Eating Garbage

The close up above was the result of Alan and I playing around with my camera.  His eye was operated on last week, and he says he can see clearer out of it. 

A couple of guys came in, a tall one who told Professor, "I'm a Rasta", and a shorter one who told Alan he'd had some boxing experience while attending high school on the south side.  They both received information about the gym, and they appeared interested about signing up for the fall session.

Jason and Andres sparred for a couple of rounds.  It looked as if Andres was giving Jason a chance to practice offensive moves.  Jason got some good punches in; Andres encouraged him on.

Alex sparred with Andres before Jason did, then after Jason was done, Professor stepped in the ring.  He caught Andres with several good straight rights and lefts to his face.  Andres would back Professor up in the corners and throw hard body shots until Professor pushed him off and slid out of that spot.

With just a few seconds before the bell rang during their last round sparring, Professor went to his knee in a corner.  Alan and I thought he had taken one of Andres' hard hits, but Professor said, "I'm just tired."  Later, he would say he learned a lesson not to step into a ring with the attitude of schooling somebody.  He and Andres plan to spar again on Wednesday.

I sparred with Andres for two rounds.  You can see in the picture above that I look like someone in a fairy tale trying to take on a giant.  Andres appeared a little tired because he had already sparred several times before I got to him.  But after the first round, I felt more worn out.  

Earlier this morning, I had gone to the doctor to get my medicine refilled.  The check up revealed three things that caused me to roll my eyes in frustration: my blood pressure is high again, my blood sugar is slightly up, and my weight is slowly creeping back up.  "You exercise in here all the time.  I don't get it," Alan said.  When I told him about my weight, he commented, "You must be eating a lot of garbage."  "You're right.  You know I don't cook," I told him.  Unfortunately, summer increases the times I'm eating ice cream (not the sugar free kind which I should be eating instead), as well as the times I'm eating out.  I was supposed to cut down on my food budget and eat at home more, but that hasn't exactly been successful.

Before going to the gym, I caught the last of the Olympic boxing broadcast for the day.  There was a fight between heavyweights, a British boxer and a Chinese boxer.  The British boxer won.  I had set the recorder at wrong time, so I missed Marlen Esparza and Claressa Shield's quarterfinals fights.  They both won.  They'll fight again on Wednesday, so hopefully, I'll get the time straight. 

Most of the guys were hugging me before they left the gym today.  Alan smiled, "What's with all the love?"  "My pastor had the nerve to say he thought I joined the gym to pick up guys," I laughed.  "If he saw all the hugs you're getting, he might think that!" Alan said.