sticking it out to fail

tonight, there was baseball...

my friend's wife has 2 season tickets and the couple who sits next them have two, so periodically they trade so there's 4 seats together.  tonight they had 4 seats, but the wife had to use her company's seats to entertain a client - poof - its boy's night.

in the end, i'm sitting there with 3 friends, and one of them is the loud obnoxious type who does random shit that's often so outrageous that people have to sit back and laugh.  the man is partially deaf, so he's very loud... and he drinks a lot, which doesn't help... and he just does and says things without thinking which in his hearing impaired and slurred speech can often end up being humorous if you don't take him seriously. and really, who can take him seriously if he's saying with complete confidence things like "tomorrow i'm gonna get a i4 phone at the apple phone!  and they're gonna give me a dic-scount!  AND give me first dabs on the dic-scounted i5 phone because i know how to negotiate!!".

but, god love him for believing in himself.  whenever he gets around to taking himself to the 'apple phone' for his 'i4 phone' we have all told him not to get since a new model will be out in 2 months, and finds out the truth, we will all smile and nod, and give him a rash of trouble and move on.  no matter who you ask, confidence always sells on some level.

most importantly, he can take the abuse.  he stands up for himself.  he's wrong in the end, but he tried.

at one point he noticed another guy we know 1 section over... this gentlemen alienated everyone 2 months ago because a relative of mine compared him to a gay television character.  the character in question is hilarious and often the show stealer of the series, but he took offense to it, and even more offense that i told others that she what she had dared to say.  the jury is still out on how he knew i emailed the story to other people, many speculate he secretly reads my email.  i really don't care, i have nothing to hide.

so loud guy sees angry guy, and he starts calling out to him - i ducked down, and the other two started laughing.  i like angry guy as much as any other friend of mine, but i really didn't want to deal with the drama and accusations because he is so insulted by being compared to a gay man or because i mentioned it to other people.  the sad part is that he's oblivious to the fact that most people believe that only two types of people get that worked up about such things: those who are moronically homophobic, and those who are desperately hiding in the closet.  the more he makes issues of it, the more people assume the latter.

he's convinced he needs to stick it out away from all such people who could criticize him in any fashion, he too is full of himself like the loud friend, and he too will fail.  but he's doing it running away from the problem, he can't make a stand.  somehow, he thinks that confidence is giving up and running away.

tonight, the Cardinals lost in 13 innings.  the 4 of us stayed for all 13... even after an 8-0 score in the 7th when we turned it around completely.  the angry guy left in the 6th inning, and missed the comeback, and the moments, and the best part of the game.  and the Cardinals lost, but they can stand tall for losing on their feet and playing a good game and still being around to play another day.  and we didn't let the set backs bother us, and got to see a great game.

good game guys.