Kid Again

Last week Ulserad was in town for his birthday. He was staying with Crash and we made a plan to get together on a night Crash had other plans. Turns out he could join us so it was the three of us out on the town again.

Much bigger town this time around. Substitute the Maine Memorial at Columbus Circle for the bandstand and the Mandarin Oriental for the Exeter Inn and fabulous Italian bistros for McDonalds and Dunkin' Donuts but the same journey at heart.

Mind you I somehow managed to schedule all but one of my obligations for the whole weekend on Friday. My alarm went off at 6:45am.

12 hours later I rolled into a sports bar to meet the boys. We had a few drinks, had dinner, watched a bunch of sports (by the way that hit on Kaberle by Janssen was late, from behind and totally deserved an enormous penalty). We went bowling. We walked through Central Park. And I'm not even going to try to list the topics discussed, there isn't enough room on the internet. (Perfect timing to have this during spring training, too, so I could get my pre-season tutorial.) In the search for a bathroom we found a nice Italian place to have coffee and dessert and then we walked probably another mile before, at 1:00am, the toll of the day became known in my swiftly crippling left foot so I hopped in a cab and took myself home.

I don't know how to explain the phenomenon the encompasses nights like this. It's like I'm 14 and 38 and all the ages in between all at the same time, but only the good parts.

Stats for my evening were 1.] five hundred (virtual) dollars lost at Texas Hold 'Em (I contend that I bet the hand right anyway. My opponent had a pair of aces and I had 2 pair - Queens & 8s - but then she got a pair of 2s in a total suck out on the river and I was already all in so...), 2.] 200 (real) dollars won at bowling (yes, bowling, don't go double or nothing with me in the second string, I'm just saying), 3.]many half decent food choices made (do not regret the mud cake even a tiny little bit, though), 4.] sense of accomplishment very high from almost making Ulserad snort coke out his nose, 5.] my youth returned with scuffing around after hours on the streets making the same old jokes and snarks and fun with people who have seen me grow into who I am now and (despite some good natured ribbing) love all the girls I've been and, dude, there's nothing better than people still liking you even when they know you really well and 6.] a serious case of bowling butt.