Yesterday was extremely frustrating.

First, soccer practice was a total sham. We ran some useful drills, covering problem areas I had discovered in our first game… but we were still having a ton of trouble. there are only two people on the team who haven’t played soccer before (and one of them is a college athlete and has picked it up really well), so I’m not sure why everyone else is playing like chickens with their heads cut off. Part of the problem is that I’m not really a coach, but I’m having a really difficult time organizing any semblance of polished play. The first half of our first game was a huge sloppy mess, and the second half was only slightly better. Our scrimmages in practice are all over the place. Hopefully with two potential coaching personalities on the sidelines on Saturday, we’ll have a little better direction.

When I got home, I discovered that the cats had knocked over their scratching post/roost, and it had smashed into and shattered my frog’s tank. The frog seems to be okay, but there was glass everywhere and the tank has to be trashed. The only other housing I currently have for my freaked-out amphibian is the small carrying tank, so I’ll have to go find something more suitable today. Heather wants to build a tank, so we’ll see how that goes. We may need to have something in the interim, at least to house some water and crickets.

After cleaning up and showering, I went over to the pool hall around the corner to meet up with heather, bonnie, and aly. I was thirsty, and had grabbed a Coke from the fridge to take with me. I brought it into the pool hall, not really thinking about it. The waitress came over and asked me to finish it outside or throw it away, and I pleasantly agreed. We were in the middle of a game, so I didn’t do it right away. Not ten minutes later, another staffer came over to tell me to get rid of it. It seemed kind of incessant (who’s so anal about soda in their establishment?), but I complied. Not ten minutes after THAT, this small asian guy came over to our table (I’m guessing he’s the owner) to warn us that he was going to kick us out. He said that it was a “family establishment” and that our “touching was inappropriate,” and that his staff had already warned us twice about it and this was our last warning.

This was extremely rude and offensive because:
1) It was not factual. It was obvious we were couples, but I was in a crappy mood and i can verify that we were not doing anything more offensive than having an arm around each other. (Which, of course, does not even raise an eyebrow with a guy-girl couple.)
2) His staff had NOT warned us about “touching”—they had asked me to take my Coke outside.
3) Since when is a pool hall at 10pm a “family establishment”? Give me a break.
4) We were not being rambunctious, noisy, obtrusive, or inappropriate. We were just playing pool.
5) It’s extremely bigoted. Man. In this day and age, in this area, seriously—get over yourself.

I realize that I’ll have people telling me “I told you so,” but truly, this accosting was completely unsubstantiated and uncalled for. Our actions (or lack thereof, I should say) did not in any way warrant his bigotry. California Billiards will never have my patronage again.