Thursday Nights

It's been my privilege this summer to have the chance to hang out w/ some of my close Christian friends every Thursday night. We spend time chatting, studying the Bible, and most importantly, praying for each other. After some quality time in prayer last night, we transitioned to another one of our intense relationship-building activities - foosball.

I'm no expert at this game, but the husband & wife who hosts our Thrs night meetings are a couple of hotshots. They've got their pull, snap, drag, and push shots all down pat (nothing aerial yet but they're working on it). To protect their identity and reputation in the following story, I will simply call them Samin and Jarah.

Now Samin is the man of the house and the master of his foosball table. No one in our Thrs night group can beat him one-on-one, and seldom does he lose when playing on a team. His wife, Jarah, is no slouch either. And to make things always exciting, both of them are highly competitive individuals who hate to lose.

During one of our first games last night, my buddy Tom & I somehow managed to pull off an incredibly rare victory against Samin and another fella, Andrew. Samin was astounded and had to sit down for a while, take a break, clear his head, and collect himself.

After celebrating our surprise upset against Samin & Andrew, we played around some more, and then Andrew had to head home. When he had left, Samin & Jarah challenged Tom & I to a game b/c Jarah thought she could do better than Andrew. ..little did they know what they had coming.

Tom & I came flying out of the gates to a 3-1 lead. But we awoke the beast and Samin & Jarah stormed back to take the half first at 4-5. But before you could say "blog this!", Tom & I had Samin & Jarah on the ropes at 9-7 (game point).

This forced Jarah to call a timeout as she had to step back from the heat and do some quiet meditating and stretching to re-focus. As Samin stood there shaking his head at his wife and what was transpiring on the table before him, Tom & I (the most surprised people in the room) jumped with excitement in anticipation of besting the steepest odds ever piled against us.

After returning from her crazy Shaolin meets Cape Breton stretch routine, Jarah pops in a quick one to bring the game within 1 point at 9-8. If Tom & I surrender another goal at this point, it would even the score at 9's and require us to score TWO more for the win (win by 2).

However, after some frenzied end-to-end, edge-of-your-seat, non-stop action, Tom & I managed to squeak one past Samin, and the celebration was on. We popped open the champagne, blast the music, woke the neighbours, and danced on the patio as the stars from the Foosball Gods shone down on us.

During all the partying, Samin & Jarah were dumbfounded. They could not believe what just happened to them. What humiliation. So they began to plot and strategize for a rematch. And when Tom & I returned from our revelry, Samin & Jarah demanded another game. We considered it for a moment, but when we declined due to inclement weather and an early start at work the next morning, Samin & Jarah **BEGGED** for a rematch .. I believe Jarah's exact words were:

"oh come on... how about only to 5?"

"ok ok fine.. how about to 3?"

"oh you guys, come on.. PPUUHLLEEEEEAAAASSSSSEEE???"

In the end, this was the night Samin & Jarah had to taste defeat and rest with it. On our way out though, these proud ballers insisted Tom & I keep our mouths shut. They vowed that if we spoke of our victory, they would DENY EVERYTHING and BANISH US FOREVER from their foosball table.

Deny?.. yea they might cuz there were no witnesses.

Banish?.. I highly doubt it cuz how then could they exact revenge??!

MMUUAAAHH HAAHAAHAA... did I EVER stoke the Barrett Foosball Fire!!

Until next week!
iLau