Semi-Charmed Life

Dan’s 6th Annual BBQ

Yesterday I was at an awesome cookout hosted by my good friend Dan Lau. Great food, great company and an extremely welcoming pool amid the furious heatwave we've been experiencing these past few days.

I brought my dog Bobo out too. It's been ages since I've brought him out to socialize with other humans beside everyone in my family. Ialso wanted to bring him out because it's been a while since I've seen my dog and I missed him a lot! I wanted to bring my brother's dog too. Kirby is a tiny maltese, but that guy is totally screwed up in the head after he got neutered. I'm guessing the trauma of having his doghood cut off is associated with seeing strangers, so he is extremely scared of new people and dogs as well. He barks and will bite.

So yeah, I didn't want to be that guy, the guy who brings the fucked up dog that bites people.

Bobo is dumb but at least he's friendly!

On the way back home from the BBQ, my friends and I got into a discussion about the girlfriends of all our friends, specifically about the way they conducted themselves amongst the friends of their boyfriends.

It's a plus when a girl is able to be sociable around her man's friends without requiring his constant presence. I think it shows a lot of grace and charm and is probably one of the requirements for a girl to be a keeper.

And there were plenty of girls (or women, whatever females from 18 to their mid-twenties want to call themselves) that were able to mingle effortlessly. It was not like it was difficult. All you had to do was allow yourself to have a good time!

There's a pool, basketball courts, plenty of food, music and like 50+ people milling about having a great time. Join them!

One of our friends brought his girlfriend, but she was probably more of a pet than a girlfriend. While he was being his typical sociable, amiable self, she was holding his hand while standing silently behind him. She was attractive and she might have even had a personality to match, but we would never know.

Is being sociable and open to the friends of your significant others a requirement for a long-term, successful relationship?

Exhibit A is are my friends Ray and Karen Lee. I'm sure there are an immeasurable amount of reasons why their relationship works and numerous reasons why they adore each other, but one thing that makes her great is that she's able to be very friendly with all of Ray's friends and mingle about on her own.

Exhibit B is my friend John (not his real name). He goes out with Jane (which is also not her real name). They're in a serious long-term relationship, and it's probably a general consensus amongst all of us that she is a great catch. She's attractive, she's very smart with a fantastic educational background, she has a great career, but more important than any of that is she is super cool and very down to earth. And she can hang and probably drink most of my friends under the table! It's no surprise that some of us joke around with John to "lock that shit down," excuse the language.

The key similarity in both examples is that the girl is able to get along with people who aren't her own friends (at least not initially) and is able to come into her own and be her own person in front of us. It's sort of like my dog Kirby. I love Kirby and think he is an awesome dog, but if only he wasn't so terrible around other people then they could see what an awesome dog he is too!

Anyways, cheers to the weather supposedly being much cooler this upcoming week!