Alpha Down, Dude

Phil and I drove to Nueva York yesterday after work for poker. And with apologies to Phil, who thinks I pretty much always get conversation reconstructions wrong, I am going to try and repeat a small excerpt from the car ride.

Phil: I hope we get there before Rajeev.
Me: Why?
Phil: Because if he gets there first, he'll que all his music on the computer.
Me: So? (this above comment seemed especially strange since I thought that Rajeev and Phil had nearly identical musical tastes.... it seemed like me and Kate fighting over NPR programming)
Phil: It's this passive aggressive thing we have going where we're each trying to play music that the other person won't know.
Me: There's music you guys don't know?

And while I have never thought of any of these guys as quintissential "alpha male" types, I guess they sort of are when it comes to music. And maybe a little bit when it comes to poker... but what guy isn't alpha when it comes to poker? These two points became clearer as bickering would erupt over whose turn it was to pick an album, and as Rajeev's buddy Jason, who had never played poker before, won a series of big hands. I smartly stayed away from the music selection, and managed to do fine at poker - I hit quad 10s in a hand of Omaha, which is probably the best hand I've ever had in poker.

Annnyyway, after a particularly contentious hand of poker and some disagreement over the next musical selection, Phil got fired up and Jason came out with the line of the night: "Whoa! Alpha down!" Awesome. I wish I had thought of it. Regardless, it clearly belongs on a t-shirt.

Rest of the night progressed as usual with lots of beer, cheesesteaks, smack talk and poker. The cheesesteaks from Blondie's? Excellent, as were the waffle fries. I have come to realize that Phil sometimes acts like a Mc when it comes to ordering group food - in other words, like you grew up in a family without enough food, or too many kids fighting over said food and now overcompensate by ordering everything on the menu. My mom is a big fan of that method. And we used to run into problems with this in law school when two of the guys would go out to White Castle or Popeye's to buy dinner for the group. Phil, it's official. You're an honorary Irishman. Your love of fried fish, single malt, beer, gambling, and general belligerance in an argument makes it clear. I'll just add a "Fitz" onto your last name and you're set.