magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

Sushi night. Once again the preparation fell mostly to me. But that's good. I like cooking, especially for other people. It would have been nice if any of my friends had shown up. Or at least called (as a number of them said they would, either way). But what are you going to do? Marie did come back from Massachusetts, and Dan from Queens, so the whole 250 crew was here.

After dinner we managed to get our first real money poker game going. Rich, a friend of Rob's from way back, Jesse, whose connection I didn't really catch, but who was the instigator of the game, Emily, and myself. $5 buy in. Texas hold 'em. After a few hands of beginner's luck Rich burnt through $7 and ducked out. Emily's stack of chips dwindled down to nothing, but with another $2 buy in she managed to win her way back and cashed out even. I was up over $10 at that point, but agreed to stay in, one-on-one against Jesse, for a few more hands, and he whittled me down to a gain of only $5 and change. But that still left me the big winner, and the only player to ride all night on my initial buy in.

And eventually a trip to the roof, where two other dinner parties were going on. And where my phone finally rang, Chris back from New Jersey, with the excuse that his phone didn't work all that well out of state. Never mind the fact that he bought it in Rhode Island and still has a Chicago number. But still, it's a better excuse than the friends who didn't call at all. 'There's no more sushi,' I told him, 'but we do still have some beer.' I had been drinking all night, but not fast enough to get a buzz on. Five beers in five hours equals no net effect.

---

As I was off to bed, Marie and Dan were headed back up to the roof. I noticed that the door was locked, and that they had left in their pajamas, and assumed I would probably be getting up to let them back in, but for some reason didn't unlock the door. 'Maybe one of them had the foresight to grab their keys,' I thought, and drifted off to sleep.

The doorbell insinuated itself into my dreams. Normally it would wake me bolt upright, but I had earplugs in. Then a faint knocking. 'I've got to get up and open the door.' I swung one foot out of bed and onto the ladder. And then the other to where my muscle memory placed the next step of the ladder to be. But, I had cleaned my room today, and the ladder was shifted about a foot to the left of where it has spent the last two months.

Half asleep and with a lack of equilibrium due to the earplugs, I just came crashing down. I threw my left hand out behind me, and my middle finger, being the longest, made first contact with the floor. 'Shit.' I pulled out the earplugs, reeling. 'I've still got to open the door.'

'Are you alright?' Concerned faces on Marie and Dan.

'As long as my finger isn't broken. It's definitely sprained, at the very least.'

'Is there anything we can do?'

'No. I'm just kind of in shock. I need to lie back down.' Before I fell back to sleep I was pretty sure that the finger was broken.