"Poker? I Just Met Her!"

So sayeth our friend Bud, as the opening of the email sent inviting us to poker night at his home in Woodbridge. Quite an appropriate greeting for the locale. You'd understand if you'd ever been to Woodbridge.

We, of course, said yes. Poker is fun. Getting out for the evening is fun. We packed up our nickels, dimes and quarters. We made dip, bought chips and were not the first nor last ones to arrive.

The games were fun. I neither won big nor lost big. Wendy came out up a little. However I must admit a small something. There were several games where the winning pot would be split between two players, such as in the case of Low Chicago. One game, she and I were the winners. Instead of splitting the pot as we winners were supposed to, she took her ante and gave me the rest because she knew my pile was low. She's nice like that.

What really fascinated me was the people. Oh the assortment of people our host brought together for that night of poker! Start with Wendy and me, typical suburban lesbians. Mix in a wiseass UPS driver. Add a quiet fellow who makes a living building computer networks (which one could surmise immediately after meeting him... he had that aura, but in a good way). Lavishly sprinkle with high school strings teachers.

Yes. You read correctly. High school strings teachers. As in orchestra. Violin, viola, bass. Yeah, you know. Waving the baton. Tuning the strings. Three of them. At one poker table. What are the odds?

And for icing, one was in his first year of teaching. We think he was maybe, oh, 23 tops. Last year he was a student teacher for the other woman at the table. We called her Pumpkin, because she was wearing a bulky orange sweater and therefore resembled, albeit remotely, a pumpkin. 'Tis the season and such. The young man: good hair, good highlights, two earrings, good shave (or lack thereof), BoSox t-shirt. Good is subjective of course, yet really quite a pleasant young man.

But he teaches strings. Three of them at the table that night do! Yes, Bud's one too! They'd pop out with some orchestra-themed joke every so often and they'd laugh amongst themselves. The rest of us just kind of looked at each other like "WTF did that mean?" Orchestra-themed jokes! Jokes that actually made them laugh!

I ask you.
What are the odds?