Boxing Blues

As some of you know, I've been boxing for a little over five years. Sexy, I know. I started right after Steve and I started dating-- but the two have nothing to do with each other, FYI.

I started going after I tried for a writing job on The Christopher Lowell Show. I didn't get it, but the post production/line producer (something-- I don't know what she did anymore) was Lisa who taught boxing at our gym. This is the same Lisa who I've mentioned as being involved with Workout on Bravo. Lisa had seen me around, asked why I didn't box, so I tried it one day (realizing I had my shirt on backwards mid-way through warmup) and stayed.

The class, for one reason or another, ended up being a lot of gay guys-- perhaps we're the only ones who could wake up for the 7am class. Anyway, I dubbed us Fags on Bags and though I've taken other classes around town I really enjoyed this one the most, and the group of us became friends.

The gym cancelled our class last week, after 8 years. They said attendance was too low, which is only ironic because it was the largest classes we'd seen in a while. New owners want 15 people in there-- which they'll never get in the morning, and they only have 5 bags anyway, and with a room that size it gets a bit too crowded over 8 people. But whatever, the point was that Fags on Bags was finished and all of us worried we wouldn't see one another again. You can all say you will, but then reality interrupts and everything pans out differently.

Yeah, I could go somewhere else. I could go to a so-called "serious" boxing gym. But during that last week Lisa was playing "Wig In A Box" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch and when Hedwig says, "Okay, everybody... [join in singing]" a bunch of tired, sweaty boxers all did. We sang the rest of the song, class ended, and we went on with our days smiling. Music was huge in Lisa's class, and you just wouldn't get that response and joy in other boxing gyms.

Lisa is starting a new class after Labor Day at another gym, and hopefully things will continue now that people will have to pay on a per-class basis (before it came with the gym membership). And while Steve and I did hang out with Lisa and her familythis past Sunday, it's still strange waking up these mornings and feeling like something very important is missing.

But Fags on Bags isn't dead... it's just resting. And the fun will continue soon.