Poker Night

It's Sunday evening, and I'm finally feeling human again. It only took several hours on the couch, a couple of catnaps, gallons of fluids, and a hot shower to get me here. Last night I played a little Texas hold'em and drank just a little beer. But that was after spending some time on the driving range, then on the patio also drinking a little beer. I'm not a lush really, but yesterday seemed to get away from me fast, and before I knew it, the night was winding down and I counted the remains of 9 beers in my wake. To my surprise last night, I remember thinking at 2am just how great I felt after said 9 beers. What a difference a few sleepless hours can make. Dogs don't seem to understand what sleeping in or hangovers are. So yes, I survived, but I can't say the same for my $25 buy in.

The poker outing was held by a friend of a friend. My like one guy friend is trying to introduce me to new circles (ie find a replacement for my guy), so he invited me along to meet his grad school friends. I had never met any of these people before, and only knew him, but still to my amazement, this wasn't a problem. Somewhere in my adult life, I developed this ability to talk to a brick wall. I'm not sure where it came from since I was quite the wall flower in my youth, but I've got it now, and I enjoy exercising it. What I have discovered is that this talent for talking to complete strangers has opened me up to some very bizarre situations. I was telling a friend this today. I seem to attract some strange guys I think purely because they find me very approachable. I'll talk to anybody. The problem is, in the feeble minds of men, this often gets misconstrued as interest. Last night was another prime example. But first, the really bizarre part of the evening.

We arrive at the house, and everyone's getting geared up to start playing some cards. We weren't the last to arrive, so as we waited for the stragglers to roll in, everyone stood about chatting. One arrival seemed to be inexplicably drawn to me. It was like there was some magnetic field drawing us together. And to put it nicely, he was an "interesting" guy. Not to say he was unattractive, but he was just a very unique individual. He was a world traveler with work and was moving away from the city in a handful of months... whew, he's not hitting on me... or is he? He was truly bizarre. We were talking amidst a small group, yet he ignored the rest of them completely and focused on me. He followed my movements about the house like he was my shadow. I admit, over the course of the evening, there were times when I was in the bathroom (remember the 9 beers?) thinking he was going to walk in on me at any time. Luckily, we had assigned seats for the poker game, and thanks to the luck of the draw, he and I wound up at separate tables. I did see him making a move towards the seat next to me before realizing, he would be playing on the patio. Ahhh, peace at last. Let the games begin.

My ability to chat up strangers, led to the next stalker of the evening. The guy to my left at the poker table. As the game rolled on, so did the table talk and flow of drinks. I made an early exit at my table (let the record show I was not the first one out of the night) and became the permanent dealer. So we continued to chat (we being me and the whole table), and as the numbers dwindled, it became time to consolidate tables. I leave my seat and mingle a bit, only to discover, that my neighbor (also an early exiter) is following me like a puppy. What is it with me and strange guys? Ironically, the original stalker was the big winner of the evening. Perhaps I should have humored him and somehow gotten my $25 back. I'm not sure it would have been worth it, but there is something extremely flattering about a guy paying that much attention to you.