Poker Night

So, tonight I went to a poker night with 6 female teachers. Sounds good? Well, it was in many respects. Certainly interesting.

It was at the house of a girl that I met at speed dating last week, out in East Bumfuck, MA (well, Malden, MA, but it was right at the end of the T - what they call the subway - and seemed like the middle of nowhere to me). To begin with, it seemed like I was rather gatecrashing a girly, Sex and The City-type night - apparently this is a regular Tuesday night thing - but as expected they showed due interest in the fact that I was English. "Say English stuff!" "What's the deal with pants?" "Why can't Tony Blair think for himself?" etc etc

They were a fairly eclectic bunch - 3 from Massachusetts, 1 from New York, 1 from Arizona and 1 from Virginia. To be quite accurate, 5 were teachers at a local high school, and 1 is a web developer at a local bank. As far as romantic interest goes, it was pretty much a non-starter :-(...

3 were gay - I think two of them were a couple
1 was a little too old for my taste (over 30 methinks)
1 was the girl from speed-dating, who is a really nice girl but I don't really fancy her
1 was really very attractive, but turned out to be engaged to a Harvard Law student

So there ya go. But hey, romance isn't everything and I had a very fun evening. We started off with some french onion soup and grilled "american" (i.e. tasteless) cheese on toast, before moving on to poker. Predictably, given my meagre experience with the game I was pretty diabolical, but we only played 5 or 6 hands. Then it was out to the garden (or "yard") to smoke some cigars - not something I was expecting, but very welcome nonetheless. During this one of the girls decided to imitate my accent, which came out extremely posh - like the Queen would sound if she were trying to make a good impression.

Rather hilariously, during the course of the game I somehow managed to break the chair I was sitting on. Due to the unexpected number of people a reserve chair had been brought forth from some backquarters, and it was this unfortunate soul I chose to sit on. I felt a slow sinking feeling, and then before I knew it I was on the floor in a sea of splintered wood. And I wasn't even drunk, or particularly fat. It provided plenty of amusement though and my blushes didn't last too long.

After cigars it was time for brownies (mmm), followed by listening to bits of a musical that was written by one of the girls (she's a drama teacher). It was the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, and I dare say her songs were pretty good (in the broadway musical tradition) but to be honest it's not really my thing, so I just nodded appreciatively. Then, since we were in the arse-end of nowhere and the trains had stopped running, I got a ride back with one of the girls (the engaged pretty one) who lives in Harvard Square, just round the corner from me.

All very entertaining. They were a fun lot, and I'm sure I'll see them again. As Tommy said in a comment to an earlier post, I'll be buggered if any of the people I meet actually stumble across in this blog, but I'll just have to risk it or this will be incredibly boring.

Now, I need to get a Halloween costume sorted...