I'm Too Nice

I know who some of my blog readers are, so sometimes I have to watch how I say things when I talk about them or their friends. But, I am of the blog opinion that if I can't say something to your face, then I just wont blog about it, lol. I feel pretty confident I would say these things to my opponent if he asked me about this entry, so here it goes.

I played my very last straight pool match, finally, on the last day of May - the very last day possible for the league season.

I tried to play my opponent on Monday (May 30), but he had visitors in town and couldn't. I sent a text later Monday and asked if he couldn't play Tuesday (May 31), was he going to take the forfeit?

He calls me right away and jokes around. "you say you are going to take the forfeit?"

I reply caught off guard, "Um, no."

He jokes some more, "I've been at the pool hall all day."

"Um, no you haven't" I counter.

Because we both work during the week during the day, we decide to play Tuesday night (the very last chance anyway) but I know there is a league that uses all the 8 pool tables of the pool room we play our Straight Pool League.

He tells me the league starts at 8pm and he can get there at 6pm. I tell him we need more time. He suggests we play AFTER league and I say "no, I can't."  He then asks me what time I have to be in at work.  To me, that doesn't matter.  If I can't play until league GETS OVER, then it doesn't matter what time I go into work in the morning.

He then says. "Okay, I can try and go straight from work and be at the pool room at 530 and we can play. If we don't finish we can play after."

Again I reiterate, "Um, no I can't."  

I get stuck in traffic leaving work on Tuesday and rush and rush to make it on time at 530.

He isn't there.

After 15 minutes, a friend calls me over to his table, "hey, you gonna play a straight pool match tonight?  You know league starts at 7."

I tell him, "But my opponent said it starts at 8."

He shares with me that "yea league starts at 8, but the tables are given to the players for practice at 7. "

I immediately get upset!  Really!?  Now we have even less time to play and it's the very last night we can play! Here I thought we had 2 1/2 hours to play our match, now we really only have 1 1/2 hours.  BUT - I don't know what to do, because the guy isn't even here yet and it's almost 6pm!  That leaves us only 1 hour to play our match! 

At 5:55 I ask my friend to text my opponent, as I don't have his number on me. He texts back, "be there in a few minutes."

As I sat there getting even more upset, I thought, "how can i play a race to 100 in an hour??"

I then realize I should have already forfeited him. If after 15 mins you haven't heard from your opponent and hes not there, it's a forfeit.  I gave him 25 minutes before I contacted HIM.

I debated what to do. Ugh. We wouldn't get to finish, he should have been there already, but I wanted to see how I faired, yet this win (via forfeit) would be good for my stats. 

I just kept getting more and more upset. He finally walked in the door at 6:10.

I discuss with him we wont have time but he says, "lets play til they kick us off the table."

Huh?? 

Then he adds, "we can move to my teams table at 7pm. "

Which means we still have less than two hours to race to 100.

He then mentions we can finish after league and I stress AGAIN, "I can't. My Mom just got out of the hospital."

"Oh yea," he says.

We start to play and it's safety galore! I am ahead the whole time til about 7:15pm, all the while I'm freaking out in my mind! "How are we going to finish? What are we going to do? WTH??!"  With so many safeties, we are no where near even the half way mark (50).  How are we going to finish by 8pm?

He makes a lot of mistake in that first hour and I am playing okay.

I am ahead 8 to 20
22 - 30
25 - 37
29 - 39
then it gets closer
37 - 39
then 38 - 44
then he ties it 46-46

I have been upset in my mind the whole time. Fretting, worried, upset, freaking out, unsure what would happen.  But for whatever reason, the score didn't reflect that (thank goodness).

The team waiting on the table let's us continue our play (much to their disappointment) til about 7:30 when when they finally tell us to get off. My opponent asks if I can go home, check on my Mom and then come back.

WHAT?

"No," I say briskly.  "I live 25 minutes away!" I say with a high-pitched voice.

"I'll buy you a drink" he then tells me.

"NO," I say back with disgust.

He then suggests we move to his team's table.  I get verbally upset, saying, "why move?? We can't finish by 8pm anyway!

Adding, "And we were suppose to start at 530 anyway!"

It's only 46-46 and we have only 30 minutes left and we race to 100.  Really??

Finally, his wife suggests we can move to their team table and just play it out completely til we are done. The other team agreed (their captain wanted me to beat this guy) and so we moved to his team table.

The table was much darker, but I had no choice.

And as the league members showed up, many came to say hi to me and my opponent says to me, "I was afraid moving over here would interfere with your game because you have to say hi to everyone." I reminded him that would be good for him, tho.

Then I'm not sure what happened, but he got focused. I am guessing because he knew he had to (1) still play his 9ball league matches (2) give them back the table asap (3) now he knew I couldn't play later, so he simply got on fire.

Here's how it went:  I had two tough shots I missed, he had a 15 and 17 ball run, and I had 3 banks that I didn't make. That left me losing 56-100. To say I was livid is an understatement.

What started off so good, even with me being so freaked out inside, ended up with him running out and playing good safes for several innings in a row.

Once I check the rules the next day, yep I should have for sure forfeited his ass. I am tired of being the nice person. I WILL NOT next season not be so nice. I'm tired of this. Sick of people not following the rules.  Further, I rushed to get there on time and had to leave work early to try and fit my last match in. I lost paying hours to get there at our scheduled time.

As I sat there waiting for him at 5:30 for 30 minutes, the guys in the pool room told me to forfeit him.  He was more 15 minutes late.  But I felt bad.  Ugh.

Guess I can't do anything but get a damn backbone and stand up for myself when the rules are the rules.  I need to stop being so damn nice.

Do I sound bitter?  Yea.  I sound bitter not because he won (he played very good in the end) but I am perturbed at MYSELF.  I should have handled the whole situation different and next season I will if it comes up.