Whiplash

-
Lunch while reading


Tea while trying to finish

No food at all, for this is a big book belonging to someone else


Waiting for this in the mail

Comments

  1. KimFebruary 21, 2011 at 3:27 PM

    Your reading list is WAY different than mine. . .I love pairing drinking and eating with reading. I'd love to see the books-for-the-day of everyone I know. Amy, I cannot get my head around the idea of wanting to box. It's completely counter-intuitive for me--I read a great essay the other day about Brazilian boxng (I think that's what it's called), which is incredibly brutal, and how it just took hold of this guy--kind of the way boxing has taken hold of you. It's very interesting to me, but I can't understand it in the least. I almost had a panic attack when I went to a self-defense class in college, and I believe that women should know how to defend themselves--maybe I'm missing that innate something you talked about in your reflection, below. I think you should keep exploring why you're drawn to it. . .I find it so interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amy PhillipsFebruary 23, 2011 at 2:35 PM

    Should I add that my nighttime reading includes "Queen of the Underworld" by Gail Godwin, plus the latest Alexander McCall Smith?

    Brazilian Ju Jitsu? Muy Thai boxing? I will keep exploring why I want to box. It's a helluva lot of work to do without knowing exactly why.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's Happening In My Head While Someone's Hitting It

-
Thoughts While Sparring For the First Time --Hey. HEY! --Oh yeah? Oh yeah? --I can take that. No problem. Come at me again. --She's street fighting. This isn't pretty. --I WANT to LAND a solid RIGHT. Get your FREAKIN gloves out the WAY. Lemme try again. --Her head snapped back. THAT'S what I'm talking about. Wait: should I feel bad about that? Her mother is watching. I'm hitting this woman's daughter. --Actually, I don't feel bad at all. --She's tired. She's MINE. Thoughts Later In the Night After Sparring For the First Time --My jaw hurts. --Holy Sh*t I was boxing. --Why isn't this tylenol kicking in? --Why does my head still hurt? --What is this bruise on my chest? --Holy Sh*t I'm 40 and I was BOXING. --What did any of that training have to do with someone standing there trying to hit me? --Must learn more defense before I do that again. --Will you do this again? --Yeah, sure; a little more defense first, though. --But my head. It hurts. Ow
Read more

Getting Rid Of The Children's Pets, One Lonely Creature At A Time (The Video)

-
Theo, age 8, spent the summer collecting frogs and tadpoles from a nearby creek. With the help of his friend Ethan, who is 9 and can answer any and all questions on amphibians, Theo learned to distinguish leopard frogs from tree frogs, and studied their development daily on our back deck. Theo was so enamored with the whole operation that he wanted to purchase some more exotic strains. We visited a Pets Mart and hovered near a tank until a saleswoman came by. The right saleswoman, I should say; with disheveled hair and wire-frame glasses favoring one ear, this woman was all about the frogs. She hunched forward as if to let out a call that might travel the road back to our creek. My main concern was the amount of upkeep these $30 pets would require. "What do these frogs need, because our frogs from the creek...," I started to say, and immediately realized I had violated a sacred rule: removing the animal from its natural habitat. I tried to play it off. So did she--at first.
Read more

What's Left

-
'Twas the night before Christmas, with yesterday spent boiling a mouthpad--twice, to sink those molars--and being hit, and hitting. Not your normal holiday preparations, but then again today is hardly usual for us. A sick kid is in the next room. Your average winter cold is ominous for the diabetic, and we had communicated with the on call endocrinologist twice before lunch. Next stop is the ER for IVs, he said. Merry Christmas. The line up was such at boxing class that I'd be sparring the teacher. "Oh man," Chad exclaimed, knowing what Emily could be like. "You're in for it." I had figured I'd be up against either a smaller, older man in the class or Emily, and it's saying something that I preferred the man. The preparation for being alone with your opponent and your wits requires people: the boxer is helpless to put on the gloves or the headgear. I stood as a fellow classmate pulled the headgear down over my face, was able to do nothing about t
Read more