Well, I had a busy weekend and I'm sure many of you could care less about what I did (or did not) do but, nevertheless, here is my recap of my weekend.
My friend Jorge was competing in a grappling competition in Newark this past weekend (nagafighter.com for those of you who might be interested to learn more). I agreed to take him to Newark for the weigh-ins on Friday evening (and to the competition on Saturday). After work on Friday afternoon, I had the pleasure of driving from Brooklyn to Manhattan (FUN!) then navigating through Manhattan rush-hour traffic (FUN FUN!!!) trying to make it to the News Corp building at a reasonable hour to pick up Jorge. The weigh-ins were from 5pm-8pm (unlike last year when I think they were available until 9pm for the weigh-ins). So with the convergence of not finding a spot where I can idle outside News Corp, Jorge getting out late (after 6:30pm), the usual Friday crowd leaving the city through the West Side tunnels, and the 8pm deadline, I was extremely stressed out.
Did I forget to mention that I had virtually no gas in the tank and was hoping the drops of gas that WERE in the tank could get us to NJ? Every 5 minutes I announced to Jorge how far I thought we could make it with what little gas was left: "I'm pretty sure we can make it to the venue with what we've got left"; "If we can make it through the tunnel, I think we can make it all the way to the weigh-ins"; "There's a chance we can make it through the tunnel but we might have to hit one of the gas stations on the other side"; "Is there a gas station that we can hit up before we get onto the Holland Tunnel??"; "Hey Jorge, I might need you to push us through the tunnel. I know you haven't eaten all day but, how tired are you exactly??"
The only thing that eased my mind a bit was my familiarity with the route to Essex Community College since my aunt's house is a few minutes from there. We made it with enough time (and gas) to take care of business. If he had not made his desired weight - light heavyweight - he would have had to go into the cruiserweight competition since there was no time to stop by the gym for an emergency "sweat session". [For those who are curious, we did NOT get gas in Jersey and STILL had enough gas to get Jorge back to Brooklyn!!! But I was sweating bullets on the BQE constantly shifting between "N" and "D" whenever I could.]
The next morning, Jorge and I (accompanied by the Ebola monkey: Anthony) made our way to Newark once again. I knew that he wouldn't be competing early so I wasn't worried about our lateness but I didn't know if Jorge's weight cut would affect his performance. For the most part, I'm merely the cameraman on these adventures. As long as I have my angle to tape his bouts, film in the video camera, and enough battery life for my recordings, I'm good.
Long story short, Jorge was 0-for-2. Others competing that day from his school didn't fare much better as we think only one of them managed to win a bout (out of 4 competitors in two different divisions each). The ride home was tough since I always feel like dead-weight at these events. I'm an MMA fan but I can't give Jorge any technical advice during his bouts. The majority of guys who compete here have coaches in their corner: sometimes it's a fellow "classmate" at their school while others have their school's instructor directing them. It's unfair but it is what it is. Almost makes me want to join Tiger Schulmann's adult grappling classes in Rego Park . Who knows...
But the event wasn't a total loss. We got to meet former UFC welterweight champ, Matt Serra and IMO this year's favorite to win the lightweight competition in the Ultimate Fighter, Brooklyn's own Phillipe Nover. Serra's great but Nover is part of the new guard of up-and-coming fighters out of the Northeast who will take the MMA world by storm. And I'm a huge mark for Nover!
(Jorge flexing with Matt Serra)
(Me chillin' with Phillipe Nover)I planned Sunday to be a rest day. After all, getting up early on a Saturday is a big no-no for me. As a border-line narcoleptic, I enjoy my sleep, especially on the weekends. I flaked on family plans for Sunday so that I could rest (my uncle had invited the family over for lunch). But when I found out that my friend Asqui had led his Hillcrest H.S. boys' soccer to the PSAL 'B' league finals, there was no way I was going to miss that game. I had tried to find ways to get out of work to see the team's final few games in the regular season to no avail. I had honestly forgotten about the team until I received a text message from him mid-week about their game on Sunday. He failed to mention in his text that it was the freaking finals and I didn't put two-and-two together until that morning when I realized that they were playing the game at LIU's Brooklyn campus which was unusual.
So once again I got up early on Sunday and drove out with my video camera in hand. I still had Jorge's tripod in my possession so I figured I'd go record the soccer game and then stop by Jorge's apartment (also in Brooklyn) to drop off the tripod. Hillcrest scored first and fell behind 2-1 as the first half ended but a penalty shot for the Hillcrest team allowed them to even the score at 2 by halftime. The second half started fairly even but Jamaica took advantage of Hillcrest's inability to defend the counter-attack off of the long ball and fell behind 4-2 and were unable to score losing 5-2.
I felt bad for Asqui and his boys but they've been getting better every season and I have no doubt that I'll be back at the LIU campus next November watching his Hillcrest Hawks dominate their opponent in the PSAL 'B' league soccer finals! I'm proud of Asqui and hope that he doesn't let this loss get him down. There is only so much one can do with limited talent and he was able to take his kids to the finals. Simply amazing!
OK... that's enough for today... I've chewed your ears off (figuratively) and thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings.
Until next time, faithful reader...
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