:: Closing Time ::

:: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 ::

So like the Red Sox's incredible road record, my streak also had to come to an end. They all do, eventually. Tonight it was my turn.

Somehow, I knew the minute I got there that tonight was gonna be one of those nights.

So yeah, tonight felt just like old times. Except when people say that it's usually a good thing. For me? Not so much. Although I did remember why I stopped playing Risk. That was tonight's activity... a game of Risk. A good activity? In my opinion, not in the slightest. I don't much like the game... I used to play with a few other guys occasionally, and the same thing happened there. Risk almost always gets personal, more so than any other game. People get bitchy, get obnoxious. This is because no other game (at least that I can think of off the top of my head) is won by decimating all of your friends... you usually just beat somebody to a goal, you don't have to beat the shit out of them. At least that's the only reason I can see; the pattern stands strong.

The worst, without a doubt, was Betsy. But honestly most everyone was pretty bad. Excuse me, that's not true. Sasha and Matt were totally cool. Matt's only shred of uncoolness on the evening came down to the fact that he was pretty clearly going soft on his girlfriend, which is a couple's issue in general. But that's not really anything that can be dealt with... it is what it is. And it's minor in comparison to the bullshit everyone else was throwing.

That was the major downfall of the night.... bullshit. And people not differentiating between an obvious joke, and what got really fucking obnoxious. Lemme generally spell it out for those of you who don't get it, and I don't just mean anyone who was there tonight... I mean anyone. Four out of five times jokes are much funnier when made at somebody's expense, but they're -much- less obnoxious if:

1) The expense is of multiple people, i.e. attacking men or women on a whole. People generally aren't singled out that way.
2) The person set themselves up for something and they -recognize it-. If you think they're going to recognize it, and they don't, apologize. Even if/especially if you grin and say you're sorry, that person can then recognize that you were kidding and you've managed to salvage the situation.

There are a dozen other ways, but the point is you might want to think about what you accuse people of. If you're going to call somebody full of shit, or worse call them a liar (there's a very fine line between the two, and it all depends on whether or not the first person was kidding), you better damn well back it up. Because there is no socially acceptable way to answer such a challenge; I'll be straight up, several times tonight I was falsely accused of lying to somebody and what could I do? What the fuck could I do? Nothing, but two minutes in I was ready to leave.

Do I need to go into more details... probably not. Especially because I never have to see certain people again, and really am planning on doing my damndest not to. It's not worth the aggrivation that ALWAYS seems to come about.

Some days it wasn't worth getting out of bed.
:: Peter 11:20 PM [+] ::
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