don’t be a jerk

It’s Christmas evening and I’m writing this on my plane ride back to Los Angeles. My trip was entirely too short.
 
New Orleans was very fun. I definitely have to go back there sometime, but next time, I’m flying. Texas is too unbearable to willingly drive through again. I wanna see the less touristy parts of the city as well. We didn’t get to hit up much more than Bourbon Street. Oh, and the Harrah’s casino that we discovered.
 
Before the road trip, Eddie and I had just come off a Vegas trip that nearly destroyed both of us, though we had come out up a hundred or two at the end of the weekend. The combination of alcohol, nicotine and stress really takes years off you life. Now here we were, in New Orleans, doing it again. Alcohol, nicotine, stress, and lack of sleep, only this time, Eddie came out up $800. Me? I came out up a cool grand.
 
WTF? That essentially just paid for my vacation.
 
Doesn’t sound so bad, huh? Well, here’s the bad thing about it: The last three times I’ve gambled, I’ve come out up.
 
It’s bad bad bad.
 
I like beer, and I drink a good amount of it. But I don’t entirely mind the occasional hangover because a good hangover will keep you honest. If I didn’t get hangovers, I’d probably be drunk all the time.
 
These last few times gambling have been like total sloshed-off-your-rocker binge drinking, without even having a headache the next day.
 
As a person, I am sometimes entirely too indulgent.
 
***
 
Chicago wasn’t actually that eventful. All of Eddie’s friends were coming back around this time for the holidays and the past four days have essentially been reunions and such. Eddie felt bad that he couldn’t take me around the city more, but I didn’t mind.
 
For one, it snowed while I was there. I think the first snow of the season. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen that. Also, I’ve always gotten a kick out of seeing people hang out with lifelong friends. These are the guys that Eddie’s been friends with his entire life. Some of the guys he even knew since grammar school.
 
My best friends are the ones I have now. The ones I made in college. I don’t really keep in touch with anyone before that. I wonder what it’ll be like in ten years from now.
 
Also, It’s been a long time since I’ve hung out with this many Korean people. As non-Korean as I am, there’s something comforting about it. Like an unspoken understanding. I’m sure this type of thing exists within other groups of people.
 
Eddie’s friends play a lot of Star Craft, and I mean like crack-smoking amounts of Star Craft. They finally got me to start playing too. Shit, and just when I started dating again too.
 
***
 
Before I got on the plane, we managed to fit in a 3 1/2 hour showing of Return Of the King, which was awesome. I laughed, I cried, I
stressed, and I totally realized that all male hobbits are gay. That third movie is chock full of midget man-love. Call me a homophobe, but I got antsy every time Frodo and Sam made eye contact from across a room, or whenever Merry and Pippin’s faces got too close together.