Camille's Wishful Wednesday: Still Waiting For Prince Charming, But In The Meanwhile...

***Camille is a friend of mine I know from church. She is classified on another blog I read as a "hopeless romantic", and I think that describes her pretty well. I also think she's incredibly well-balanced and able to work on multiple parts of herself at once. She is a law student, a Sunday school teacher, and an all-around good person. She has some pretty concrete ideas about men and the type of man she'd like to end up with. But she's doing the in-my-20s-dating-follies thing as well.***

Quick Recap [The last post I wrote about Camille was back in June after her trip to Barcelona. In that post, I talked about how she fell "out of like" with a guy because of his behavior on the trip. Other than that, her trip was a lot of fun] Read Wishful Wednesday posts.

Since that time, she and the guy have remained friends. He even went with her to the birthday party of one of her friends. The friend asked him why he wasn't dating Camille and he responded that he wasn't her type. He's never asked her out by the way. I confirmed with Camille that she wasn't interested in dating this guy. They're just friends, even if he does maintain a slight interest in her.

On another note, since the school year has started, Camille is all ready to be in charge of the student group she's president of. I'm expecting great things from her and I'm still so proud she won that position. She's already instilling new things like networking with other grad school groups and having evaluations for board members. She's on her way to being a very powerful and important. They all start small, you know?

I want to bring up a name I haven't mentioned in a while, King. He and Camille have this ongoing flirtation that doesn't seem to ever be in danger of turning into a relationship. Their new things is discussing what life will be like when they get married.

I feel some kind of way about this because I'd rather hear about his ability to make a relationship function from day to day, but whatever. They have made some crazy assertions in this fantasy. The craziest of which is that they'll have five kids. I can't imagine that seeing as how she'll be a high-powered attorney and he'll be a politician. But we all can dream right?

As of now, there are no serious prospects on the horizon, which sucks. But at least there's temporary amusement.

Gloria's Romantic Monday: The Roller Coaster Continues

***Gloria is a friend of mine I know from church. She is a single mother. She has a boyfriend, Gregory, who we all love and her son's father, Rufus, who we all hate. She is fun-loving and hilarious. Gloria is the type of friend who'd be there for you at a party, when things get tough, or even if you need help applying for school.***

Quick Recap [In my last post, I spoke of how Gloria and Gregory were in a tough spot. He wasn't really doing what he needed to do to make her feel like a priority.]Read Romantic Monday posts.

Since that time, things haven't gotten better. They broke up a couple days ago. It seems to be not a permanent break up though. Gregory told Gloria shortly after they broke up that he was still very much in love with her.

He also said that he wasn't used to the tumultuous nature of their relationship. I could totally understand that sentiment of his since Easy and I had a similar issue recently.

I told her how we worked it out. I encouraged her to stay strong and to let him know that he couldn't suggest a break-up every time things got rough between them. I'm hoping for a happy ending to this situation.

When they're good, they're really good. I'm hoping they can get back there soon.

Lion's Life Saturday: Being A Single Man

***Lion is my best friend from college. He's a very focused young man working on getting his MD. This focus makes having a love life a very difficult undertaking. But he's making it happen somehow.***

Quick Recap [My last post about Lion was in the middle of July. At that time, I announced that he had broken up with Rudy and their relationship was over. I didn't harbor any expectations that he would change his mind.] Read Lion's Life Wednesday posts.

I was right, he's still single. Very much single. On one of his away rotations, he was really enjoying himself. It's the expected behavior of a recently liberated man. Especially one who's been in a long-distance relationship for years.

I must admit I'm appreciative of Lion for getting the ball rolling on related-to-my-wedding-possibly-hookups. my fiance Easy and I have been hoping some people would get together because of our wedding since we met at a wedding.

Lion came up for my engagement party in the middle of August and he met a friend of mine from work. They've been chatting and she's coming with Easy and I down to St. Louis in mid September for a gig Easy has. That should be a fun trip.

On another note, Lion is trying to figure out where he's going to apply for residency programs. He's pretty sure he's going with Internal Medicine, but he hasn't chosen his programs yet. He knows he wants to be somewhere warmer than St. Louis and he knows he wants to be near friends and/or family. I'm excited to see what he ends up choosing.

Gloria's Romantic Monday: Back Off The Right Track

***Gloria is a friend of mine I know from church. She is a single mother. She has a boyfriend, Gregory, who we all love and her son's father, Rufus, who we all hate. She is fun-loving and hilarious. Gloria is the type of friend who'd be there for you at a party, when things get tough, or even if you need help applying for school.***

Quick Recap [In my last post, I spoke of how Gloria and Gregory had gotten back on track after a rough patch. I was very happy because I'm in full support of them as a couple] Read Romantic Monday posts.

Since that time, things have gotten rocky again. It makes me very sad to say this. Gloria has decided she needs to have the "priorities" talk with Gregory. It's never an easy to have that conversation.

I've had it with an ex or two myself and that crap hardly ever ends well. Usually, the guy responds with apathy instead of the empathy and profuse apologies he <i>should</i> be responding with.

I don't know what's going to happen. Without going into too many details, I can say that Gregory is digging himself into quite a hole. I hope he's the exception and will turn around his priorities. No one should have to be in a relationship in which they're not a priority.

It's all good to work long hours and do what you have to keep your life on track, but there needs to be a balance.

Cross your fingers for this couple. I like having my friends in grown-up relationships.

Big Bad Thursday: Finding Balance Is Key

***Big Bad Thursday is all about Bad. He's one of my best friends and was a charming, if commitment-phobic bachelor. He finally realized a woman was worth giving up complete and total bachelor-hood. So now Bad and Jordan are in love and working towards building a life together. They live in a wonderful apartment in Chicago and they are quite a fabulous couple.***

Quick Recap [In my last post about Bad, I was really looking forward to having them as neighbors. I envisioned something very Honeymooners. I also complimented Bad and Jordan on their low-maintenance relationship] Read Big Bad Thursday posts.

It's been a while since I posted about anyone on this blog, but I've been super busy and haven't really had time to catch up with my friends since they're all super busy too. Bad is working full time and in grad school, so he's close to one of the busiest of my friends.

But I did catch up with him and I actually remembered to ask about the status of his love life. Things between him and Jordan are good, great even.

They're both in grad school and they both work full time. That is not a recipe for lazing away nights on the couch simply being a couple.

So how do they keep their relationship happy and strong? They make time for each other. They treat their relationship as a priority.

Going out to dinner isn't going to preclude finishing up work on a work or school project that didn't get finished on schedule. They have similar priorities. Their careers are important to them, so neither of them will be upset if the other has to change plans.

Having said that, they do make sure not to change relationship-centric plans to often. They don't have a set date night, but they take full advantage of mutual free time to nurture their relationship.

Moving on to the Honeymooners thoughts I was having. Yeah... that hasn't happened. Easy and I are super busy, just as busy as Bad and Jordan are. They haven't been to our house since we moved in, only Bad came by to help us move. We haven't been to their house since they moved in, only I have been by to help them move.

I'm hoping we can work out more activities in the future, but there just really isn't time. Maybe after they finish finals or something. In fact, I don't expect we'll see them in the next few weeks other than at our engagement party. There's only so many hours in the day.

But I'm glad that I have a close friend with a solid relationship because I still get sad when I think of the demise of <a href="http://quitethelovelife.blogspot.com/search/label/Lion">Lion's</a> relationship.

Tip Top Tuesday: Another Birthday, Another Reflection

***My girl Top is unique and one-of-a-kind. This makes the story of her love life especially interesting. Just when you think you've got her figured, she makes an unexpected move. She's my career-minded friend who's always focused on self-improvement. She's also super-independent yet a closet nurturer. Read and learn how to be fabulous.***

Quick Recap [In my last post, I talked about a date Top had gone on that actually went well. She doesn't leave a lot of first dates having mostly positive things to say, so I took that as a good sign of potential.] Read Tip Top Tuesday posts.

Since that time, I haven't heard anything else about this guy. That doesn't mean there's nothing to tell, it just hasn't come up yet. Top and I spent the better part of July tracking down her birthday present. I bought it from Macy's online and somehow in the shipping it ended up at the Bronx post office. Weird, right?

Well, it doesn't much matter because she finally got her gift. She's my maid of honor, so a lot of our convos have been about the wedding as well.

I will get back to the point of this post though. Her birthday was at the beginning of July. Around her birthday, Top usually reflects on the past year and what life has been like for her.

Something that stood out in her reflection came after her birthday. She realized that the drama with her ex-boyfriend that played out right around her birthday in 2009 didn't even cross her mind. It hung over her head for her birthday in 2010, but it didn't even register in 2011. This is great news.

I feel like Top is not one of those people who will walk around forever affected by the demise of a relationship, but when big things happen in life, it changes you. Having a subtle shift is way better than toting around your own personal rain cloud.

Every important moment like realizing your ex barely crosses your mind only improves who you are as a person. I have always described Top as fiercely independent, and so I look to moments like this as evidence of it. She should teach a class called "Milestones in Emerging From a Long-Term Relationship." Or maybe something more clever than that...