Sep1

The Return of Andre the Giant

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Those of you have been with me a while may remember “Timmy/Andre the Giant,” the tall guy who was my frequent Jiu-Jitsu partner at the 11 a.m. classes. The one who broke my foot in January. (I exaggerate. It was maybe my toe. And maybe not even, but I was limping and out of class for a while.)

My wounded foot a few days after “The Incident.”

That was the last I’d seen of Timmy until I arrived at an 8 p.m. class where the previous Master Cycle class was winding down.

“Hey there, stranger,” he said with nary a look of shock as I sauntered over.

“You don’t seem surprised to see me still here.”

“Nah, I knew you were hooked,” he said, reminding me of way back when I showed up a few minutes after 11 a.m. and he said, “I was beginning to worry.”

At the time, I told him, “If I’m not here, I’m dead.” Or, as it turns out, if I’m not here, it’s because you broke my foot.

Boy would it have been funny if I had said THAT to him.

~~~

I told SD1 that his blog nickname is Surfer Dude. He gave a big, appreciative, smiling nod. “Nice. I like it. It fits,” he said.

“And your little brother is Surfer Dude 2.”

“That’s okay. So long as I’m number one,” he said.

At a recent 8 p.m. class, there were only two students, both newbies. But SD1 and another blue belt, whom I’ll call ‘Stache,’ because he’s always perfectly clean shaven, (Just kidding. He has a mustache.) were also there.

Little Man in my gi top.

I had washed my gi, but worried it might smell funny if it didn’t dry quickly enough, so I lifted the edge to check, just as Instructor said, “Hi, Betsy,” calling everyone’s attention to me–looking like I was sniffing my armpit.

Awesome. Typical me.

Instructor was showing the newbies the basics, so I asked if I could practice with the two blue belts instead. Given permission, the blues tirelessly ran through half the drills for my upcoming belt test. They pointed out every detailed mistake I made, of which there were several. Sigh.

When time was up, the newbies left, and Instructor and the blues started sweeping the mat. (I mean that literally, with brooms.) I thanked the two for their patience working with me, adding, “You have to be nice to me because I’ll be joining you in Master Cycle soon, and then…” and I punched a fist into my other hand.

All three laughed, perhaps a bit too much.

The onesie.

And, now, of course, the onesie. I set the pink gift bag on Instructor’s desk when no one was around. He said thank you, set it down behind him, and kept working on his computer.

Horrified that I wouldn’t have a reaction to record for my blog readers, I said, “No, you have to open it now.”

“Okay,” he said, then laughed upon doing so. “That’s cute. Thank you. I appreciate it.”

When I returned for the next class, I was worried the gift bag would still be where he’d set it down behind his desk. It was not. Phew. Now I wonder if his wife liked it. Dang. I guess I’ll have to find out.

For you. Sheesh. The things I do for my readers. 🙂

Until next time!

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82 responses »

  4. this is unrelated to the topic but I had a question about your thoughts on cauliflower ear. I’m a 24 y/o man and started getting cauliflower ear from my training, do women find this unattractive or off-putting? If so, I’ll probably drain it. I train pretty frequently to begin with so chance of it coming back are high

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  13. OUCH that toe looked like it hurrrrt…I haven’t broken anything in krav just pulled alot of muscles and had a lot of bruises…I hope to keep it that way….

    Liked by 1 person

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  16. Lol that’s funny how you forced your instructor to open the gift. I appreciate you for that conclusion of the story 😛

    And I don’t know why, but I could totally picture that sniffing your gi part. Feels like a scene from a sitcom.

    Ooh, by the way, I’ve restarted BJJ classes, but my body’s not used to it anymore, so there’s like a 1 week space between classes lol. My skin’s too thin now, and even my everyday workout routine hasn’t helped when it comes to rolling.

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    • It would’ve been devastating if he hadn’t opened the gift, but instead said, “Maybe later.” I probably would’ve stood there with my shoulders drooped and my mouth hanging open like, “You’re kidding me.” All that build up.

      I’ve sometimes felt like I could write for a sitcom. I know writers draw from their own life experiences. Plenty of embarrassing things have happened to me that I could work from. 🙂

      Congrats on restarting! How long of a time gap has it been? Hopefully it won’t take long for you to get back into the full swing. Or sweep. 😉 🙂

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  24. Pingback: time for other play – Touring My Backyard

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