Day 131

What happens when I hang out with Lynn after not seeing her for awhile is that we sit around and do life updates, but for other people. "How's so and so doing? Did you hear about such and such?" It's not gossiping as much as it is catching up because we have a very overlapped group of friends and we both like to soak in information. Only after an hour or so of figuring out the status of everyone around us do we finally settle in, breathe, and talk about our own lives. That's pretty much the pattern and I don't know how it developed but we rarely stray from it.

I spent most of the weekend on Lynn's couch in-between LA events. We pre-post-celebrated Steve's birthday on Friday by having a champagne, cheese, and crackers night at Megan's apartment. I don't know where Megan gets her ideas but once she sets her mind on an activity that needs to happen, she basically just keeps saying (or doing) it until it actually happens. It's like being bullied into something, but in a nice way. So it was that we found shots of jager and tall glasses of Red Bull magically appear before us, even as we settled in for a quiet night. Jager bombs are Megan's thing, everyone knows this.

I thought we were headed for a night of Rock Band 2 or Lips -- which Megan basically guilt tripped Steve into buying on his way up from Palos Verdes before realizing that it cost $60 and so might need to stay unopened -- but instead we had a Cranium face off. First it was boys versus girls. Then it was strings versus woodwinds (Lynn and Steve play violin, Megan and I play the clarinet and flute respectively). The final round was old versus young. I didn't realize you could play Cranium with just four people but this was a new Cranium, Cranium Pop 5, which strips away all the stupid rules and launches you straight into the fun activities.

I think people believe alcohol makes board games more fun but what I think is that having alcohol around gives people the impression that playing a board game is semi-cool and can qualify as a night's activity. I know Ameer would disagree here because he's anti-board game all the time but I would like to think he's an exception. Apparently it just sounds better when you can say, "Yeah, we had some drinks and played a few board games." That seems more adult and not as childish/lame as just saying "We played board games." I'd say playing board games is more fun than going out nine times out of ten but people don't usually agree with me -- thus the need to spice up games with alcohol. Whatever, I'll host a damn kegger if that gets everyone to play games with me.

Anyway, we had a fantastic night in and I left behind two new friends for Megan. Or North Pole Pals to be specific. Look at these damn things. Aren't they the cutest things ever? How could you not want to own them? I don't understand why holiday candy is discounted so quickly -- isn't the chocolate still the same? -- but I snatched these guys up for a dollar each. I kind of wanted to eat them but they deserve to live just a little while longer don't you think?

Somewhere in that night's conversation, Lynn introduced me to her habit of emailing a select group of friends to keep them updated on her life. I was excited to open my ears to this idea. It had never occurred to me to actually contact and communicate with my five best friends, to email them as a group so they would not only know who each other were but also be kept in the loop about things. For someone who puts a lot of stock into his top five, this was a revelation. I figured if anyone was actually interested in my life, they could just ask, or find out stuff online, so I had never considered giving them semi-personalized updates and important info.

Our friendship theories are also pretty different I guess. Actively communicating with your close friends and keeping them in the loop hasn't exactly been my cup of tea. I tend to wait for information to disseminate by itself. But for Lynn, it seems like her top friends are the ones who know the most about what's going on in a given situation. They also serve as support and counsel. I use my friends as support and counsel too but it sort of comes and goes and falls mainly on who's around. I'm going to have to consider taking a more proactive approach to close friendships.

Near the end of 2008, another friend sent a combined email to her top five just generally thanking them and appreciating them. It was incredibly great and I thought about doing the same thing for people I cared about. I've found a fault of mine is that I generally just assume people know how much they mean to me but then I rarely actually say it, or do anything that would let them think it, etc. I will resolute to do better, as I take the month of January to create some resolutions for the rest of the year.

Friend appreciation, write that one down.