All the Women who truly feel me, throw your hands up at me

Do you ever have a conversation with a friend you don’t talk with much or read something on their blog or hear them say something and think, “This is not the person that I know.” I had that experience today, and it was very odd. Disconcerting, almost. I suppose everyone changes, and that is an inevitable and sometimes positive fact of life. But it still feels uncomfortable when it is staring you in the face. Come to think of it, almost everything feels uncomfortable when it is staring you in the face. I really don’t like staring. It makes me wonder about what must be hanging out of my nose.

Speaking of friends, I counted myself very lucky yesterday to have the new guy friends that I have made in the past few months. These guy friends are different from most other guy friends I have had in the past, because, 1) they are not dating one of my friends, 2) I’m closer to them than any of the girls in the group, and 3) the question of dating or attraction between me and any of them doesn’t come up. . .nor do I expect it to. And I appreciate that they did me a huge favor on Sunday.

Let me preface this by saying that I had just had a horrible week in Singledom. One of the worst in a long time. One that made marriage and/or the L-word look like wonderful options because they would solve a lot of problems and eliminate a lot of conversations I had to have in the past week.

Anyway, after church on Sunday morning, we were all standing around in a big group talking, and I asked one of the girls a question. She answered it and we moved on. Then, a few minutes later, one of my guy friends—who had been there for the whole conversation—asked her the EXACT SAME QUESTION. I accused him of selective listening and we all laughed at him mercilessly.

Then, I pulled one of the other guys aside and asked him a big favor that will make my life in Singledom much easier in the future (long story). A few minutes later, I ended up following him and Guy #1 out of the church building, and he turned and said, “Hey I was just telling (insert Guy #1’s name here) about that favor you asked me.

“Oh, he knows about it,” I said. “I told him Friday night when I called to ask him about something else.”

“You did?”, Guy #1 said.

At that point, after selective listening instance #2 within 10 minutes, I said, “YES! Man, why do I need to be dating anybody when I have YOU GUYS to not listen to me?!” We all had a good laugh, and I felt much better about being single.

Thanks, guys. I needed that.