It was a polar opposite Monday today compared to last week but at the expense of any hope I had left of ever visiting Canada any time soon. I haven't emailed or called my father in several weeks nor have I planned any kind of Christmas Eve or Christmas day event for either the club or us (Snickers and I) because the plan was for me to slip away to Canada for Christmas and surprise everyone.
Surprise... I'm not coming anymore.
You have to have money to make money, a rather ironic twist to business that is all too true in Korea and that kicks my butt from time to time with the harsh reality of it. A big club means big expenses and one of those expenses we have been trying to do without and hold off on was that of heat. It's one thing to train in a boxing club that's in an abandon building with no heat coming from the other floors to help insulate it and that has marble stone walls that hold the cold in like it's one big over sized refrigerator but it's a whole other thing to be living in it. The temperature inside the club for the past week has been 4 degrees with it dipping down to 2 on Sunday. Snickers and I have been going a bit extreme trying to keep warm at night -- 2 blankets plus an electric heater blanket on our bed that we turn on high ten minutes before we go to bed. We've been trying to tough it out, not let the cold temps of the club get to us, but it's been hard. Getting out of bed in the morning is the absolute hardest part of my day, well that and doing dishes with only cold water. The tips of my fingers get so cold and dry from doing the dishes that now three of them have cracked. My skin has literally broken open due to the cold water.
Members complain it is cold but they really have no idea just how cold it gets or what that means. Regardless, if members aren't happy than something has to be done. This may be our club that we built but it is members' money who keep it running.
I knew going into this business that it would mean me giving up things, I'd be paying a price to run my dream, but it seems like with every extra big bill my plane ticket to Canada is the first to go. On Saturday Snickers told me I'd have to give it up again, that we needed to use it to buy new heaters. We said we'd give it a day to try to figure things out but I knew that night that I'd have to give it up. I sat by the coal heater and cried on his shoulder. The next day we ordered the heater. Two massive heaters that each on their own sport the price tag of one plane ride to and from Canada.
I had the weekend to digest that I wouldn't be travelling to Canada for Christmas but it still hurts. It's not that I regret cashing in my ticket or want people to feel sorry for me, that's not it at all. I am proud to be living my dream and am proud to be not holding back with investing everything I got into it but it's been 3.5 years since I've been to Canada and now I will have to come up with some reason to explain to my father why I haven't been in touch. I can't tell him I was trying to build up suspense and was going to just show up on his doorstep. Anyways, there was nothing I could do to change that fact so I reminded myself that it was for the best, we needed the heater, and so I tried to kick myself out of my pity party and return to the positive side. I posted on Facebook that Santa was coming to Hulk's but really it was the delivery man with our heaters. Members training at the time of their arrival were all excited at the sight of it and out they ran in their sweating gym clothes and shorts to help with bringing them in.
Only an hour into the heaters being set up and turned on and already you could feel the difference. We had started the day at 3 degrees but by 6pm the club was a sweet 10 degrees Celsius, the front club window was sweating and members were happy. We ended the day with a party, a little Monday night tradition we have started. Some members who had trained earlier on either had stayed and waited for the party or had returned for it. We toasted everyone in celebration of the new heaters, enjoyed some rotisserie chicken, watched the replay of yesterday's UFC fights, and for a moment there in all our giggling and nibbling away I forgot that I had cashed in my plane ticket to Canada.
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