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Entre Hombre y Mujer ...

ningun pendejo se mete.

My dad is fond of saying that - it roughly means, "only idiots get involved in domestic disputes." Only "idiot" is probably a little too tame a translation, at least given the Spanish that I grew up speaking. No, the word (the one that starts with a "p") is probably more akin to "jackass."

Anyhow, I was reminded of this the other day when my dad showed me the latest DVD he had found. See, it all started a few days before that when I was talking to my mom. I don't quite remember whether my mom was talking about exercise or she was just cracking jokes, but she started jumping around and shadowboxing. It looked very much like one of those cartoon characters just throwing their hands around in a circle.

It just didn't look very intimidating, so I taught her how to throw a punch properly. =p

I'm not the greatest fighter, but I took some kickboxing back in the day. I ran her through the basics of how to stand, how to throw a jab, and how to throw a cross. It wasn't meant as a full-blown self defense class, it was more of an extended joke. As I've mentioned before, though, the people in my family tend to have a sense of humor; immediately after this, my mom turned to my dad and said, "you better watch out, I know how to box now."

We all laughed about it, and I forgot all about it. Moving forward to the day my dad was showing me his DVD, he had picked up a tai chi instructional DVD. There are actually multiple forms of tai chi, including styles that are more martial art than light exercise. Want to guess which style my dad had picked? Yup, he walked in with a grin on his face, and said, "now that mom knows how to box, I found a way to defend myself."

So given all that, I think I may have brush up on my defense. I wouldn't want to be caught unaware by any stray blows.

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