Fresh like spring!

Note to self: Getting along with your friends is definitely on the "gotta have it" list.

New Friend accompanied me to a dinner party on Saturday night and made me like him that much more.

Before I go all gushy on you, I wonder, when does New Friend get a new nickname. It's been four months (four months? holy geez), and depending upon how you count, this is the second or third longest grown-up relationship of my life. Only, I'm not sure what we're calling it. I mean, I think it's a relationship. In the literal sense it is a relationship, but any interaction between two people could be called a relationship. And I assume this is a committed thing but the last time I assumed with New Friend we ended up needing some clarification. Granted, I did leave him a voicemail a month into it rambling on and on about how I have a big heart and that I cared about him and actually uttered the phrase, "I throw myself into life 100%!" (oh, yes I did, Internets. On voicemail!). But I think it's safe to assume this is a relationship and that we both like each other. And so maybe when we have that clarification conversation, New Friend will have a new name. But this is not really a post about that.

I was all worked up to invite him to this shin-dig, worried that he'd say no, that he wouldn't want to meet my friends, and that he would dread every second of it. Not because that's who he is, but that's how Old Friend would have responded. I would have had to try my hardest to convince Old Friend that I really only surround myself with the best people I can and that he may actually have fun--and even then I would have been cowtowing to him all night trying to make sure he was having a good time. And I was all prepared to do that when I invited New Friend but he responded right away with a, "Sure. That sounds like fun." And then when the actual night came, I was all nervous that he'd hate it, but he didn't. He was a natural--and deep down I knew that it wouldn't be like Old Friend, but it felt so good to actually see it play out that way.

I didn't really do my part in prepping him before we got there--who was who, or who does what, or what is or isn't off limits for conversation(but New Friend is English, and with that accent, you can get away with anything, hence a 30-minute conversation on acceptable curse words and how it varies between the UK and US). But it turns out I didn't need to worry about a thing. He just made the night so easy, and as usual, so easy to be myself.

As we left, he gave me a little hug thanking me for inviting him and saying that I had some pretty outstanding people for friends. And I just took it all in, because he's right, I do. And the fact that he recognizes makes him pretty outstanding, too.