First Impression Count

Rubin: It's supposed to be a challenge, it's a shortcut! If it were easy it would just be “the way”.

”Road Trip”

First impressions of my time at “Titan Poker” – I love you guys. Sure, I played at Noble poker and wasn’t overly impressed, but the new skin is already in my good books after a very juicy 24BB session (which was really only two hands were I held the nuts and got paid off by top pair and flush chasers), and also after I had installed the software I was on for no less than 1 minute when a friendly operator named Mandy appeared with a message on my screen.

“Would you like a bonus $10 for your account?”

Well, I was trying to find out how to deposit at this stage, and had just pressed the cashiers button. I know sites give out free money from time to time, no strings attached, and this would be welcomed I think. In truth, I responded instantly without delay.

“Yes. Yes I would.”

And in turn, all I had to do was deposit in the next few minutes. Would I like help with this? Sorry Mandy, I have already had my deposit go through. 5 and a half seconds later, my initial deposit was $10 heavier and I didn’t have to do anything else for it. First the pleasant blue display, and now this. I think I am going to like Titan Poker already.

It’s amazing how I relate to other people in a similar fashion. They say first impressions count, and that is a definite truth when it comes to me, but it’s not like I make it a rule or anything. Basically, if someone is nice enough the first time they meet me, I’ll hold them in high regard. Once I give the eternal approval of the person, they would have to do something pretty drastic to change that. Some of the rudest and most obnoxious people are my friends because they were nice to me the first time I met them, it just works out that way. Rarely have I chosen to loose a friend, but there is one exception, which is kind of a childish example from my high school days.

In the final few years, I was dating this girl who I had no real interest in besides her very impressive physique. Ok, there are not many girls that read this blog, I can be honest – she had great tits. There, I said it. She was a drama queen and had no interest in sports what so ever, as well as just about anything else I was interested in but I was willing to overlooks those facts.

Since I am talking about some girl in high school and not my current distraction who I am marrying inside 1 month’s time, you can probably guess that things didn’t work out and we broke up for reasons I can not remember. Two weeks later, one of my close friends informed me that after a drunken night he might have kissed my ex-girlfriend and he wanted to apologise to me. I laughed it off, because hey we do these things when you are drunk, but he was well aware of the unwritten rule that you don’t go near your friends ex. What is the shelf life on that rule? At least the amount of time they were together, and in some cases more. But alas, what was done was done and no hard feelings were held.

This particular offending friend had the nickname “Chip” given to him by my little brother. “Chip” refers to the movie “The Cable Guy”, where Jim Carrey’s character just hangs around all the time and won’t leave Mathew Broderick alone. This came from one day when he called my house to see what was happening – I was tired and didn’t want to put up with him so I told me little brother to tell him I was asleep. He decided to come over anyway, and played Nintendo with my little brother in the lounge room for an hour before I came out of my room. So little bro starting calling him “Chip”, and he never knew why.

Anyway, back to the story at hand, he told me about the little indiscretion and I wasn’t too concerned about it. High school was now over with, and we had the summer to fuck around before we would all move away to start University. As sick as I was of the guy, he asked if we could watch some vids and have a few beers at my place the night before he left, which would be two weeks before I was to leave. I said sure, why not, after all it’s his last night in town we can let bygones be bygones and what not.

At about 10.30pm, he left the room as his mobile rang (all you North Americans are aware that we call “cell phones” a “mobile”, right?). He came back and said he was being picked up in 30 minutes. I knew straight away what was going on. My older brother (I am the middle of three boys) was also drinking with us, and he caught on in a flash too. Not only was getting a booty call from my ex girlfriend, he was getting her to pick him up from my place. That was just poor form. I wasn’t about to make a scene or anything, I’m just not that type of person, so I didn’t mention it at all. When she came to pick him up, I said see you later, and then went back to my room to finish off the rest of the beers with my brother.

To maximise the TV’s presence, we had the lights off. When I got back to my room, my brother yelled at me to turn the lights on. And there he was, standing bent over facing away from the window with the curtains drawn, mooning the two people who had done me wrong. It’s at times like these that you remember what family is really about. We polished off the rest of the beers which tasted better now for some reason.

I think the moral to that story is that you have to do something pretty deliberate to go from my good side to my bad, but to be honest I just like telling the story. What happened to those people in the story? I have no idea. I left for University 2 weeks later (after Chip had already returned home because of “home sickness” – now that I think about it, I wonder if the girl had anything to do with that…) and would soon meet up with my future wife.

This story had something to do with first impressions, didn’t it? Or am I just getting to reminiscing about past girlfriends because my bachelor party is coming up soon?