Can Men and Women Just Be Friends?

I was going to wax poetic and weave Harry and Sally into the mix and talk about a friend and the issues he is having, but I don't think that is necessary. Call me Harry on this one, but no, men and women can't just be friends. There are too many things to get in the way.

It is funny to see me write this, since I have guy friends and have never really agreed with this opinion. However, the more I think I about it, the more I think that Harry--in a crude way--is right. The “sex thing” does get in the way. Women will say, 'but I have this friend and there have never been any feelings involved.” Really, have you checked with him lately? And let's be honest, we all have dated someone who was once "just a friend." In college there was Matt, who I hated at first (he was a self-absorbed, egomaniac), became his best friend and then fell for him hard. It was better that way. We were already close and the dating just accentuated a good thing.

And if there is no “sex thing” involved--if there is no attraction to one another at all--see what happens when one of you is in a relationship. The friendship alters. It just happens.

Men and women can be friends (for awhile), but the friendship is not the same. You can get advice from a guy about men in general, but usually they offer you such nuggets as "Men are assholes. You know that. We’re friends." Or, they will wonder why you are complaining about something the same guy has does to you for the millionth time. It goes the same for guys; women friends will offer you way more advice about a situation than you will ever want. They will want you to consider motivations and feelings and not whether she is a hot piece of ass.

The middle ground is realizing that there will be limitations to the friendship and that life events may permanently alter it. Harry and Sally may be happily married now, but it was a rough road to get there.

Why Do I Have to Word Verify?

I'd like to thank the random spammers hitting my blog with irrelevant and nonsensical posts. While I don't want to make those that read and comment (a.k.a. Jen) register and log in, I don't like getting spammed on my blog. I didn't even know people would do that.

So, for the three readers out there, I have added word verification to the site. I am now just like Ticketmaster. (Without $20 in fees) Sorry for inconvenience!!!

Cheer Cheer for Old Notre Dame

I catch a lot of grief for being a Notre Dame fan. I am a fan, because my mom used to watch the games on Saturday afternoons. She still does. I never thought that it was bad to be a Notre Dame fan until I moved to the city and learned that to most people, Notre Dame is the Yankees of college football. It doesn't help that the Fighting Irish haven't given me much reason to be proud or to cheer. (Not that I want to jinx them, but they are are looking pretty good this year).

Last weekend, they soundly beat Washington to improve their record to 3-1. The real story, though, was their first offensive play and the boy who called it. There is a great article on MSN about Montana Mazurkiewicz and Charlie Weis. I will let the story speak for itself.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9481684/

Dance as if no one is watching;
love as if you can't be hurt.
Sing tho' no one is listening;
live as if it's heaven on earth. Irish Proverb

I Think Those Cows Are Having Sex

As Jen and I are driving to Wisconsin, we passed a hill filled with cows. Which, for us city girls, is somewhat funny and entertaining. Anyway, as we pass this hill of cows, out of nowhere, Jen shouts, “I think those cows are having sex!” A moment passes and then I look at Jen and say, “Cows don’t have sex. They are all women.”

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Cows have sex with bulls."

Thus this conversation went the only way it could, into a debate about lesbian cows.

Thank God I Bought That Shirt At Walmart (and other stories from camping this weekend)

Where to start with the tales from this weekend? Friday night, I worked at the bar and was sober, given the antibiotics coursing through my system. I was set to head home early, so that I could get a good night's sleep and get up early for camping. Around 2 AM, my friend called. She and her boyfriend were in a car accident. They were okay (thank god), but needed a ride home. I enlisted my friend Mike to drive me and off to Schaumburg we went. When it was all said and done, I was crawling into bed at 6 AM. I would do it again in a heartbeat though. Not to sound like Dionne Warwick, but that is what friends are for.

Anyway, when my phone rang at 8:54 AM, I was less than thrilled. (When it rang at 9:09, I was even crabbier...9:20 was when I really thought that my friends liked torturing me). I did manage to pull myself together, pack some things and head out the door at a mostly reasonable hour. (My only casualties were my legs. They suffered from a pretty bad job with a razor...mental note to self: don't shave on less than 3 hours sleep).

I jumped into a cab with Jen (she was supposed to be on a bus, but the cat was running in the hallway or something). As I am climbing in, she is telling me that the Carpenters are on the radio. I am sorry to say that there was singing in the cab until we got to my car. We get out of the car, looking like the cast of Sex in the City, and load up my car for our road trip. Off we went! We drove a few miles until we stopped for coffee (for me) and Wendy's (for her).

The rest of the drive would be too hard to describe. It was simply hilarious. It was raining. Dead animal parts flew up at my car. We stopped in Janesville, WI, which has a Target, Walmart, Big Kmart and shopping mall all on top of one another. We hit the Walmart. I bought a cute top, exercise pants, some cheesy CDs, a card game, some yarn, knitting needles and some snacks. Don’t ask me why I thought I needed any of that stuff. An hour later, we were back on the road, listening to the 80s Pop CD I had bought. Hits included Jesse’s Girl, Waiting for a Star to Fall, 9 to 5, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now and You Should Hear How She Talks About You. It was a little silly to say the least.

We made it to the campgrounds without too much trouble. The rest of Saturday was just a lot of fun--great conversation, company and food. (Little painful when I realized that one of the people we were camping with knew my classmate from high school, because she was his teacher, but what can you do?) It was nice to get away from all the craziness of the city. Late that night, it began to rain and we all retreated to our tents. I was watching the fire, to make sure that it would burn out like it should. After watching the fire a bit, I shouted to Tony (in the next tent) that he probably wanted to stomp the board, since it was going to fall out of the fire. He told me that it was going to fall into the fire. (Apparently, I was crazy). A few minutes later, I hear a crash and Tony saying, “Well, that didn’t work out as planned.” I unzipped my tent to watch him stand corrected, as he moved the burning board back into the fire.

It had rained through the night and never really felt the need to let up. We quickly broke camp and headed to a diner for breakfast. While the drive home in the rain (which I am pretty sure followed us home) sucked, it was a fun weekend. Shout out to Tony for putting it all together. Shout out to God for getting me out of the 4.52-mile hike Jen was going to make me go on – I love a rainy night...and day.