Houses and Friendsickness

The weekend is over. I don't know where it went.

Not much happened. Practicing for the open mic, shopping in Soho for sweaters or shoes and buying a tube top instead (tax free in NYC this week! yeah!), not making any of the phone calls that needed to be made, falling harder for the boy when I thought it was impossible.

An awesome girl from work, P, had a housewarming party yesterday. We met prior to the function in Queens for fabulous Indian buffet at a place called Jackson Diner. The food was delicious but I didn't eat much, as I was overwhelmed by the coworker-on-the-weekend factor, and preoccupied with concentrating on not smiling too brightly or obviously at D.

There was a girl there of whom I am not terribly fond. I was holding one overheard conversation against her, a conversation in response to which I'd formed a very concrete and unfavorable opinion about her. I decided to give her a chance at this function, because if awesome P likes her, why shouldn't I? I was sitting across from her and she did her best to interrupt me as often as possible and disagree with everything I said, just on principle.

The conversation turned to internet dating, and how she's doing it, and how she's not successful. Heh. I wanted to say "Nobody in their right mind would date you, internet or not!" but didn't. She kept saying things like "I won't date musicians, artists, or vegetarians. God. You know what that says about a person."

I said "Well, have you tried Craigslist? I feel like that's a better indication of someone's personality - like it removes the math from the personals and is more like a first impression, you know, like it might be a better predictor of chemistry."

She was not having that. Everyone on Craigslist lies! Is a psycho! How could you ever know about someone if they're not answering specific questions?

I said "Well, how can you know if people are telling the truth on Match.com?"

"Well, I've never had a problem. I think if people want it to work they have to be honest."

Whatever.

I made the mistake of telling her about my "Do-Not-Date-This-Man.com" website, which has been revised to be an all-purpose review-of-dates website. So you could put the good, the bad, the ugly. And she's like "That would never work. People would never be honest!"

Dear god. This is clearly a girl who dates for money and status and is just all around ridiculous. Love is out of the question if the man is passionate about what he does but doesn't meet a certain salary requirement. I'd heard about this sort of girl in New York but hadn't encountered it until yesterday. I wanted to slap her. The thing is that I'd figured this all out about her based on that one conversation I'd eavesdropped on months prior. Sometimes stereotypes are around for a reason.

Early in our relationship, D said that he thought that someone at work had a crush on him. I don't know why he told me that. It actually bothered me at the time, and he wouldn't tell me who it was because he could tell that it bugged me. He said he had no interest, blah blah, etc. Anyway, long story longer, I managed to figure out based on certain clues yesterday that it is this girl! So now I just think its really funny. Heh.

Anyway, after brunch we all went to this girl's house, but she lives in East Guam, Queens, so it required... drum roll.... driving in cars!!! Yipee!!!!! I was giddy. I was even more giddy when I learned that another girl from work, M, and her boyfriend G, had rented a minivan because they were going to IKEA after the party!!!

I was blissed out the whole time. I was blissed out to the point that I didn't even care that G was listening to Elton John's greatest hits! I was thrilled to be in a car! I was thrilled to put on a seatbelt! I was thrilled to be able to sing along to songs with others!

I was even more blissed out when we got to P's, because she has a house! An actual house!!!! I literally rolled around on her carpets. They were so plush and soft and luscious and new and fabulous. I watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle for the second time in a month while seated in front of their fireplace. Sigh. I too could have this if I wanted to live an hour and a half outside of the city but, alas, it is not worth it. Oh well. It was a day of houses and transit.

So here's the thing. It's not that I'm homesick - I do miss things like rugs and friends with cars and dinner tables and comfort. I've determined that I am, in fact, friendsick. I miss specific friends, but I more miss having close friends at all. When I hang out with these people, it is so clear and painful to me that I have no close friends around here. Nobody in this entire city knows me well. It's a strange feeling. I'd like, for example, to discuss my relationship with D with (a) someone who knows D and (b) someone who knows about my past and (c) someone who knows how crazy I get about relationships. I'd like to discuss my friendsickness with someone who knew me before. Everyone here knows me from September 2004 through the present. There's nothing before that. It's quite bizarre. I realize close friendships come with time, but it would be nice to have at least one familiar person.

Sigh.

Someday I'll have my very own carpets and tons of friends to invite over for dinner.

Sigh.

Monday.

Yeah.