Monkeys and mayhem

For example, there were four of us in the class last night: me, her, a girl who is a junior/senior in high school and very sweet, and some guy doing the free trial. Because the class is out on the gym floor, sometimes when doing warmups you have to dodge people. The high school girl got caught behind a couple people crossing through the floor space and so was “behind” and rather than wait for her to finish and catch up, the pain in the ass woman just kept barreling through her. And she later was going after the new guy and the high school girl during a drill thing to the point that the trainer had to tell her to knock it off. Also, she usually spends the hour making snide remarks about everyone else’s level of fitness or how she thinks she’s better at boxing than them. Or even today in the group chat someone said their legs hurt after the workout last night, I said “me too!” And then she posts a bunch of stuff about how hers doesn’t cause the did more workouts after and is in such good shape (she’s not).

Personally I find all this annoying because when I am there I just encourage other people, laugh at myself if I mess up, and offer help if someone is having a hard time getting something. For context: I boxed 4 years in college, captain for 2, founded the charity tournament, then went back and was an assistant coach during business school, so I have a lot of experience with boxing technique (and actually have fought). But I am there to work out and have a good time, not to be a show off pain in the ass, so I usually keep things reined in except for when I’m doing drills 1:1 with the trainer.

Anyways, unfortunately for this woman she has awakened the petty part of my personality by being a pain not just to me but especially to this high school girl. The past two weeks I’ve been laser focused on “beating” her in partner drills so instead of backing off when I can tell my skill level is higher than hers, I just keep going (not like hitting hard or anything, just kind of overwhelming her). And I’ve been treating the drills like a real boxing round and employing strategy. It’s been great cause she gets flustered, starts to lose what minimal technique she has, and then the trainer stops her and tells her all the things she did wrong and I did right and that she should be watching me, which she HATES and starts seething about.

All this to say: last night after she got at it again, I dialed my attention and knocked her down a few pegs. After the class the trainer pulled me aside and said he’s noticed the last few classes what I’ve been doing and thanked me for it.

What did she do? Send a very vague itinerary to Florence and Rome. And tell me if we booked it, it would be $2100/person plus fees. And the hotels she recommended were like fine but nothing that great.

A couple hours, the power of the internet, and the airline’s mileage portal with discounts later: I’ve got a plan and all of our hotels booked for less than $2100 total, all refundable in case I want to make any adjustments to the itinerary.

We’re doing Bologna (with a day trip to Parma, Modena, or Ravenna) > Urbino > a couple days at the vineyard for the wedding > back to Bologna for one night before we fly home.

All doable without a car using either trains or taxis.