Furniture and Friends | Sa 11/12

I woke up to make the olive oil cake for Randy's Friendsgiving, but I got started late since I wanted to eat first. Thankfully it's a quick and easy recipe, and I got it done in time to chill before mom would come with the furniture.

I didn't know that we can only use the service elevator until 4 PM, which was coming fast by the time mom replied to my message about arriving. I asked Randy about coming late, to which he replied that it'd be fine, so I figured I'd just be a bit late. Little did I know that mom came after 4, wasn't able to get the building staff to let us use the service elevator, and brought up the furniture to my place through the garage since the gate is getting replaced now. The whole process was very "mom came up with a plan and will get mad when you ask questions", which was frustrating in the moment. In the end moving the new furniture in, rearranging things, and taking a look at everything was very satisfying, but I had to hustle to Randy's since it was 6 PM.

Randy's place was packed when I came, and it was intimidating try to talk to people at first. I was starving at the time, so I dug into the food for a little while, and eventually this guy George came up to me to joke. We got to talking and he knows Randy through badminton, but also played volleyball for years. Afterwards I got to know more badminton people, who were like all I met the whole night despite Randy saying that he had several friend groups represented.

The little badminton group I met first was friendly and I got to talking to one guy Chris for a while about living in various cities and what we value in them, but I wasn't ready for what was to come. Eventually a few of them finish whispering into each others' ears and come up to me to ask if I'm single. I didn't know how to respond, so I just gave a sheepish "yes", and they started asking follow-up questions about my preferences in partners (age difference, height, mannerisms) not unlike my talk with Eric and Ying recently. I told them I don't have strong preferences and that I'm open, and they eventually showed me a picture of a friend of theirs, Kanna, asking me what I thought of her. I said she looked good, which she did, and they said that they want me to meet her and talk. One of them
Cheryl even took a picture with me to send to Kanna and was eagerly considering which emojis to include in the message. I wasn't against it, and I was flattered that they thought I was good enough for their friend, but in retrospect it's a little concerning how easily I let myself keep falling into stuff with girls.

Eventually I got to chat with another girl Rayann, who also goes to badminton, and she introduced the group in similar fashion to the Friday volleyball group (some intimidating people, but open to newbies and friendly). I thought it sounded fun, and she told me that they play several times a week (Wednesday nights, Friday nights late just like the golden age of volleyball, and twice Saturdays). Since they go so late on Fridays (sometimes 2 AM), I figured I could go after volleyball, which sounded like a hell of a night. Rayann even offered me an old racket, which was nice.

The night progressed with more badminton people met, some drinks peer pressured into (and it all tastes awful still), and a lot of laughs seeing people pressure each other into drinking. One girl Macy also loved the olive oil cake, even asking for the recipe and taking more home, which blew my mind but I guess I didn't have to do much.

Eventually the crowd shrank a bit, which helped with talking and moving around, and I may have met a dozen badminton people alone. Some more people Rayann introduced me to mentioned how Kanna is the sole admin of the group and can be intimidating (particular about people coming at least regularly to stay in the group, want to be on her good side). It was strange to hear the same name in a different context since none of that group knew about me getting recommended to Kanna earlier, and I was a little concerned about her opinion of me when I realized that at least 2 people messaged about me to her, with pictures, on separate occasions. It was also a bit concerning how hard-ball she can be with the group since I'm not sure I'd like that personality in a partner, but I guess I'll have to see how this goes. I was also concerned about a potential relationship falling through (which it's likely to, and kind of messily, given my track record) and how that would affect my ability to continue coming to badminton or hang out with the friends, but I don't think it's useful to guess what the future will be like this early.

Among the drinking hijinks and jokes, Rayann seemed to not be doing well even though we planned on leaving around 10 PM. Her friends were looking after her, but I was sort of sticking close too since we got to talking a good bit until then. Around then I noticed some of the other badminton folks looking at me and her and whispering into each others' ears, which I realized meant that I was being a little suspicious. I guess I usually try to be a sweetheart and it can be a little much, especially for people who just met me. Actually now I remember that people brought a cake for someone's upcoming birthday and I shared with her, which is a little bit much for friends. I can't read minds, but I hope I didn't leave a bad impression on anyone.

Eventually 10 PM came around and I felt like Rayann was doing okay with friends around, so I meant to leave, but she wanted to get me the racket she meant to give so a friend of hers and I walked her to her car to get it. Afterwards I instinctively helped clean up with a few others, but realized that I'd be late for Gigi's get together at 10:30 PM, so I said my goodbyes and left.

By the time I got to Gigi's there was a decent-sized group already there and we got to chatting before Gigi initiated some games based on TikTok's she saw. I think the group wasn't especially gung ho about playing at first, but we were eventually having a lot of fun getting into them. Around then people broke out champagne for Gigi to pop, which was a lot of fun to watch. Around then Gigi asked for recommendations for games and activities, which made sense since it seemed like it was meant to be a light night, so we started playing paranoia. The game was okay, but I wasn't sure how fun it'd be when the group didn't know each other very well, and it was a bit awkward having people make snap judgements about each other.

The games sort of devolved into hanging out since people started doing their own things, and Gigi seemed a bit stressed about the lack of organization. She seemed to be going through a lot in the moment, and I felt the pressure when I realized people were checking out mentally and sometimes literally. Eventually we started doing karaoke and playing card games before the rest of the crowd decided to call it for the night embarrassingly close to the time we need to get brunch tomorrow.