and then there were five

one of our group is leaving us. jason r. got a job near chicago and is off by year's end.

he is one of our playing group. six of us get together -- mark, dan, jason h, jason r. krista amd me -- after work every few weeks or so and play cards to relax, usually playing on wednesday nights. it's an enjoyable few hours of eating sweets, chips, drinking pop and joking around. it serves as a chilling period, even though it's often 3 a.m. when we say good night for the evening.

we've been playing together for almost four years, with mark, dan and krista playing the longest. then i joined and then jason h. jason r. has been playing for a little more than a year, ever since he started working here.

it seemed a natural to bring him into playing with us. i don't even remember how it happened. one day we just asked him to play with us, i suppose. he said yes and that was that. back then, though, we used to play at mark's place. that's the first time i recall jason r. playing, sitting aound mark's small (smaller than mine) table with the bright light overhead, he usually sitting across and to the left of me (mark to my left, krista to my right on the end, jason h. across from me and dan on the other end).

always a genial fellow, winning or losing, it never mattered. he never got upset or rubbed it in. it was just fun for jason r. although he did express his disgust at times when things got a little trashy. the best was the pony tail comment. he turned red and we laughed like crazy (and still do). and it was poiignant that i brought it up last night, although it was aimed at jason h. instead. still, it made it's natural way into the game.

sorry things didn't go your way last night. no matter. it's all in fun. last night's game ended ona positive note. we were tired and it felt like we played for hours and hours for some reason. still, the game ended naturally, not forced and taht was that. i'm glad we decided to play another time since the previous week just wasn't the way i'd hoped to finish off playing with jason r.

good luck my friend.