What happens in vegas. Stays in... your mind forever post #2

What happens in Vegas stays in … your mind forever

January 1998

Day 1

After that amazing weekend in Atlanta, I didn’t compete again until the following year. There was no better way to start off a year of competing then to be doing it in Vegas. I had no expectations for this trip. It would the first time I would be in Vegas on my own. It’s an overwhelming place for someone who has been sheltered his entire life.

I arrived to the hotel and had a whole day to roam around and explore. Martial arts was the last thing on my mind. I was eighteen so there wasn’t much else to do but travel around to different casinos and try out the arcades. I loved arcades back then. There was only Super Nintendo and it didn’t compare to arcade games.

So I went to a couple different places and played a couple of games. It was paradise for me. I ended up at The Treasure Island arcade. I played on my own for a while. I was playing Mortal Kombat 2 I think. When I saw 2 girls in the corner of my eye. One was a cute slender Asian girl and the other was a thicker heavyset girl. The slender one wore a half shirt that showed off her mid drift. Which was not something I was not used to seeing. Her stomach was flat and had a slight hourglass curve. She had cute baby cheeks. She was adorable. The feeling I had felt in Atlanta was coming back. I lost all interest in what I was playing. I needed a plan. How would I approach these two girls?

At this point in my life I have only had one girlfriend. I was with her for three months when I was fifteen. Only reason that we got together was because I had to wait for the late bus and we had a math class together. She was the only person I knew that was at school that late. It was easy back then. Ask a girl to a dance and after that she was your girlfriend.

I had to be aggressive and make a move. I had no idea what I would do. This is where free styling all my forms made me a quick thinker under pressure. Instead of planning something. I just went over there and went with the flow. I went to where the girls were. They were playing a shooting game called house of the dead. I have no idea what I was playing. All I remember was that at some point I caught baby cheeks attention. I smiled and she took a step towards me. So I met her half way. The other girl followed. I thought for sure they must be from California somewhere. Would be nice if they were from the bay area somewhere.

I said hi and what she responded me with caught me off guard. I thought I was hearing things for a second. I replayed it in my mind and wondered how this could be. She had an English accent. An Asian girl from England? Like I said I was a sheltered child growing up. I only thought white people were from England. After I accepted that she was English. Which was very attractive. We continued to talk. I found out that the other girl was with was her sister. At first I thought she must have been fucking with me. But it was the truth. The image of the movie Twins with Danny Devito and Arnold came to my mind.

We played house of the dead together. It was awesome. I had never played a video game with a girl before. Not only that she was really cute and English. This is where my weakness to English accents began. I loved hearing her talk. Every word was fun to decipher and we started to play the word game. I would say a word and they would respond with how they said it.

We got hungry and went to the snack bar downstairs. What happens next was like getting hit by lightning. The timing of it couldn’t have been better. I look back and think that this was a once in a lifetime thing.

We were in line to get some food. Ahead of us was a family. They looked back at me and said, “Are you Kim Do?” Ok let me explain to you why this was crazy. I was nowhere near a celebrity. I wasn’t even that popular in martial arts. I just did what I loved and had a great time doing it. Again I was caught off guard. I am a really shy guy most of the time. I don’t say much, I’m quiet and polite with people I don’t know. I tend to keep things short. Something triggered in my mind to milk this as much as I could. I talked to the family the whole time while we were in line. Introduced them to my new friends. I’m sure these girls were confused whom they had recently befriended. The family asked for my autograph and a picture. Wow was this really happening? But what was stranger was that this wasn’t even the tournament hotel. The tournament hotel was in downtown Las Vegas and we were on the strip.

We talked for bit longer and exchanged contacts. I gave them my cell phone number and they gave me their room number.

What a great first day in Las Vegas. I started to wonder if this would happen every time I went to a tournament? I could get used to this.

Day 2

Its Saturday morning and all the events were held today. It’s the same old story. Hurry up and wait. But there was a huge ridiculous problem. I had joined a different team. I had to wear this god awful uniform. This uniform was the ugliest thing I have ever seen. Ugly isn’t even enough to explain the gruesomeness of this thing. It was like someone took dog shit, took a trowel, scooped it up and tried to mold the crap to the uniform and failed miserably because there wasn’t enough dog shit to go around. So he decided to make zebra stripes with the shit that was available. Oh and because there wasn’t enough shit to go around. They had to give me a uniform that was two sizes too small. It was a pullover style uniform. I fucking hate pull over’s. I was a really skinny then. I looked liked like an Asian praying mantis. With zebra stripes I always wore really baggy close to hide my body. I was very insecure with my body. I wouldn’t go swimming because that would mean I had to take my shirt off. If for some reason I was forced to swim. I kept my shirt on.

OK back to the uniform. It was tight and short. Now imagine a 6-foot tall skinny Asian boy wearing this thing. The pants were too short. They hung above my ankles. I felt like a refugee. The top just barely covered the top of my pants. The belt was barely keeping the top from riding up and showing my non-existent abs. The uniform was white with black zebra stripes. Yes BLACK ZERBA STRIPES. Oh but it gets so much better. Zebra Mats sponsored the team. The company slogan was “Simply Z best”. The back of the uniform had zebra mats on the back in zebra print lettering. With the slogan under it. From the back you saw a white base uniform with black zebra stripes on the back. Zebra print lettering and a giant z in the middle where the slogan was. It was so bad that I gave up being embarrassed wearing it. I just gave up on life instead.

The tournament was a blur to me. I won my division. So I could show off my favorite new uniform on stage. Woo hoo. I was so excited about that. FAWK THAT THING! I lost in the grand’s. Probably because I was feeling like shit from wearing the uniform. I was thinking about when I would get this donkey throw up of a uniform off and get to hang out with the girl again.

There was no after party at this tournament. Some promoters just don’t understand that it isn’t about competing or level of competition but its about how much fun the event is and experiencing it with friends. That’s why some tournaments like the Bluegrass, Us open and Diamonds get the biggest draw. Its not who you saw or competed against. It’s the stories you remember later and look back and smile about.

Day 3

I didn’t see the girl last night. She was out with her family all day. I pushed my flight back home until Monday. We planned to meet somewhere and spend the day together. Her sister had met this guy who was a lounge singer at the Mirage. So she was occupied with him. We spent the whole day talking and going anywhere that an 18 year old could get into. I knew that once I left her I wouldn’t see her ever again. So I cherished every moment we spent together. She was different from American girls. She was so sweet and real. We didn’t just exchange stories; we really went into details about them. Gave our perspective of each story. I was so young and this was very uncommon with any girl I had ever met. But on the other hand I didn’t speak to very many girls.

Later that night we ended up in her room. Her sister was there. She was really cool about everything. We all talked together for a while. Later the sister watched TV while my girl and I were making out. This was a lot different from the girl from Atlanta. She felt like my girlfriend. Things were perfect. I had this feeling in my chest that kept growing. My chest was pounding. I stared at her the all night. I couldn’t get enough of her.

Then we heard a loud bang, then a couple more. Her mother was at the door. Shit! She was from a traditional Chinese family. Having a boy in the room was a big no no.

We thought if the mom were going to come in. she would come through the connecting door between the rooms. Not the front door. I was stuck. The only place to hide was in the bathroom. This bathroom had no place for me to hide me if the mom were to come in. So I sat in the tub hearing the mom go off on the sister. She was loud and scary. I had no idea what was going on. Did she find out about me? All I could do was wait in the room. Then the bathroom door opened. My body tensed up in fear of an old woman attacking me with a shoe. In that instant I planned my escape. Once she swung at me, I would side step her, dash past her to the door and peace out.

As the door opened even further. I was tripping. Here she comes. I closed my eyes for a second. When I opened them it was my girl. All the fear that was built up went away and I felt at ease. She lay between my legs in the tub. She told me what was going on. The mom found out about the guy her sister was seeing. She was even more furious because he was black. I don’t how she found out. As the screaming continued. We did what any young couple would do in a bathroom hiding from the parents. We made out some more. Talked when we needed rested our lips. I told her I was a virgin and she didn’t believe me at all. I really was. I was aggressive because I was rarely in this situation with a girl. Push as fast as you can. Because you never know when the next opportunity will arise. I didn’t tell her that. I just told her that I just never had a girlfriend long enough to have sex with. I told her that I’ve done everything else. Which was a white lie. I haven’t done that much.

The mom left the room finally and the sister was balling out of control. I decided I should leave and my girl and we set up a time to meet tomorrow.

Day 4

We met at the forum shops the next morning. The sister was out with the guy that had gotten her into so much trouble. My girl and I spent a last few remaining hours together. It was nice to be able to be with her again before leaving. Normally my flights leave really early in the morning, because I get home sick very easily.

The day was coming to end and we were really sad that it was going to be over. We hugged so tightly. We didn’t want to let go. All of my emotions then exploded from my mouth. “I love you” I couldn’t believe I just said that to her. She replied, “I love you too”. My heart melted. I didn’t want to leave her. We exchanged addresses, so we could write each other. I knew deep down that I would never see her

again and the writing would stop after a couple of months. I started to tear up as I walked away.

At the airport I was heartbroken. I sat in my seat waiting for my flight to take off. I’m just sulking in my seat at this moment. Then someone sits down next to me and says hello. I look up and it’s this beautiful brunette. She was a ten. She was really friendly and nice. Of all the times for this to happen. Why did it have to happen right now? I never sit next to beautiful women on airplanes. I just wasn’t in the mood to chat it up with her. We talked for a while anyways. I didn’t care about anything she said. I just said anything that came to my mind not caring what she thought of it. She was touching my thigh and smiling. The plane took off and I told her I’m really tired and I needed to rest. I pulled the tray down and went to sleep. I woke up and she said morning sunshine. I said bye to her and grabbed my bags.

I had taken a lot of photos and couldn’t wait to get them processed. We wrote to each other for a while. She was such a sweet girl. We considered each other boyfriend and girlfriend. A couple of letters later I stopped writing her. I ended up throwing the pictures of our amazing weekend away. I couldn’t do it anymore. It was useless. It wasn’t like this could ever become something real. Which was too bad because she was an amazing girl.