Saturday, August 27, 2005
The History of a friend called "Sidegames."
I told a friend today about this blog. I've debated whether or not I should tell my friends about this blog because doing so might prevent me from being as honest on here as I'd like to be. Also, this particular friend expressed concern about being named in my blog. I told him that he shouldn't worry about it, especially because he's already been mentioned, and it's not like I put his full name and address. As I'm going to give him the link to this in the next few days, I'll refer to him by the nickname "Sidegame." Sidegame seems to be an appropriate game because that is how I first met him.
When I was at the U of C, there was a poker game with $5 tournaments that meet every other week. The first year that I discovered this club, I played in the tournaments and the occasional "sidegame" that would occur as people busted out of the tourment. We played small stakes, and the most I ever lost was like $40 to Colin. The next year, I met a friend of mine at the tournament. He was a transfer student from Colorado. He specifically asked Colin about playing more sidegames as he wasn't satisfied with just playing this biweekly tournament. We ended up getting invited to a game at Randy Heeb's house. (I'm using Randy's full name because he won a World Series of Poker No-Limit tournament a few years ago, so his name is already out there). The sidegame included grad students that participated in Poker Club, and my buddy (hearafter refered to by his nickname of "Sidegame"), and I. We played $2-4 limit and we were total fishes. We played 7-card Stud, high low declare, which we had no clue how to play, and other games. Sidegames lost about $100 and so did I.
After Randy's game, Sidegames and I were totally addicted and we kept trying to play more and more sidegames. We even had a weekly game at this guy Cheeni's apartment, much to the dismay of his girlfriend of the time. Brian S, Ben "Stacks" (as we called him), and Tom H were regular particpants. The next year, I turned 21 so we ended up going to the Showboat (later called the Harrah's and now the Resort's), so we stopped going to Poker Club and having sidegames. If I hadn't met Sidegames, I might never have turned to a life of poker. That could be a positive or negative things, but my thoughts nowadays are that it was a good choice.
Sidegames & I: First mission to pickup girls
Sidegames was successful. He attempted 3 times to get phone numbers from girls we saw near Woodfield Mall and Streets of Woodfield in Schamburg, IL. He failed all three times, but I was impressed that he has built up the confidence to approach women. He is braver that almost all the friend's I'm currently in contact with, and I'm probably the second bravest. The sad part is that I'm again lacking in confidence. This seems like a setback of about two years. I thought dating would be easier since I had the Beata experience. I'm hoping that the experience will prove to be useful when I actually do get dates.
I was weak today. The best I did was to briefly engage in small talk with a clerk at Waldenbooks in Woodfield Mall. I made some comment about the magazines that she was stocking, but I didn't ask if she were single, nor did I attempt to ask her for her phone number. Earlier, at the Saturn dealership, I passed up a prime opportunity to make a move. A cute blonde girl was waiting for her car to be serviced. I had the option of sitting near her (in case I wanted to start a conversation), but instead, I sat far away. Instead of increasing my number of attempts, I decided to pull out my laptop and watch half an episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series."
Sidegames and I have vowed to give ourselves more practice in the near future. I'm trying to get him to go with me to see the "BodyWorks" exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. I do want to see the exhibit, and I believe we can make some attempts there. Also, once a month, there is some cocktail event at the Field Museum. I read that the August event was this past Thursday, so I'm trying to get Sidegames to go with me for September's event.
Sidegames: 0-3. Me: 0-0.5
Why put myself through this torture? Well, as I've said in other posts, I just want to have the confidence to talk to any woman in any situation. I realize that the odds are slim that I'll get a phone number, and even slimmer that I'd actually find someone compatible with me, but I just want to get out there and do something that's been hard for me my entire life.
I told a friend today about this blog. I've debated whether or not I should tell my friends about this blog because doing so might prevent me from being as honest on here as I'd like to be. Also, this particular friend expressed concern about being named in my blog. I told him that he shouldn't worry about it, especially because he's already been mentioned, and it's not like I put his full name and address. As I'm going to give him the link to this in the next few days, I'll refer to him by the nickname "Sidegame." Sidegame seems to be an appropriate game because that is how I first met him.
When I was at the U of C, there was a poker game with $5 tournaments that meet every other week. The first year that I discovered this club, I played in the tournaments and the occasional "sidegame" that would occur as people busted out of the tourment. We played small stakes, and the most I ever lost was like $40 to Colin. The next year, I met a friend of mine at the tournament. He was a transfer student from Colorado. He specifically asked Colin about playing more sidegames as he wasn't satisfied with just playing this biweekly tournament. We ended up getting invited to a game at Randy Heeb's house. (I'm using Randy's full name because he won a World Series of Poker No-Limit tournament a few years ago, so his name is already out there). The sidegame included grad students that participated in Poker Club, and my buddy (hearafter refered to by his nickname of "Sidegame"), and I. We played $2-4 limit and we were total fishes. We played 7-card Stud, high low declare, which we had no clue how to play, and other games. Sidegames lost about $100 and so did I.
After Randy's game, Sidegames and I were totally addicted and we kept trying to play more and more sidegames. We even had a weekly game at this guy Cheeni's apartment, much to the dismay of his girlfriend of the time. Brian S, Ben "Stacks" (as we called him), and Tom H were regular particpants. The next year, I turned 21 so we ended up going to the Showboat (later called the Harrah's and now the Resort's), so we stopped going to Poker Club and having sidegames. If I hadn't met Sidegames, I might never have turned to a life of poker. That could be a positive or negative things, but my thoughts nowadays are that it was a good choice.
Sidegames & I: First mission to pickup girls
Sidegames was successful. He attempted 3 times to get phone numbers from girls we saw near Woodfield Mall and Streets of Woodfield in Schamburg, IL. He failed all three times, but I was impressed that he has built up the confidence to approach women. He is braver that almost all the friend's I'm currently in contact with, and I'm probably the second bravest. The sad part is that I'm again lacking in confidence. This seems like a setback of about two years. I thought dating would be easier since I had the Beata experience. I'm hoping that the experience will prove to be useful when I actually do get dates.
I was weak today. The best I did was to briefly engage in small talk with a clerk at Waldenbooks in Woodfield Mall. I made some comment about the magazines that she was stocking, but I didn't ask if she were single, nor did I attempt to ask her for her phone number. Earlier, at the Saturn dealership, I passed up a prime opportunity to make a move. A cute blonde girl was waiting for her car to be serviced. I had the option of sitting near her (in case I wanted to start a conversation), but instead, I sat far away. Instead of increasing my number of attempts, I decided to pull out my laptop and watch half an episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series."
Sidegames and I have vowed to give ourselves more practice in the near future. I'm trying to get him to go with me to see the "BodyWorks" exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. I do want to see the exhibit, and I believe we can make some attempts there. Also, once a month, there is some cocktail event at the Field Museum. I read that the August event was this past Thursday, so I'm trying to get Sidegames to go with me for September's event.
Sidegames: 0-3. Me: 0-0.5
Why put myself through this torture? Well, as I've said in other posts, I just want to have the confidence to talk to any woman in any situation. I realize that the odds are slim that I'll get a phone number, and even slimmer that I'd actually find someone compatible with me, but I just want to get out there and do something that's been hard for me my entire life.
