Seward Slugging and the LaFollette Rumor Mill

Two people from Loyola Park fought at Seward Park's boxing show last week, and I was in both of their corners.  Solomon attends Barry's class, and my primary function was to use his cell phone to record his fight.  Solomon won his bout.  Ro fought a tough opponent, and held his composure, but he lost.  However, his opponent came over to shake mine, Alan, and Ro's hands, complimenting Ro on his skills.

Donovan and his parents were in the audience, taking in the action.  Donovan keeps saying he's not ready for a match, and his parents are reluctant about letting him participate in one.  I assured his parents there are still more boxing shows to come when and if their son wants to get a bout.

Unfortunately, I had no kids from LaFollette in that show.  I went to Seward anyway because I had scheduled that as one of the shows to attend.  Besides, even if no kids participate, I always make myself useful by helping out Thomas, the head of the city's boxing program and/or helping out the other coaches.  It was a pleasant evening at Seward.

Too bad last week wasn't as pleasant at LaFollette.  The gym was closed due to the Seward Park show, and I knew it would be shut on Saturday because the local alderman always commandeers my gym for part of her summer festival that she holds each year.  But I did not expect it to be shut down on Friday in order to prep for that festival as well.  So that was three days lost of training.  On Friday, I had to sit on front desk duty because I had nothing else to do.

The only good thing about yesterday was that Coach James was kind enough to take down the ropes on the ring in order to prevent the alderman's festival goers from messing with it.  I also taped up the only speed bag in the gym so that it could not be tampered with.  Unlike last year, I didn't have to spend my day yelling at people to stay off of my equipment.

One more annoying thing about last week:  there's a rumor going around that I "hate" kids.  Some staff members have been making snide comments disguised as jokes about it.  I made it clear when the issue was brought up to me that no, I don't love every kid I come across.  I thought that would be the end of the matter, but the "jokes" are still popping up.  It should be common sense that if I had zero tolerance for kids -- and trust me, I know PLENTY of people who don't -- I wouldn't be working in a job where I had to be in close contact with them.  My being childfree has no bearing on my job nor does it impact staff.  However, some people cannot wrap their minds around other people's choices nor stay out of others' business.  I'm not going to make their issues my problem.  But there's only so much more of the "jokes" I'm going to tolerate.