Outer Monologue

The End of an Era snuck up on me

It's strange, but it kinda crept up on me.

Oh, not literally.

I mean, I KNEW it was coming, and I knew what it meant, and I knew I would miss them, but until this post (scroll down a bit, it's there), the level of change and, frankly, loss, hadn't completey hit me.

Yeah, this isn't going to mean anything to most people reading this, but Mr. and Mrs. Cheap Thrills are leaving town.

For good.

Three years ago, I had no real clue who they were.

Two years ago, I'd met them once or twice.

A year ago, I knew them kinda well as "a fun gaming couple" that I'd hung out with a few times. Oh, and Mrs. Cheap Thrills was voted one of the top 5 most attractive women at a gathering we both frequent (by an anonymous panel of judges).

And then they were the vehicle through which I met the woman I love; the woman who is in the process of ruining the carefully-planned chaos of my house moving in with me.

And suddenly they were a huge part of my life (since they were a huge part of her life).

And I realized, "Hey, these are really great people!"

They went from being "gaming friends" to actual friends, and good ones at that.

The void their departure is creating was a space that never even existed in my life before they came around, and I at once resent the hell out of that and yet will still miss them like all get-out once they're gone.

Mr. Cheap Thrills describes in the above-referenced post how he doesn't like to get maudlin.

Yeah, he's way more of a man than I am. I mean, I own power tools (okay power TOOL) and I grill regularly and watch football, but I have one 'o dem squishy inner layers, and right now it's being all, well, squishy (eeewwwww...)

So yeah, I'm going to miss them, and I know Mary will too (probably more than I will).

A night or a day spent with them was ALWAYS fun and interesting and most importantly FUNNY. Their parties are the stuff of minor legend. Their poker skills were, within the scope of our poker circle, quite extraordinary. Their drinking skills (or perhaps I should say capacity) far exceeded my own (and Mr. Cheap Thrills can play poker at a higher level than me even in a state of inebriation that would leave me wimpering on the floor).

These are the people who really got my poker bug into high gear (which is mostly a blessing, heh), who were quite instrumental in making my last two pilgrimmages to our mutual gathering "fun" (whereas the one before that was anything but) and of course, without them, I wouldn't have Mary. That's really more than enough said.

This is a bit rambling, I know. I think it's because my mind still hasn't completely synthesized what's about to happen.

So yeah, they're leaving. And it's gonna suck. A lot.

Excuse me... I have to go use my cordless drill to repair my barbecue.

P.S. - I was the one with the 5-of-a-kind that Mr. Cheap Thrills mentions in his above-referenced post. I feel doubly bad as I was the one who CALLED "Follow the Queen" (on a whim) and I got the 5th of the kind on the last card.

P.P.S. - But I don't feel THAT bad, cause Mrs. Cheap Thrills took about the same money from me on a last-draw suckout in Badugi the night before when I had stood-pat twice with a 7-High Badugi. The Mighty Karma Horse comes through again!

Posted by Campbell at June 27, 2005 09:18 PM