It’s probably been seven years that I’ve been playing poker with these guys. Yesterday out of a table of six, there were four of us that went that far back. The games: follow the queen, leather bar, gay marriage, push comes to shove, psychic friends network, murder, omaha, good cop/bad cop, Martha Stewart public service, supermarket, dropsies, screw your neighbor, crazy pinapple, anaconda, night sweat baseball, bathhouse and two that I’ve made up: antichrist and mutilation. Cigars and pipes, and a tiny fluctuation in our financial fortunes. It can only take a dime or two to make someone really chicken out.

Last night I didn’t have such great cards, but I also did very little with them. The hands I won pretty much had to be given to me. Sometimes It’s frustrating to feel like I never really get any better. Of course that’s not quite the point. The point is to be able to look around the table and see friendly faces, wave your hands and go “Whooo! Free Card!” whenever we check all the way around the table, to share a smoke, to host and be hosted, to make a moment of bliss in the day.