It's been getting mighty chilly here in LA. Perhaps I am the only one that thinks so, but it's brutal sitting at home in my room. Apparently, the heater is broken and it won't be fixed until Monday!
So instead of sitting and freezing my butt, I decided to drive down to the pool hall to hit some balls. My friends have been going there on Fridays to play on their bar tables. The way it works is that you put quarters on the tables and play in order against the winner of the previous game. You're basically challenging the winner on the table.
I figured this would be a great format for me right now because I would play one, maybe a couple of games and get to sit and rest my shoulder in between the games. I was pleasantly surprised when I won 7 games in a row! With only 75 cents, I was able to play for about an hour.
There were some guys that I haven't seen there before, and they were surprised to see a girl play and stay on the table for that long. As they all do, they started making stupid girl comments that I really don't care for.
"Go easy on him. He's not a pro."
-He should go play by himself then.
"How long have you been playing? Since you were 2? hahaha"
-You're the only one laughing at your joke.
"Give us a chance!"
-Don't play here then.
I'm not some dumb little girl that gets a kick out of this kind of..."chivalry." If I ignore them completely, they'll see me as a total bitch. If I respond nicely, I open up myself to more ignorant statements and unnecessary interaction with people I really don't care for. It's a no-win situation. What I usually do is to give a short response. This sometimes is the only way to get them to talk to me with respect.
This doesn't seem to work very well either, though. They usually keep trying to get attention. One guy even managed to memorize my name and say, "Good game, Hiroko!" Keep in mind that I never told the guy my name. He must have asked someone. How pathetic are you?
I know that there really is no harm in being friendly to random strangers, but I've learned over the years to be distant in order to protect myself.
An extreme case would be an encouter with one random stranger during BCA in Las Vegas. I was playing in a women's team and we had a lot of friends cheering for us. We got a lot of attention from random people passing by because we were winning and it was obvious that we were good players.
At some point, a middle-aged white man stopped to watch our match. He started cheering with us, as if he knew us. Not only cheering, but giving us high-fives. I assumed he was one of my teammate's friend, because she had many of them stopping by to say hello to her. My teammates thought the same thing, except they thought he was friends with someone else on the team.
It dawned on us that none of us know him.
Creepy...
One of us decided to ask him who he was.
Sure enough, he's a total stranger from some midwestern state. Not even close to CA. What's worse is that he thought I look like his ex-wife and couldn't stop watching.
I'm not saying this man is dangerous or anything like that, but I think there is a classier way to show respect to good pool. It's great that he enjoyed the match, but does this mean he only enjoyed it because I look like his ex-wife?? What am I supposed to think?
In conclusion, I think it's best if I stay away from random men that come up to me to compliment me on my game. I know they would act totally differently if I brought a guy with me. I just can't win.
So stay away, creeps.
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