Big Fish Boxing

I know you all have been waiting for the latest installment of my adventures in Los Angeles. Let's see, on Thursday I had an "interview" for a "reality show," which turned out to be a very sketchy voyeuristic soft-core pron internet site wanna-be, produced on a shoestring budget, in Marina Del Rey. My other compatriots turned out to be (1) a dancer/stripper fresh off the boat from southern England, and (2) a home-bred Los Angeles girl who works for ChopperHead magazine.

Phenomenal. I had no idea that such ugly women could consider themselves models. I guess there's more than enough to go around for everyone. The thing about pron is, it can really be career suicide, not just for acting, but for everything else in life. And you can do pron when you're 35, or even 45, because there's a market for every kind of kinkiness. But it was somewhat of a no-brainer to figure out that it was a super-sketchy proposition (although I have to admit, I gave it some consideration, for the cash).

So I discovered this amazing boxing gym just across the street from where I work. It's the real deal, like in Million Dollar Baby. There's a ring, a shitload of different kinds of punching bags, and jump ropes. They made me do 3-minute sets of everything, including jump rope (I couldn't make it through the entire three minutes without tripping over myself, or, more likely, just stopping because I was out of breath).

Then, I did shadow boxing and worked on my left hook, then we did the mitts where you get to punch the person who's holding up little mitts. That's probably my favorite part. Next, we had the little bag, then the big hard bag, then the speed bag. Oh you should have seen me flubbing my timing on the speed bag. It looked like I was punching air as the bag flapped all over the place! Hilarious!

My trainer, Jorge, said that I had pretty good form, considering my last few lessons occurred at New York Sports Club on 32nd & Madison 5 years ago! The owner, Adam, immediately recognized my old G&S 10-oz fight gloves as being "good gloves from New York," and I felt right at home. There were also two other girls fighting at the gym, so I didn't feel too out of place. We then wrapped up with a bunch of sets of push-ups, sit-ups (heinously difficult) in the boxing ring, and a push-up-abdominal work thing. I hadn't sweated that much in ages ... my clothes were drenched!

Afterwards, I trundled off to Santa Monica on a date with a freakishly tall guy I had met while looking at apartments/roommates. I had forgotten how tall he was, and later on I asked him if anyone had ever mistaken him for Chewbacca. Well, it was 2 in the morning and I was munching quesadillas he had made for me, while drunk off my beer and Appletini; you can forgive me! We had been sharing Dunhill Lights and trading sarcastic remarks all evening at the Wilshire, which looks like the set of Survivor and supposedly is a "cougar bar," and later on at Busby's, which was filled with crazy fake-looking fratty-sorority-people.

Yesterday I made the 2 hour trek (mainly due to the 405 being a parking lot at 5 pm on a Saturday afternoon ... who knew?) to Huntington Beach to hang with JV, whom I hadn't seen since high school. Strange that I live by the beach but I drove 2 hours to get to another beach ... Whatever! I met one of his friends who used to frequent the Goth Bars and go to Malediction and Perversion, and other Goth nights. I'm so there! Anyway, I am just glad to be able to be doing my laundry today. Yay. And I can't wait to go boxing again next week. =)