I apologize to those who read this post's title and got excited about a Creedence Clearwater Revival reunion tour. No, unfortunately, Rolling Stone's 82nd greatest artist(s) of all time will not soon be performing at a location near you. This post instead refers to to everyone's favorite pastime, Credit Card Roulette!
As our faithful readers know, our team has a tradition after meals where everyone throws in a credit card (I usually throw in my library card, shh!) and through a complicated series of sleight-of-hand maneuvers, Rich slowly eliminates cards one by one until only the winner remains. It's kind of like Highlander but instead of experiencing The Quickening, the victor just signs a credit card receipt. There are still the awesome lightning effects though.
The game actually started earlier today at the Dallas airport, and I heard it through the grapevine that Rich defeated Dan soundly in a mano-a-mano battle over a bill for some burritos. Nice job, Rich, but you should expect the competition to get much tougher now that we're all together.
I reached the hotel several hours before the rest of my team and I kept lookin' out my back door wondering when they were ever going to arrive. When they finally did, we wasted no time visiting the Primanti Brothers restaurant down on the corner from our hotel. Rich recommended it based on his previous visits to Pittsburgh and we all ended up ordering the same steak sandwich (Rich and I wisely went double meat while Wei-Hwa added an egg to his) and split two bowls of chili between the four of us. I thought the sandwich was delicious but the chili was only mediocre, certainly when compared to the wonderful chili Rich and I recently had in Austin.
The bill arrived and we all put our game faces on. This match would set the tone for the entire race and give the victor much needed momentum going forward in roulette competitions. Dan, Wei-Hwa and I were serious yet respectful, but Rich displayed truly unsportsmanlike behavior and started trash-talking, calling me disparaging names like "Susie Q" and blowing on his credit card, saying "I put a spell on you!" Tacky.
Rich put all the cards together and gave the first move to Wei-Hwa who coolly took Rich's measure and called out "4". Rich counted to the fourth card in the pile and revealed his own card, eliminating himself immediately and without fanfare. You're going to need to step up your game, Bragg! Wei-Hwa still had the honors and this time went with "3". But this time he chose poorly and eliminated himself.
Somehow I knew that it would come down to Dan and myself. Dan seemed calm on the surface but I could tell that a torrent of anxiety raged just beneath. I knew how he felt as I could barely keep my hands from shaking as I tried to exude pure confidence. Down to only two of us, Rich put one card in each of his hands and again Wei-Hwa called the shot. "Left," he said and Rich opened his left hand to reveal the fortunate son... Dan! I lodged a complaint since Rich was facing us and I argued that Wei-Hwa was probably referring to his own left, not Rich's, but my protest fell on deaf ears and Dan was awarded the victory. He tried to be gracious but he couldn't help strutting away from the table like proud Mary. No matter! We have many more competitions ahead of us.
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