Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

You can read part one here.

Maybe I should start with the alcohol. We purchased beer, whiskey, assorted snacks, stuff to make mudslides and fuzzy navels, and plenty of Gatorade for A.M. fluid replenishment.

Back at Mr. Texas’ suite, I made a pathetic attempt to teach the girls (Miss Judy, Miss Lola, Sista Girl, and Princess Wolfie) how to play Texas Hold’em. We got through a couple of hands before Mr. Texas stepped in to give us more expert tutelage. Drinks: Mr. Truck/beer; Mr. Texas/whiskey-coke; Sista Girl/mudslide; Fuzzy navels for the rest of us. More drinks while we play 21.

But why play regular card games when we could play a drinking game? This one was called King’s Cup, which thankfully was modified since we were all drinking different stuff. You know what these games are like, but if you want the details, as best as my alcohol fuzzed memories will allow, and you’re over twenty-one, ask me later. Suffice to say, we ran out of fuzzy navels and mudslides, and we ended up with a couple of shots of whiskey apiece on top of everything else.

Oh by the way, did I mention that Princess Wolfie is married? For commute reasons, she lives out of town. She goes one direction to work, and her hubby goes the opposite way. They live in the middle. But in the past, I didn’t notice a ring. Ok so it’s not like I checked every day; I just recall that in the past she didn’t wear one at some point. And we never heard much about hubby.

I just bring it up because conversation went to relationships at one point, and Princess Wolfie confirmed she was married. And one of the other gals noted the rock on her finger (Oh yeah. I say “gals” because it’s shorter and easier to type than “women” and it’s the natural counterpart to “guys” which I prefer over “men” for no particular reason. If you don’t accept that, and think “gals” is sexist or oppressive and I am wrong to use it, I have a more detailed explanation here). We’d all been hanging out several hours and I hadn’t noticed, but sure enough, it was a rock. Of course I had to ask why she hadn’t worn it before. One of the whatever you call them prongs or tongs or tines, those little spikes that hold the big rock to the ring itself was loose and needed to be repaired. So for a while, she hadn’t been wearing it. I don’t remember when I saw her without it, and for all I know it was fixed and she’s been wearing it for the last six months.

You regular readers know my condition when it comes to Princess Wolfie. The whole zing went the strings thing and all. You also know I’ve said at least twice that I know nothing could ever happen. I said it, but. Looking at that ring, and she was sitting right next to me, all I can say is that it was an especially vivid moment. Maybe even a little jarring. I said it, but maybe there was some deep part of me that didn’t think I meant it. Weird. But a little reality check is a good thing.

I think I have a pretty good poker face on the whole Princess Wolfie thing, but I never stopped to think about the risks of drinking with her. I did good this time. You know, you hang out with your friends, and you crack on them. It’s fun to make jokes and goof around. Now in some cases, this sort of joking around, in fact, I will assert that if you use the exact same word for word back and forth banter between Guy A and Girl A for a dialogue between Guy B and Girl B, Pair A might be obviously flirting and Pair B might be just good friends goofing on each other. As I said, I did good this time.

Someone in a neighboring room complained about us being too noisy. Then they called around 12:30 to complain again. So we stopped playing our drinking game and just chitter-chatted for a while longer before heading off to our rooms. Our separate rooms.

And a good time was had by all, except the neighbors.

Update: Day Two will be late tomorrow, things are busy here.

Update Two: I’m sorry this was so late. Right in the middle of it, I had a sort of breakthrough that allowed me to crystallize the Princess Wolfie thing. I had to write it. I’ll post it after I’m done with all four days.