Joe Takes a Dive

Last night was a horrible night socially for me, the first of such since I've been in Germany. But there was one single shining bright spot in the whole mess. Or as I would prefer to look at it; one whole kernel still in the turd.

Five of us guys met up with five German girls, usually a good recipe but not tonight. So SpiderLord and I ended up trying unsuccessfully to find somewhere else to go. All of us ended up on top of this very small stage in a corner dancing to rather crappy music while a small sea of Germans danced balls-to-back on the floor. Not a great place to meet people, mingle, or talk since everyone stayed in their own exact spot the whole time. Anyway, we saw another soldier friend; Joe. You know him by now.

Joe lost a lot of weight and feels proud, so while he was up on the stage drunkenly dancing, he decided to remove his shirt. That gets noticed but not encouraged by the crowd. Then he dropped his pants around his ankles. Good thing for boxer shorts. He continued dancing on the stage while becoming the laughable topic of the crowd. Shortly before this, I had been joking with SpiderLord about going stage diving. We both laughed and shrugged it off.

Apparently one of our German girls didn't. Once Joe reached the fever pitch of ridicule, German Girl came from behind and pushed Joe forward off stage. Just enough so that he would have to make a conscious decision of whether to try to fight for balance or go with it and dive. He dove. He dove ungracefully into the unwilling crowd with his pants still around his ankles and his shirt in his hand. Two people apparently thought about trying to catch him. Two. So Joe had his fall slightly slowed by a few gentle hands.

Splat! Joe hits floor. We all started cracking up, the entire place. Joe gets up, totally pissed once he realized that we weren't laughing with him. He scanned the crowd on the stage for the culprit but German Girl ducked in behind us.

Poor Joe, left with nothing but to pull up his pants and try to regain some dignity. Never underestimate the greater misfortune of others to make you realize that your current situation isn't so bad.