Every Tile is an Episode

Classic Sondra - I wonder who convinced her that she had talents.

Well Happy 4th! Missed a post yesterday but I don't think it can be helped and oh, I couldn't find any good meme, so my weekend meme for this week has to be canceled. Sorry.

Thursday after getting my regular 10-pack for the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival or it's cuter nickname PIGLFF, I marched onward to a mahjong game that started at 7:00pm. We played 8 rounds which finished around 3:30am. After some sleep, we played again around 3:00pm in the afternoon for 12 rounds and ended right after midnight. I have little recollection about what I've done in between and my brain is still reeling with mahjong tiles. All I know is that I managed to turn my bag of dimes and nickels into a bag of quarters, which is pretty good in my book. I'll be able to do laundry with that for another good 3 months.

During the course I managed to piss off a guy that have really poor gaming etiquette by giving him pointers. Everybody was quite annoyed by his playing style, and I thought if we're going to be long term gaming partners I should say something for the better good, but apparently he doesn't like to be told but at the same time seeking for approval in every turn. Every tile he picks up is a heaving and hawing, takes him forever to discard and after the discard he still have to hold on to it like he's going to take it back, punching people when he loses, punching people when he wins, and a whole lot more other shenanigans, argh. He would have been beaten up in the mahjong houses. I guess I'm too use to the fast pace online, but then it's never the same.

So I crawl into bed around 1:00am and the phone rang around 3:00am,

Me: "Hello?"
Lucius: "Hey, sorry to bother you so late."
Me: "What's up?"
Lucius: "Do you have a flashlight?"
Me: "A flashlight? yeah."
Lucius: "Can you meet me in front of your building with it?"
Me: "Okay."

I didn't know what to think of it and although it was Lucius but I was still quite begrudging, I'm nice when I'm drunk but not so when I'm tired and I'm terrible in the mornings. So I put on a nicer shirt and went downstairs without even looking at my hair. He was there with his med school buddy and I shook the guys hand and noticing that it was covered in blood.

He told me his buddy is coming over for the weekend from Western New York to hangout, going to a baseball game here and another one in New York City tomorrow. Apparently when they were going out to drink some guy in the bar insulted another friend's wife and Lucius being the upstanding young man that he is defended the girl and had some verbal exchanges with those people and they must have followed him home and jumped him and his buddy in front of my building. Lucius ducked under a jeep and lost his keys somewhere, they did punch his buddy on the nose and he used his hand to stop the bleeding.

We looked around under the cars and around the sidewalk and the street but couldn't find Lucius' keys. They were obviously a bit drunk and in shock. I tried really hard to locate the keys as if I'll get some bonus points if I found them but to no avail. The thugs probably took them or threw them away to add insult to injuries. Lucius was covered in grime but he was fine, his buddy wasn't that badly injured either. It reminds me why I don't go to straight bars. Instead of the male machismo thing, people in gay bars are mainly looking for sex so it mellows them out. I would be the most violent people in a gay bar, I had punched an ex for taunting me after we broke up and got thrown out, but hey, the guy was a jerk.

Funny thing is that Lucius needed a hug and gave me one (grime and all, but I'm not complaining). I offered for them to stay at my place, although I only have one bed and his buddy's straight but I figure I could put my comforter on the floor and sleep on it while they share my bed. It's much easier to figure things out in the morning when we all have the brain power and the light. But Lucius says he has spare keys in the locker room in the hospital, he just didn't want to show up all dirty for his colleagues to see. I told him he can always come up and use my clothes, which he wasn't sure about. He was still really dazed and shocked. I probably would if I was him, this things doesn't happen everyday and imagine the adrenaline. I made sure they had the cash to go back and forth to the hospital which is like 2 miles away and took my shirt off and gave it to him. Good thing Lucius' home have a security system too, so if those were regulars from the bar he frequents and they break into his house, at least someone will come and help.

What's the use of learning Kung Fu if I can protect someone I like? If I was with them, would the situation be any better? I'm pretty sure it'll take another 6 months for me to be at a level that I can comfortably duke it out in real life. I just hope he's not traumatized.

Oh, by the way...


Another bigot hits the ground but there are so many more to go.