Reflections on the events of a Saturday Night

1.16.2007
8:55 pm

Something that bothers me. Immensely. This is it. Being trapped somewhere with people. And not being able to leave. I mean not being capable of leaving. I mean having no idea how to get home. It's like a claustrophobia.

So that is how I explain my behavior this weekend. Though I don't pretend to justify it. We went out because Mark's girlfriend is leaving Friday. So this was the big going away party. We met a few of their friends and went to a restaurant/bar (in Korea, they don't drink without eating). Had a few drinks, then went to another restaurant/bar beneath a hotel and met some more friends there. Things began to grow sour. I got a negative vibe right off the bat. Too many foreigners. Too loud. Too big. Too many people. Bad music (though live (a tragic scarcity)). Besides this, I was full already. And desired neither the free food nor the free beer that Mark had offered us. Though I was thankful nonetheless.

We stayed there for more than a few hours. I had more than a few unfulfilling conversations. The last one, listening to a girl with a live wire voice box chatter on about all that was wrong with Korea, thinking she was doing me a service by filling the air with the noise of her mildly inebriated St. Louis voice. Additionally I was tired. Having made it a regular habit to go to bed at 10:00. And now finding myself awake after 2 am for the second night in a row, my eyelids grew heavy and my mind dark.

So wanting to leave, I decided to wait patiently until the party moved elsewhere to bow out.

You see I had no idea where we were. Nor did I have any idea how to tell a cabbie where to go. I hoped that someone else would leave as well. But I didn't want to ruin anyone's fun.

We were standing outside. Mark frustrated that someone had accidently switched leather coats with him. He now dwarfed in one far too large. Waiting for his girlfriend, who was quite intoxicated by now. Where did she go anyhow? When I say that I'm going to head out. And he says no. And I say yes. And he says, no your coming out. And I said no. And he said, thanks for deciding to come out with that. And I said **** that, I'm going home, I just need someone to call me a cab.

And so, finally, he did.

That wasn't the way I had wanted the night to end. Me feeling like an ass. I mean what kind of jerk does that. Corner a fox, right? I was glad to hear they had a great time. That they stayed out until after the sun had risen. I was glad, but I didn't want to be there.