Saturday, December 09, 2017

Birthday Boxing

Yesterday was my birthday.  Sahia, Noel, Mikaela, and Shay held a nice party for me in the gym.  I was extremely appreciative.  I knew they were going to get me a gift (actually, I received several from them), but I was truly surprised by the gathering.  
That was only the second birthday party I've had in my entire life.  No joke.  The first one happened on my 27th birthday.  I won a free party at Coconuts, a dance club that no longer exists.  Twenty-nine years is a long time between parties, but that's okay.  Some of the leftover food came home with me, while the rest I left at the gym.  Coach James told others in the field house there was food available, so several of the kids he coaches came in to get some.

I snapped this photo today of James.  James is not sure if his dad will sign him up for the winter boxing session.  Tony plans to return, and so does Sahia and her children.  Malik told me his grandfather was going to register him for the class again.  I'm assuming that Iz and Abraham will sign up again, too.  I need to get a flier out for the next session and an upcoming fundraiser as well, but the staff computer at LaFollette has been down for days.  Both of the computers in the supervisor's office are working, but Steve's been on vacation. Unless Tina is on the premises -- she appears to be the only staff person who has a key to Steve's office -- and I come in a little early, I'm not able to use those computers.  Having worked for years as an office support staff person, I find it frustrating now not to be able to have my own computer at work so I can get my work done.   Today is the last day the gym is going to be open for the year.  I need to spend a lot of the break time doing administrative tasks but that requires being able to use a computer.  I wish the park district would invest in having more computers available at all of the field houses.  


Monday, December 04, 2017

The Writing Coach






I wrote a piece about boxing and posted it on a website called Vocal.  This is the link:

But I Might Break A Nail

In the process of writing and re-writing rules for LaFollette's boxing gym, I got the idea to write some opinions about my experiences in coaching.  I have some more ideas for boxing articles to post at Vocal, and I hope to do more.