring, and said, "Hitting Andres is like hitting an 'effing wall! There's no give!" I felt the same way one of the last times I was in with Andres, with Alan off on the sides telling me to dig into Andres.
Jason (in the photo above) got in the ring with Andres. I think it's cute how his wife, DJ, takes care of him by spraying Lysol on his headgear (Jason uses the community headgear in the gym) before he puts it on. Paul and I noticed that Jason wasn't throwing his jab all the way out; in-between rounds, I pointed this out to Jason. He did better in the next round.
When Sara (the woman on the left in the photo above) came in, Alan smiled and said, "Give me a high five!" which she did. Tommy, who arrived later, bet Alan that Sara would drop out before the end of the month. Alan didn't think she would. He was even more pleased when she showed him that she had brought a mouthpiece.
In this photo, I'm blocking against Sara's right during sparring. Sara's punches have become a bit stronger since the last time we were in the ring. Alan told her to be a little more loose, and to grab me whenever I came dashing in on her with punches (something I tend to do with everyone I spar or fight with).
DJ was ready for me, as you can see from this photo (her husband, Jason, is the guy in the back observing the action). I was real clumsy during our first round. I tripped over my own feet, fell, and rolled backwards on the canvas. I was leaning and reaching too far to try and get a body shot in when I tripped.
In the middle of our second round, I dashed in with a bunch of punches. DJ grabbed my arms to slow me down, pushed back, and I was down on the canvas again. Tommy exclaimed, "It's wrestling! WWE!" I kept trying to get some uppercuts in, but I couldn't figure out how to do that. So it was back to relying mostly on throwing hooks.
"You're always doing sky hooks," Marcus said after I finished sparring. "I'm so used to everyone being taller than me, so I throw the hooks high," I told him. "But even when you're in there with someone your height, the hooks are still up in the air," Marcus smiles. He told me he attempted to get some hooks in on Andres when they sparred, but it was hard to get the right angle to execute them.
Big Andres will probably have an opponent at Garfield Park this Friday. Alan talked to George, who told him he had a couple of heavyweights at that gym.
I had energy for days Wednesday night, and I couldn't figure out why. I suspect that I'm quickly losing cartilage in my left knee (it's been slipping on me a lot lately), but even so, neither of my knees were bothering me very much. I had spent all of the afternoon going up and down steps in church, cleaning several rooms and mopping up hallways and stairs. "I bet you're getting your work out in going up and down the stairs," Pastor Roger chuckled. "Yeah," I answered, but I wasn't in the mood for his jokes, mainly because I was still salty about our Monday morning conversation. I expected to be dead tired coming to the gym like I was back on Monday, but I felt up, which was a good thing.
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