Friendship Territory

So I took a 2 month hiatus from blogging. Sorry about that. Pressing forward.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of going home for Thanksgiving. I love going home. My family is amazing, my dog is awesome, and the change of pace is comforting. About the only thing I don't like about home is the questions - which are particularly worse around the holidays because you have the fine pleasure of seeing all the extended family members that you haven't seen in years. And for a single girl around the holidays, the most dreaded question of all times is the "So when are you getting married?" question. Answer: "Well, since Brad ran out on me with Angelina and is busy compiling an army of children to take over the world, the wedding has been postponed...indefinitely." But seriously, it'll probably be after he realizes that she's a lesbian.


The good thing about living in a different city is it's six hours away from questions like these. The bad thing about living in a different city is it means a six hour drive back to Atlanta which usually turns into a 7 or 8 hour drive during the holidays. So I had some time to think about my single-status on the way home and figure out where I've been going wrong in the whole dating scheme.

And, truthfully, I've decided the root of the problem lies with a little something I like to call - Friendship Territory.

We've all met people that we think would be awesome to date; however, at the time, we're just not looking to "date" someone. We just want to be friends, hang out, chill, no strings. There's always plenty of time to date this person later. For now, we're just friends. So we settle into Friendship Territory and Friendship Territory is cool. It's a good territory - nice land, green grass, flowers, trees, and there's even a river and on the other side of that river lies Relationship Territory. So we reason with ourselves that, while we wait for that bridge to be built to Relationship Territory, we'll just build a fire, pull up a rock to sit on, and enjoy Friendship Territory.

Weeks pass - even months. You realize that you're going to be in Friendship territory a little longer than you thought you were, so you build a tepee. It's a temporary, nomadic dwelling. After all you're not planning on being in Friendship Territory forever, right?

Then, one day you step out of your tepee and you realize that there are other tepees. And all of sudden, you're chief of a tribe. You're out there hunting buffalo and sewing moccasins with the best of them and you have no idea how it happened. Heck, you've practically got your own reservation. While you've been waiting for the bridge to be built to Relationship territory, your tribe has been busy constructing a multi-million dollar casino. Suddenly, you have major responsibilities in Friendship territory (which has now been renamed to Best Friend territory) and all you can do is watch as some skinny blond hops a ferry and lands herself in Relationship territory which was supposed to be your Relationship territory. But, hey, it's cool because now you're best buds, one of the guys even, and you get to here every little detail about his new girlfriend. Awesome.