INDYFIGHTER
Purple Belt
This is how. Saturday night I was spending the night partying at my cousins house in Speedway Indiana near the Indianapolis International Speedway. There is a long tradition of hanging out around the track the night before the 500 race and I've participated for the last eight years. I refer to it as a 'red neck ma di gras'. They close off an entire street for about 15 blocks lined with food vendors. The police have always and still do over look the Indiana's open container law for this one night. Party goers pull coolers of beer on wagons. It's fun but I've never felt exactly safe there and in years pass I've always been extremely aware of my suroundings there and chose wisely who I made the walk with. This year I got lax and it bit me in the .... finger! I'd been drinking a little but towards the end of our trek I decided I'd start drinking heavier on the way home. It was time to relax and go back to the house to finish the party. We're only three or four blocks from the house where we were staying and at 2am things were dieing off and people were going home. A few shots from the cooler and we were on our way back. As we walked down the sidewalk heading home I let a little brother of a friend of mine walk in front and me and my date lagged behind the group a little. I had led all night and naturally in a group of mostly lower class people I was bumped and snickered at and everything else... who cares. When some idiot shoulder checks me I just apologize for him and move on. Well in the middle of our walk home a guy who in my opinion was blown out of his mind was running the opposite direction on the sidewalk with a ski mask on. Yes, a ski mask in Indy in May. When he bumped shoulder with the 21 year old kid leading our group the kid smarted off and an argument insued. I didn't know what it was about when I came apon my close friends and their friends bottled up in the sidewalk. But moments later this guy hits the kid right in the mouth knocking out his front tooth. I pushed him away and into the street. He came at me and I pushed him again this time over a short, wire fence. Not wanting to fight I tried to make that be it and started moving my people down the sidewalk but it wasn't over. He got up and grabbed another member of my group.
Now I'm not going to go into ALL the things I did wrong that night, the list is long. I'm not going to give a blow by blow I'm just going to give a warning and it's one I already knew well and ignored that night and it almost cost me my finger when this guy got it in his mouth and nearly bit it off. What ever you can do sober, you can't do even a third of that when you're drunk. It's never ok in public to let your guard down. Getting 'drunk' leaves you helpless and vulnerable and if you enjoy doing it than it should be somewhere safe and private in the company of good friends. I was an idiot and I'll be kicking myself for this for a very long time.
Now I'm not going to go into ALL the things I did wrong that night, the list is long. I'm not going to give a blow by blow I'm just going to give a warning and it's one I already knew well and ignored that night and it almost cost me my finger when this guy got it in his mouth and nearly bit it off. What ever you can do sober, you can't do even a third of that when you're drunk. It's never ok in public to let your guard down. Getting 'drunk' leaves you helpless and vulnerable and if you enjoy doing it than it should be somewhere safe and private in the company of good friends. I was an idiot and I'll be kicking myself for this for a very long time.
We can only learn, let go, and move on.
