Gloria's Rough Patch Smooths Out

On one of my old blogs, I would write about my friends' love lives. I still think they're lives are pretty interesting, so I'll write about them on this new blog occasionally as things develop.

This post is about my friend Gloria. You should click the links in the previous sentence to read her posts in my old blog.

To sum it up for you lazier readers (I'm not judging), Gloria is my girl who has an interesting love life. The main players are two men, who I call Rufus and Gregory in my blogs. Rufus is the father of Gloria's son. He's an asshole. And he's possibly crazy. The best way to sum up what makes him crazy is to tell a short story.

He has another son who was 1 years old at Gloria's son's second birthday party. I'll wait while you do the math. Yeah, he knocked up two chicks back to back. And while the mother of his seond son was still living with him, and pregnant, he's telling Gloria that they need to be a family and together. He's still telling her that he wants to be with her and his son and make a family unit. I question not only his sanity but also his intelligence.

Then there's Gregory. Gregory is lovely. He's a sweetheart and definitely my favorite of my friends' significant others. He also has a son, but he has considerably less baby mama drama. He and Gloria have been together slightly longer than Easy and I have. They make a fabulous couple. They are so sweet together, and if they could just get over their competitive streak, everything would be fine.

They hit a rough patch recently because Gloria was feeling like a very low priority on Gregory's list of importance in life. I was worried they were going to break up and I begged her to reconsider. She really loves that man, so she didn't need me to tell her to keep her relationship. I did give her a suggestion of a more productive and constructive way to have what-do-we-do-now-that-we've-hit-a-wall discussions.

They're still together, and she seems happier when his name comes up now than she did a couple weeks ago. Even if you work on your problems as a couple, you'll never be perfect, but when you love someone and the relationship is healthy, you keep making it work.

I'm trying to be very supportive because I am campaigning to be godmother for their first child together. I'd make a great godmother! I bake cookies and I take field trips to museums, and I throw a mean slumber party. I'm just saying.

When Gloria was with Easy and I last weekend, we really had a great time. Any time someone is out with a couple and isn't even a bit bitter, that's a good sign.

Now if we can only get Gregory to have some free time, we'd love to go on a double date with them. Gregory is kind of quiet, but Easy had him talking. He brings out the extrovert in everyone. And Gregory is hilarious, so I know it would be a good time.

Double Dating

So if you read any of my old blogs, you know I'm engaged. You probably have gathered that by now if you're new to this new consolidated blog cause I talk about Easy all the time. I love that man with an undying passion. That will be the how I start I wedding vows. "First of all, I love you with an undying passion." Except it will be said matter-of-factly, not romantically. It will be legend-waitforit-dary.

Image via cheezburger.com

Something new that Easy has brought into my life besides constantly saying things like "undying passion" is the double date. We met at the wedding of his friend to a girl I grew up with. We've been on a couple double dates with them which has been fun. We hang out with a couple down in St. Louis when we're there. Most couples we meet and get along well with have invited us out for a couples' only thing, it's just a matter of finding the time to make it happen. We've even got a double date later today with a friend of his and his girlfriend (who is designing our wedding invitations). I'm hoping we go rock climbing, but we'll see what happens.

I'm surprised that I haven't done more double dating or even hanging out with other couple in a just-couples kind of way before. With the exception of an 18th birthday celebration and prom in high school, most of the time I spent with my significant other and other couples was in a bigger group setting.

There are all sorts of ways a double date could go.

Image via Cartoon Stock

Image via Cartoon Stock

Our double dates have mostly been just hanging out like we would if all our friends were there, but with less concern about PDA. Oh yeah, if you didn't know, the PDA gets pretty serious on a double date.

Image via Cartoon Stock. It's like this but times 2!

If you're going to double date, here are some things you should think about that I've learned in my time double dating:

1. If You're Going To Dinner, Talk About Prices Ahead of Time!
Seriously, Easy and I have been embarrassed to be out with a couple and have them ask 100 times how much something costs. I get that people are on a budget, but we would've chosen a different restaurant if we'd known it was that big of a deal. Also, they were terrible tippers and we can't stand not leaving a tip so we came up out the pocket more than expected to make up for their mess.

2. Plan And End-Time Ahead of Time
There's nothing worse than wearing out your welcome. Oh wait, yes there is. Wearing out your welcome times two! Even if you're hanging out with friends you always hang out with, if it's an official "double date", set an official end time so you don't have to have an awkward, we'd-like-to-have-sex-can-you-leave-now, conversation.

3. Know Your Audience
Don't assume that all your normal date behavior is acceptable on a double date. I know you're on a date with your sweetie, but you have a very captive audience in front of you. Remember not to make jokes they've never heard before that they may find appropriate. You know, stuff about group sex, dead bodies, liposuction, politics, and religion. Typically taboo stuff may ruin someone else's good date and then you become "that weird couple they double dated with once".

4. Don't Assume There Will Be A Second Date
Dating couples is like dating a new person. You have to match personalities and see if there is real compatibility there. I know it sounds crazy, but you have to treat the double date like a real date, it's just your couple dating their couple. Even if these are your best friends and y'all hang out in big groups all the time, don't assume there will be a second double date. Have a conversation about it afterwards that has no pressure. You wouldn't want the fact that you and your SO might not be dating-compatible with your good friends to ruin your friendship outside of activities like rom-coms, brunch, and couples-only camping trips, now would you?

And now, I'm taking a turn in this post. I like to talk about politics, so I will find the thinnest of connections to talk about it here. I'm going to matchup people who I think would make either good or terrible double daters.

Barack & Michelle Obama with Joe & Jill Biden: Good Date Both Jill and Michelle have a background in education/health while Joe and Barack can discuss politics and crack jokes. I think they'd be down for a second date.

Rick & Anita Perry with George W. & Laura Bush: Terrible Date These two camps do not get along! Laura is very active in politics, whereas Anita cares more about nursing. And there's no love between W. and Richard. This date would be terse and un-fun.

Donald & Melania Trump with Todd &a Sarah Palin: Awkward How many people can you put in a room who care so little about making sense before critical mass is reached? I think a double date with these four would find out. They could bond over their general hatred for people who don't get how great they are. But they'd spend a lot of time pretending to understand each other without actually communicating.

Okay, enough faux politics.

Do you double date? What types of couples do you and your significant other spend time around?

Lion Plays Host in St. Louis

Lion is one of my best friends from college. He's going to be my best man at my wedding. I was writing about him love life over on my other blog, My Life's Love Medley. But since I've consolidated all my blogs, I write about his life here now. You can read my older posts about his love life, where I used to write about him on first Wednesdays, then Saturdays here.

In my last post about him, I talked about how he was coming to Chicago to take a test for school and staying with my fiance Easy and I while he was here. Then Easy had a gig down in St. Louis, where Lion is from. The three of us, plus a friend of mine Lion met at our engagement party, were all going to go down there and kick it for the weekend. It was going to be awesome!

Well, you know how things in life don't always go as planned. With all the things that constantly change in my world, me (and the people who are silly enough to want to spend time around me) have got to be able to roll with the punches.

Not quite like this.



But more like this.

Image via Cartoon Stock

One of those punches was that our friend wasn't there. She had a family emergency come up and wasn't able to join us. We still had a pretty good time. Hopefully the next time such a trip comes up, she'll be there and I'll actually get to observe Lion in action. He did spend some time with a lady friend of his. But she wasn't interested in spending time with Easy and I in St. Louis because I said she couldn't come to our engagement party since she happened to be in Chicago that day.

Who asks to go to the engagement party of a couple they've never met before? I gotta say, I'm okay with never meeting one of the many Ashleys that rotate around in Lion's life, especially a particularly tactless one. Moving on.

This trip to St. Louis was a very different one from the last time I was there and stayed at Lion's brother's house. It was still fun though. I'm still waiting to actually observe Lion in whatever it is that he does to these chicks to earn their practically life-long allegiance. Once I figure it out, I'll be happy to share it in this blog.

Camille Sees A Sign

Camille is one of my friends who's love life I wrote about on my other blog, Camille's Wishful Wednesday. In this new blog, she won't have a day, just an update as they arise. If you read that other blog, all the updates I'll have on my friends' lives will be here. If this is your first time reading about it, you should go back and read the basics so you understand the background.

To sum it up, Camille is the hopeless romantic saboteur. She would love for a prince charming to come sweep her off her feet. Not this prince charming.

Image via osamasaeed.com

More like this prince charming.

Image via tvrage.com

By the way, Happy 39th Birthday, Idris Elba, with your fine ass. Moving on.

So Camille would love to be swept off her feet, but she's always finding something wrong with guys. High standards are good, but she'll drop a guy for not liking the way he dresses. She sabotages things before they get off the ground. Occasionally, she finds a guy she really does like. There are just more frogs than princes in her world.

So recently, we've taken to just imagining things about guys for amusement. In my last post about her on my other blog, I talked about the guy at her school who was watching her in the library and what that might mean.

This past week, a friend of hers met a guy and hit it off with him. Guess what? He has the same last name as the guy Camille is wondering about. It's a sign!

If you didn't know, some of us women do things like that. We look for signs and over-analyze everything for lack of actual interaction to go by. He's Just Not That Into should have taught us better.

Image via amazon.com

At least we know better than to think our flights of fancy mean something deeper. It's mostly for fun.

But then again. Wouldn't it be nice if they ended up together and all these little signs at the beginning pointed to it like in a movie? Easy and I definitely seem like characters out of a romantic comedy sometimes...

Seriously, we do. The best example I can think of is that we break into song and dance no matter where we are. We waltzed, in front of people, at an arts festival in Bucktown after one of his gigs. We break into songs, in harmony, to sing songs that would be the soundtrack for life's moments. And when certain songs come on, no matter where we are, we must dance to them. It drives all our single friends crazy, just like in a movie. All the quirky things I used to do myself became less quirky and more a sign of our sympatico nature once we both do them together.

Image via timberlake-justin.com

Tell me someone gets the sympatico reference!

Welcome To My New Blog

I looked up one day and I was writing a lot of blogs. There were just too many. I googled some options about how I could remedy my problem.

Pick One Blog Topic And Stick To It
I have a lot of interests. Picking one topic wouldn't be okay with me. I had a journal (of sorts) blog, a blog about my friends' love lives, a blog about current events, a blog about my wedding, and a blog about my fiance's music career. How was I going to pick one of those things when they're all immensely important to me to write about?

How am I supposed to choose? I don't want to choose. I won't choose.

Buy A Domain And Host Multiple Blogs On One WebPage
I thought about doing this. I liked the idea of having my own website domain. No more blogspot in my blog title. But then it occurred to me that if I don't have the time to maintain multiple blogs, I really don't have the time to learn UNIX etc. All I halfway know now is html and I just can't be worried about learning all the rest.

Give Up And Switch To Something At Which I'm More Efficient
I love blogging. I will not give up blogging until carpal tunnel takes my typing abilities away. I don't have carpal tunnel. Lord, don't give me carpal tunnel. Plus, I made a commitment to blog for Weddingbee and I am most definitely fulfilling that commitment.

So Now What?
Having exhausted those three options, the only thing left to do was to try and figure out a way to make all my different blogging interests come together under one roof so that I don't have to have 337 (slight exaggeration) blogs. This will be a fun experiment.

I've recently had a lot of changes in my life. In the last sixteen months, I withdrew from medical school and I started a completely different career. I met, fell in love with, and got engaged to the love of my life. I finally moved out of my parents' house. I've seen my friendships blossom into adult friendships. With all that going on, blogging about my life and the world around me keeps me sane. Well, it keeps me mostly sane.

For the purposes of this blog, I will continue with the aliases I've given everyone in my life. That should make the transition easier for the handful of people who were reading my other blogs.

For the purposes of starting with a fresh tone (maybe?) and feel, I will not be importing my old posts. I will leave the old posts on the old blogs, but I may reference them from time to time. If that happens, I'll link to that post.

Lastly, I'm looking for comments! If you read my other blogs, tell me what you think of this new one. I'm contemplating investing in a really great template background. We'll see. For all I know, I may decide in two weeks that I'd rather fuss with maintaining my 1,428 (a slightly larger exaggeration) blogs.