Semi-Charmed Life

Saturday: Chinese New Year’s Eve Edition

My brother and I recently purchased a new car ('05 Acura TL) together. I have a minority stake in it because I didn't feel it was justified to pay so much for something I'm going to use so infrequently. We got the car this week, but today was the first day I got to drive it.

I decided to drive out to Manhattan today to train at my gym, instead of taking the subway.

Terrible idea.

There was absolutely no parking in the city. The spots I did find were all municipal meter spots for commercial vehicles only. The regular metered spots a block away from my gym only went to an hour, and I needed at least 3. I was definitely not going to miss another day of training, so I reluctantly paid $20 at a local parking lot to park there for a few hours.

Training was great today. I did the no-gi class at 11:15am and followed it up with the mma class at 1:30pm. I was pretty close to punking out because I was pretty beat from the first class, but I definitely did not just pay $20 to just train for an hour and a half. The mma class was great, as usual. Today was pretty interesting because during the sparring sessions, I ended up pairing up with this chick who must have weighed no more than 100lbs soaking wet.

Never judge a book by its cover though . . . she had some fire in her! From our first few exchanges it became clear her background was muay thai. Not many of the guys in my mma class have good standup skills because most of them are just straight jiu jitsu guys. I was lucky I had a good amount of height over this girl because her punches were tight and sharp, and if it weren't for my reach keeping her at a distance I would have been owned. She pressed me the entire time. At no point in time did I feel comfortable going in. Her punches fell short on me, and I was able to counter a few times off of that. Her kicks were a different story. She was kicking the shit out of my legs and I didn't know how to stop it from happening because I've never trained kicks before.

She was a good looking girl with some killer striking skills . . . found out after class she is from Costa Rica and is just visiting our gym.

I met up with a friend in Chinatown after class and chilled for a bit. We ended up driving around various parts of Fort Greene and Williamsburg because he's in the market for a new place, and there were a few places around there he wanted to check out. Ended up grabbing a bite at a place called Dumont Burger. Check it out if you're in the area. Make sure to add bacon to your burger. DELICIOUS bacon there. Oh, and try the milkshake. It's a $6 milkshake though. A little outrageous . . . Vincent Vega would be apalled.

Anyway, just finished my CNY Eve dinner and about to meet with some friends.

Until next time . . .