Bundle of Joy and Slob

[Sam Ballerino]

Sam pulled out her phone to begin the exchange of numbers. "Don't worry, I did too when I first started." She didn't mention that she'd been four years old at the time; everyone was a beginner in the beginning. "I still fall down sometimes. Though, now that I think about it, dropping you straight into an advanced class may not be the best plan..."

She laughed. "But I'd totally be willing to teach you if you're interested. Hey - maybe we can make a trade. You said you teach martial arts, right? I don't know what you teach, but I could teach you dance, and you could teach me... whatever it is you do." That would be fun, especially if it wasn't Aikido that Demetra taught. Any more knowledge she could add to her arsenal was fine with her. And teaching her how to dance would be a good experience for the both of them. Besides the fact that it was a great form of exercise, it helped overall coordination, and it would be good for Sam to learn to teach as well.

Plus she liked this girl. She was fun, she was different, and she was opinionated and not afraid to show it, which was a quality that Sam admired. She grinned, hoping Demetra would accept her proposal.

[Demetra Katsaros]

Huh. Did I really just say 'martial arts,' leaving it as such a broad field? I guess I did. That wasn't like me.

Anyhow, I liked the idea of a trade off. I told her my cell phone number and asked for hers in return. I could call her too, right? I wouldn't know the exact day that she would be available, but I could certainly take the initiative. I was pretty good at taking the initiative. Why wait for somebody to call you when you could call him/her? But this also applied to other things in life- rather than sit around and wait for something to happen, I'll just go out and make it happen.

My mind was getting off track, as usual. "Oh, definitely. I failed to mention that I teach Tai Chi, and you'd probably be the youngest student I have, but no worries. It will all work the same." I never told her that my 'class' consisted mostly of senior citizens trying to stay in shape, but hey, I've learned that seventy-year-olds can kick some serious ass. You know what they say: you're only as old as you feel. "Looks like we'll be getting a lot of good exercise, which is nice. I love exercise."

[Sam Ballerino]

Sam gave Demetra her phone number, entering hers into her phone when the other girl gave it to her. "Exercise is always important," she said with a grin. "As long as it's entertaining." If it wasn't a fun kind of activity, Sam didn't usually enjoy doing it. Even if it was healthy. Tai Chi. Hmm. Sam didn't know much about that particular style, but she was certainly willing to learn.

"I don't mind being the youngest... but how old are we talking here? Just out of curiosity." Personally, Sam didn't really care. But she wondered what Demetra's students must be thinking, that a teenager, not even out of high school yet, was teaching them about Tai Chi.

[Demetra Katsaros]

Hahaha. She wanted to know how old my students were. Now, she wasn't prejudiced about older people, was she? It was an easy prejudice to have. People can get angry for making fun of somebody because of their race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation, but jokes about age weren't frowned upon very much. C'mon. You can't decide what your age is! You're here for a certain amount of years, and that's it.

"I teach mostly senior citizens," I admitted nonchalantly. "They're very in shape and very sweet. No weird smells or forgetfulness that you might assume would be part of the older generation."

I shook my head. "But I wasn't planning on you coming to one of those classes. I mean, you can. There's no stopping you, once I tell you where the dojo is at. I just figured we'd have a one-on-one session, or if you're not comfortable with that, you can come to one of the classes I attend."

She didn't think that I stopped learned Tai Chi just because I'm the teacher, right? I teach beginners. There's always more room to learn, and practice definitely makes perfect. I don't get to practice as much when I'm the teacher because I'm often watching the techniques of the class to see if they've got it down, or holding a punching board in front of my body to be the target. "That is, you can come to one of the classes where I'm a student. It's more advanced than the one I teach, but the age group is much broader."

[Sam Ballerino]

Sam got a sudden image of an orange juice commercial she'd seen years ago with an 80 year old woman doing back flips through New York City traffic, and she laughed. "That's awesome," she said. It seemed to fit Sam's image of Demetra, and it almost disappointed her that she probably wouldn't be going to that class. That would be a fun thing to watch.

"One-on-one is just fine. That would probably work better for dance lessons, too." Just as in dance, going straight into an advanced class without having a grasp on the basics probably wouldn't work out so well, for anyone. She wouldn't want to make Demetra look bad, and she certainly didn't want to make herself look stupid.

"And maybe you can come to the dance studio sometime. There's a lot of space there, and the floor's got a good grip. We do a lot of modern, so there's a lot of bare feet running around."

[Demetra Katsaros]

"Sounds good," I agreed. Sam wanted a one-on-one, eh? Fine by me. Plus, she mentioned the usage of her dance studio, which would work out nicely, since I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get hold of the dojo when there were no practices or meetings or tournaments. That is, I didn't know when the place would be free other than my scheduled lessons.

I lifted baby Lindsay up off my lap and back into her cozy stroller. "I should get her back home," I told Sam, "but I'll give you a call, okay?" I gathered my belongings and tucked them at the bottom of the stroller, which kind of acted as a shelf. "Nice meeting you, hun." With that, I got up off the bench, waved goodbye, and started walking back toward the residential area.

[Exit Demetra.]