Nothing like kicking off a Free Train Friday, a day that's suppose to be super chill for me, with the stress of having to wire more money to more suppliers and then having to figure out how to unload the delivery truck. Thankfully our Hulkies sport the awesomeness trait so two of them who came early to train helped me with unloading the truck. Their eyes lit up when they saw what was loaded up on the truck. I think perhaps they're just as excited as me.
"We're going to have to wait until next, next Monday to use these?!" one asked. I said yes but I think no.
I was somewhat distracted by the damage done to my bank account when one Pesky Parker came bearing gifts. Apparently the price of driving me mental with parking in our parking lot is one rolled cake and a coffee. I'll let the high school Hulkies indulge in the cake but I'm going to down that coffee like it's no one's business.
Snickers only works from 7pm-9pm on Fridays, two hours, but he woke up early because he had to go out of town to pick up some of the new equipment we've purchased. He then spent the other half of his "day off" measuring parts of the club and getting other renovation stuff ready. He returned to Hulk's shortly before 7pm and decided to scrap the whole "padwork from 7-9pm" and do sparring instead. It's an idea we've been pondering for a long time now actually. Initially we wanted to make Sunday our weekly sparring day, to encourage more members to come out on Sundays and to spark interest in sparring both from potential sparring participants but also from members who would like to watch. We no longer are open on Sundays so that's a no go but we thought we'd add it to our Friday nights -- have Free Train up to 7pm and then do sparring for two hours.
We tested out the idea tonight and it went over quite well, actually it went over so much better than we had anticipated. Our Hulkies absolutely loved it!!! Snickers asked if anyone wanted to spar but when no one volunteered, he suggested that they could spar with him. Well, all it took was a couple of rounds with one member for the others to see that he wouldn't go full force on them and that he'd use it as an additional awesome means of teaching them. Hulkies lined the juice bar counter, all eager to have their chance in the ring with him. "I don't know whether I should be excited or insulted -- do you want to try sparring for your first time ever or do you just want to punch my husband?" I joked.
A total of 7 Hulkies stepped into the ring with Snickers, going 2-4 rounds with him, and it was awesome.
What was really awesome for me though wasn't that so many first timers stepped up to the challenge of sparring but that among the 7 of them were 2 females. I thought that was so wicked. At my former boxing club, UP, in my 6-7 years of training there I can only recall ever seeing maybe a handful of females step into the ring, most of which who were stepping into the ring to spar with me but who didn't spar on a regular bases.
Tonight's lengthy sparring session was suddenly interrupted however when my pups started barking and I rushed over to tell them to be quiet. There, on the other side of the pup's corridor fence, were four guys throwing things at my pups. Instantly I yelled at the top of my lungs and the guys fled the scene. Snickers was in the ring sparring but at the sound of me hollering he stopped and rushed to my side. I fiddled to get the fence gate open and then I was gone, up the street chasing the four guys. Snickers followed behind me, barefoot and super sweaty from sparring. We chased them for about a block before we caught up to them. Thinking back now about it I can only imagined how startled I must have made them, we must have made them -- me a foreign chick in exercise training gear, yelling Korean at them and running after them, and Snickers also in training gear, with his badboy tattoo totally exposed, and no shoes on. When we caught them, Snickers asked them why they ran. They didn't respond but instead stood there looking totally spooked. Snickers walked up to one and gave him a little slap on the face, as if to knock him out of his deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. Apparently they had thrown spicy nacho chips at my pups -- great, like spicy food will do well with their tummies. With Pacquiao having puked one too many times today because of what I can only assume was some other punk throwing food at him, this kids throwing food at my pups made me so mad, hence why I chased them down. Our encounter with the kids ended with them saying sorry about half a zillion times and Snickers and I returning to Hulk's. When we returned, our members we all so overly curious about what had just happened and many had ran outside to watch the street chase.
Not exactly the action we wanted for a Friday night. The sparring was supposed to be the only action.
We had planned a big seafood party tonight but once the rain started, we called it off and told members not to come. However, with the Sushi Crew having had prepared so much food, they randomly showed up at Hulk's and started to set up inside the club. So our rooftop party was held inside. I thought about texting numerous members we had told about the party but what ended up happening was the members who had come for sparring were asked to attend it and one of our Hulkies insisted he take on half the bill of the party, to thank us. It was such a generous gesture and it definitely reassured both Snickers and I that more than just he and I love our boxing club. The party started around 10:30pm and it ended around 2am with a massive group picture of those who stayed till the end.
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