Just a quick post here. I just woke up (its almost 8 pm on sunday) from a short nap. I take naps all the time. Almost daily I take naps. I can get 9 hours of sleep and still feel like taking a nap once 5, 6, 7 oclock rolls around. I don’t know what it is! I am healthy, get to the gym and try to eat well (reasonably). Anyway I just wanted to vent. I hate being tired! The only time it seems that I am not tired is in the evening. I can stay up until 4, 5, 6, 7 am and not be tired at all, the afternoon is of course a diffirent story. Maybe I just have an odd natural sleep pattern. Ho hum.

So I was out in Adams Morgan last night (friday evening) with a few friends. We went to sing karaoke and to live it up. Actually, when I say “we” went to go sing karaoke I really mean that “I” went to sing and my friends drudgingly came along (actually they are good sports about it, even Matthew came along this time).

Overall the night went well. I sang two songs, Bad Bad Leroy Brown and Friends in Low Places. I didn’t do an amazing job or anything but really that’s not the point to karaoke. We all had fun (at least I think they had fun) and I got a chance to step up to the mic.

After several drinks and songs it was definitely time to move onto my next favorite part of Adams Morgan. The JUMBO SLICE!!! There are 3 spots that use neon signs to stake their claim to such a late night snack but only one has strobe lights, loud music and the biggest pizza slices around. We ventured in and I became the proud owner of my own JUMBO SLICE. Jumbos costs 4 bucks and are well worth it; I love em! (at least after I have been drinking)

I met back up with my friends who by this time of the evening consisted only of Joise and Tom and we stood around while I ate my pizza. Not even 3 bites into my pleasure that is jumbo slice did my world came face to face with a jolt of range. Not range from me or my friends, but range from some random stranger who proceeded to slam his hand down into my pizza slice and thus thrusted it onto the ground. This assault was quickly followed with screams of “WHATCHA GONNA DO ABOUT IT”, “I DARE YOU TO SAY SOMETHING”, “WHAT, WHAT, YEA THATS RIGHT” and other phrases littered with colorful 4 letter words. He was with at least two others, some other dude and a girl. They continued their movement up the street and into the crowd spilling out from the clubs as he yelled out the crowning jewels of his vocabulary.

As I regain my grasp on reality (this all happened very quickly and I was a bit tipsy) I merely responded with a single shout of “You are so damn cool buddy!” towards the punk who probably thought being cool consisted of picking random fights in Adams Morgan at 1 am.(I believe Tom yelled something as well but I can’t recall what he said) A few bystanders sitting on some stairs felt the need to add their two cents as well with calls to “fight, fight, fight”, “oh man I woulda kicked his ass” and “go get em!”. I responded to them, my friends and anyone who ear shot that a 4 dollar slice of pizza was not worth getting into a fight over when I had no clue who the hell that guy was. If someone is a big enough jackass to act like a 4th grader with a tantrum how can I trust that he believes in a fair fight? I can just picture a knife or a gun coming out the moment crap hit the fan and frankly weapon or not, it just wasn’t worth my time. The guy hand already shown his value to the world and I wasn’t going to lower myself to his standards. On top of all of this there were of course several police officers around. While they were unhelpful with this initial encounter I have no doubt that a fight would have quickly caught their attention and a night in jail could have easily been within my reach. No thank you to that.

In the end I picked up the pizza, threw it in the trash and bought another. It didn’t taste quite as good and a small part of me felt as if I hadn’t reacted the way a “man” should have, but overall I feel like I made the right decision. The small part of me that felt as if my reaction was not that of a “mans” was just my ego talking. My slightly bruised ego.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve gained more control over that complex part of my personality that is my “ego”. If this same event had occured two or three years ago I definitely could have seen it ending diffifrently. While I still listen to it from time to time I try not to let it direct my every action; at least not the actions that could land me in jail or, better yet, with a knife stuck in my gut.