A new season

While I did not love this book about friends, it has made me incredibly thoughtful about how I spend my free time. Recently, a mantra has been running through my head:

                                 

For the past few weeks I have jammed my schedule full of people who I don't always get to see. It's the last weeks of summer and patio-seated, margarita-drinking, out-too-late living. We're all about to crawl into our caves and hibernate until Spring, only peeking out for the occasional football game. And I am trying to make the most of it. 

But sometimes it means making choices. It means sometimes saying no to what has always felt like the obvious social invitation and saying yes to the one that requires a little more work.

It always feel better. Every time. It feels better to spend that time with people that matter to you.

I am finding myself being more thoughtful about what I plan, working harder to reach out to people, and grateful that I am surrounded by so many great people who want to be my friends.

Let's just call it a midlife resolution.

Book Review: MWF seeking BFF

MWF seeking BFF is a great idea for a book in theory. The struggle to make friends in your late 20's, especially in a new city is fascinating to me. Mostly because as Boyfriend and I ponder a move to Elsewhere, I always get hung up on the fact that it will be twice as hard to make friends and there will probably be half as many people "on the market," for new friendships.

All the things that this book talks about make so much sense. The idea that women have, "face to face," friendships while men have, "side to side," friendships. The theory that you can have just about 150 important people in your life at a time, how women are used to being pursued romantically so it is sometimes hard for us to do the pursuing in a platonic way. 

All this is great and interesting and good and neat and stuff. However, I ordered a book with a narrative. I got a book with half a narrative, a dollop of science, and writing that is best left to the Internet.

If my 30 seconds of Internet sleuthing is correct, this book was a blog. And the more I read it, the more I was sure that is where it should have stayed. Rachel Bertsche's writing is fabulous, for the Internet. As a book, it leaves so much to be desired.

And while my sweet book club ladies zoned out on my diatribe on this subject last night- I can now put it out on the Internet to be ignored:

Occasionally the Internet is the best place for a project. It is truly its own medium that, when used correctly, can knock your socks off. But when things try to make the jump to the page, they seem to only juuuuustbarely make it (this does not go for image-based websites, because a coffee table book is a coffee table book and while the world may not need more of them, my house does, so do the damned thing all you amazing people. 

I did love thinking about friendships on a more philosophical level and am now actively working to better my friendships with my current friends because I recognize how valuable these relationships are to me.

I also appreciated that this gave me the opportunity to recognize that this blog will probably never be more than it is right now. Which is probably for the best.