Tip Top Tuesday: Another First Date

***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.***

Read Tip Top Tuesday posts.

My last post about Top was last week and I was discussing how she had friends who weren't adjusting well to having adult relationships. Or rather, the rest of their lives weren't adjusting well. It's an important topic for people in their 20s entering their first real adult relationships and you should read it if you haven't yet.

But on to this week, Top has gone on another date. I'm happy to report she met this man at a festival she went to recently. I discussed the type of man we decided would be good for Top in a previous post, but I didn't mention where she would meet a guy.

We were thinking some sort of neighborhood or film festival or maybe an art gallery or something. So I was pleased when she said she met this man at a festival.

They went out to dinner and she said he was nice. The guys she goes on dates with are always nice. She said she was very attracted to him as he was very good-looking. That's a good sign since the last guy she went on a date with wasn't at all her cup of tea.

She said the date was fun and she would consider going out with him. That's the exact sort of vague summary you'll always get from Top when there's a new guy. Non-committal, devoid of details.

I don't know if he's asked her out yet. I won't know until she's either gone out with him again or decided she's definitely not going too.

I'm just glad there is that possibility there. She isn't running for the hills and dodging phone calls from him. This is progress. She spoke of the lack of comfort she has with being open on a date. Trying to get to know someone while also letting them get to know you isn't easy for Top.

But she's trying. And I guess we'll see what happens with Festival Guy.

Michelle's T.G.I.Fridays: Changing Up The Life Plans In A Big Way

***Michelle is a girl that grew up next door to me and we attended the same church. Now she's in her early 20s and living the single life. She goes on these dates that are either lovely or horrific. She's slightly terrified at the thought of committing to someone any time soon. And of course, she has the occasional man who really catches her eye and her heart.***

Quick Recap [My last post about Michelle was the second week of June. In that post I gave an update about the older man, who was still un-named in the blog. Also, I announced that Terrence had gotten married and never bothered to tell Michelle, who he was claiming his undying love for six months ago, that he was going to do that.] Read T.G.I.Fridays posts.

I have no updates about Terrence except to say that we all still wish that he had done better when it comes to Michelle. Moving on.

Also, no updates about the older man. He and Michelle seem to be treating their situation like a summer romance even though her whole world has just changed. So we'll see what will come of that in the next couple of weeks.

So what's the big change in Michelle's life? She has changed her mind about grad school. To complete the requirements for her undergraduate degree, she had to do an internship this summer.

The people running the internship invited her to come for a job interview this coming Monday. Michelle likes the job offer on the table a lot. She likes it enough to reconsider her plan for the next year.

Her plan was to go back to Charleston and do their one year Master's Program for her degree. She would get to skip the GRE and only spend one more year down there. That's what changed the plans she and I had to move in together and be single and fabulous in our 20s in Chicago.

But with this job offer, she is ready to stay in Chicago. She would take the GRE in October, and apply for grad school here in the city. It will take longer, but she will have a great job and tuition reimbursement. And it's so much easier to be fabulous in Chicago than it is in Charleston.

She mentioned to me how things can't go the way they were supposed to because now I'm engaged. But I think she can still do her fabulous roommates thing with her twin cousins. I think she's really happy with her decision and I'm happy for her. I love that she'll be around in the city and more accessible than she was in Charleston.

Since this blog is supposed to be about her love life, I will say I wonder how this will affect things with the older man. He has been downplaying things because he kept talking about her leaving in August. Yet, he's extremely, um, affectionate. He's doing the things guys do when they're sprung, I'll say that.

So once it settles in that she isn't leaving any time soon, I wonder if that will change his view of their relationship. I'll let you know the Friday after I know.

Big Bad Thursday: Living and Loving in Hyde Park

***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 [My last post about Bad was back at the beginning of June. I talked about the weekend they moved into their apartment, I got engaged, and they hung out with my family for Memorial Day. Good times.] Read Big Bad Thursday posts.

Since then, they've been doing well in their new apartment. They already lived together, so there wasn't any co-habitating adjustments to make. They have more room in their current apartment, so that probably just makes things better.

Bad and Jordan don't really have room for their current dinette set in their apartment, so Easy and I will probably buy it from them once we get our place setup. We did get a Hyde Park apartment, not too far from Bad and Jordan, and we are moving in Friday-Saturday.

I'm so looking forward to having them as neighbors. They are both grad students while working full time. My fiance Easy and I both have ridiculous schedules as well. But I'm looking forward to some time hanging out, maybe having dinner somewhere on 53rd street or grabbing a drink one evening, somewhere we could both walk to.

About Bad and Jordan's love life: they are both extremely busy, but also very independent. They set what I think is a good example of a low-maintenance relationship. They love each other very much and are fully committed to making their relationship work. But they don't do neediness and neither of them is demanding. They give each other room to handle their business and make time for each other so their relationship doesn't get lost in the mix. Take notes people, take notes.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: Falling Out of Like

***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 [My last post about Camille was two weeks ago. I talked about how Camille had gone to Barcelona and come back over Bachelor #1. Camille being over a guy she liked is not a new phenomenon, but I didn't have the whole story yet.] Read Wishful Wednesday posts.

The story is that once they were in Barcelona, Bachelor #1 seemed like a different guy to Camille. He went from saying back in the States how physical acts have to have emotions attached and not wanting to rush things to being in Barcelona and he was suddenly looking for girls to "get it in."

Camille really wasn't feeling this huge change in behavior. To her it didn't matter if this was out of character or character-revealing. What mattered is it what such a turn off. And jumping into her bed while she's trying to sleep to drunkenly rub her arms in an attempt to cuddle etc. is a quick way out of her good graces.

So now Bachelor #1 is pretty firmly in the friend box. She still likes talking to him, but any romantic interest has evaporated.

But there was another guy there from her school. This guy is a favorite amongst the women at her school. He's very good looking and he knows it. He has already got a bit of history with a couple of the women at the school. But he happened to catch Camille's eye during the trip.

It wasn't because of his looks (though taking his shirt of on a beach in Barcelona did no harm), it's about his personality. She got the chance to have a couple of conversations with him about topics they've never covered before. I'm not sure she really likes this guy, but her interest was definitely piqued.

Camille is still intending to reach out to the guy from the wedding. She was over him, but neglected to tell him so. This guy is the artist who doesn't understand social norms and has a loose grasp on English pronunciation. Seriously, he pronounces spinach like "Spanish" and explains it away by claiming he's an artist. But she has decided to finally let him know that she is officially just not that into him. I hope she does this soon so he can stop pursuing her and maintain some dignity amongst their mutual friends.

We'll see if she changes her mind about Bachelor #1, if the new been-around-the-block guy holds her interest, and if she really lets down the artist nicely.

Tip Top Tuesday: Other People's Men

***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.***

Read Tip Top Tuesday posts.

Last week, I talked about some things going in Top's life that didn't concern men. She's got a lot going on with her career and her living situation, and I found it interesting to report. I love talking about the life of a single woman who isn't dating (when her life doesn't revolve around trying to get a date).

Don't think this post is about homewrecking. It's not at all. It's about adjusting to having friendships as an adult. People you were friends with as a child grow and change over time. They enter relationships. Time is the only way to tell if the friendship is able to make the transition to adulthood and co-exist with these relationships.

"He's my rock." It's a phrase that Top hates right now, and for good reason. Every time one of her female friends says this, it's just a matter of time before that "rock" becomes the only thing in the woman's life. I think this is a good topic to cover on a blog about love lives because this happen's so much.

One of Lion's best friends is having the same thing with his girlfriend. He's never called her "his rock", but you never see one without the other. It's as if they are incapable of leading two parallel lives. They are leading one life.

I understand the importance of having a life shared with your partner, but I will never understand that co-dependence of not even being able to make a move without consulting your partner, about anything. It's just too much.

For Top, it's especially bad because she keeps losing friends over this mess. She could use a few more interdependent friends and less co-dependent ones. Friends who know life in an adult relationship isn't about choosing between your significant other and your life-long friends.

And for that matter, why would anyone even want to date someone who is that all-consuming? Don't you want more to you life that having only one person left to talk to?

Gloria's Romantic Monday: Things Fall Apart

***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 [My last post about Gloria was back at the end of May. In it I talked about what I imagined for her in a perfect world. It wasn't based on reality, just what I wish her life were like. I like doing that from time to time. It's a good way to observe where your life is in relation to how you could imagine what it could be.] Read Romantic Monday posts.

Since that time, I've actually caught up with Gloria on the status of her relationship. She's feeling pretty stressed these days. Things aren't going well between her and Gregory. His job has him working so many days a week and during night at that.

She's feeling very unsatisfied and it has her questioning their relationship. I know that she loves him so much and can see spending the rest of her life with him. But this rough patch is particularly rough on her right now. She's trying to figure out the best way to handle this immense feeling of neglect. I hope she comes up with something that leaves her relationship intact because I lover her and Gregory together so much.

On another note, Gloria has a job interview today. It's too bad I won't be able to update how it went until next week, but that's the nature of how I've set this blog up. She seems pretty excited about it. It's not her dream job, but it would give her some financial stability along with the means to finally grind it out and finish her degree. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes well!

I may have mentioned that Gloria and her son's father Rufus have entered in a new custody agreement. In this agreement, she has all her weekends free now. Because her son is with his father every weekend, she suddenly has all this free time on her hands. I think it's been a mostly positive change because she gets to spend some more time with her friends and family, as well as with herself. If only Gregory had more time, she'd really be able to spend time with him.

On the whole though, things are looking up for Gloria. The potential for her summer is improving. A chance for alone time (though she misses her son when he's gone), a chance at income, a chance to begin finishing school are all great things. Now if only Gregory could get a new job.

Sonny's Sunday: Orange You Glad They're Getting Married Too?

***Sonny is an old friend of mine. We went to elementary, middle, and high school together. He's also my friend who's doing the super-adult thing. He and his new fiancee Cher just bought a house. They're working on planning a life together as well as a wedding next April. Even with all that stability, their love life is still interesting.*** Read Sonny's Sunday posts.

Last week, I talked about looking forward to Sonny and Cher's STDs. Haha, I mean save the dates. I promise I'll only have 22 more immature moments. I also spoke of our (my fiance Easy and I) plans to try and go on a double date with them to do come couple-bonding.

Well, the double date didn't happen. With Sonny's new job, he hasn't had much free time. Hopefully that will change in the next few weeks as things settle down. Also, Easy and I had such a busy day last Sunday, it would've been very difficult to break away to even use the tickets his mother gave us.

But, the Save-the-Date did come in the mail. And I love it! I didn't know orange was going to be their wedding color. I'm so super jealous! Orange is my favorite color. Actually I'm not even a little bit jealous. There's a part of me that didn't want that color in my wedding. I never even asked.

But now I can live vicariously through them and enjoy (and scrapbook) every wonderful bit of orange-y wedding-ness that comes my way from them. And of course, I have pictures to show you. Like most of the pics I take that end up on this particular blog, I was only able to take the pics on my BlackBerry, so I apologize for the poor quality. But here they are!

I told you the quality was terrible. Those random boxes are me covering up personal info you probably can't read because the pixel count is so low. I'm sorry! But you can see how cute they are.

The font is amazing, the envelopes were a great color. And I loved loved loved the ribbon they have tied at the top of the card. Super sweet right? Right.

Okay, I'm done gushing for now. Hopefully next week, I'll have made my reservations with the booking agent for the cruise. I'm so excited to be going on this cruise (especially with Easy cause he'll be my new hubby then!)!

Lion's Life Saturday: Impending Doom

***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 two weeks ago. In it, I described Lion's uncertainty about the future of his relationship with Rudy. I also may have, ahem, described some future bridezilla-type behavior on my part.] Read Lion's Life Wednesday posts

I spoke to Lion recently about the status of his love life and he said the third worst thing I could hear. First would have been that his girlfriend Rudy dumped him. Second would have been that he dumped her.

What he actually told me is that he feels like he is pulling away from her. She has moved back to Boston and living with her parents while she sorts out what she's going to do next.

I'm not sure if her transfer to a grad program in Boston has gone through or not. Hopefully it does so that she can finish her Master's degree. Also, she's still looking for work as far as I know.

When Rudy decided to move back, she didn't tell Lion right away. He was making plans to do an away rotation down in Florida during his upcoming 4th year of med school so that he could spend a whole month with Rudy. But she changed her plans without informing him.

So he's still going down to Florida and doesn't even want to try and get a rotation in Boston. He's not interested in spending a month there while she's living with her parents and not really sure what direction she's headed in.

Her abrupt life change + his upcoming decisions about residency + a general frustration with some problems in their relationship seems to have reached a tipping point for Lion. Like I said, he said he can feel himself pulling away from her. They speak less often and he is worried for the future of their relationship.

Once again, he's trying to figure out what he should do. I didn't offer any advice because he didn't ask for it. I did express sadness over the thought of the possible demise of their relationship though.

Now that I feel emotionally invested in Rudy and Lion's relationship, I don't want to see it end. I wish he would rather have that painful discussion about their problems on the chance that it could work out rather than give up because that's easier.

He hasn't made any firm decisions yet, so there's still time. Cross your fingers with me!

Tip Top Tuesday: Nothing About Men

***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 [My last post about Top was three weeks ago. I mentioned this man she went on a date with and how it didn't go well.] Read Tip Top Tuesday posts.

Top hasn't been on any dates since then. She tends to attract very persistent men, but unfortunately none have come along to interest her in taking a chance on spending time getting to know someone new.

But I still have hope that it will happen when the time is right.

Since Top is ultimately very single, she makes sure that her life doesn't revolve around the search for a man. Those she can find, but she's more focused on her life goals right now.

She's prepping for defending her thesis before the end of the summer. That's exciting because it means a trip to Chicago.

I believe she is intending to have a version of a housewarming while she's here. She'll be moving into her own place in Harlem or Brooklyn starting in August and she needs some stuff. I know it will be a great party and a lot of people who haven't seen her in a long time will be happy to attend such a party.

Like I said, Top tends to attract some persistent men, so I hope none of those persistent men in Chicago get wind that she'll be coming to town cause they will come out of the woodwork. I've seen it happen, ha ha.

But yes, between getting a new place and defending a thesis, a new man doesn't really have room in Top's life right now. Not unless he took the friend route. But I will keep you updated on all the wonderful single happenings in her life.

Sonny's Sunday: Coupledom (Or Maybe Wedding-Planning-dom)

***Sonny is an old friend of mine. We went to elementary, middle, and high school together. He's also my friend who's doing the super-adult thing. He and his new fiancee Cher just bought a house. They're working on planning a life together as well as a wedding next April. Even with all that stability, their love life is still interesting.***

Quick Recap [Two weeks ago, I posted about my interest in pulling Sonny and Cher out of their couple shell, and I added the details I knew about wedding plans.] Read Sonny's Sunday posts.

Sonny texted me the other day to get my address because he and Cher are sending out their Save the Dates this week. I told him my address would be changing soon. But I can't wait to see their STDs  (tee-hee, sorry immature moment). I'm sure they'll be lovely. And maybe inspirational for my own STDs.

Also, Easy, my fiance, came up with a wonderful opportunity for us to spend time with Sonny and Cher. He knows how much it means to me that I get closer to the girls of all my close guy friends. He has four tickets to Ravinia today and we have invited Sonny and Cher to join us.

We don't know if they're able to come just yet, but if they do, we'll look forward to an evening of great live music, maybe a bottle of wine and a picnic dinner. I'm really looking forward to this and a chance to get them to unwind and spend some time making new friends. \

Having couple friends is a good idea? Right? Yeah, I think so.

Michelle's T.G.I.Fridays: Terrence Is Still Terrible (aka That Jerk!)

***Michelle is a girl that grew up next door to me and we attended the same church. Now she's in her early 20s and living the single life. She goes on these dates that are either lovely or horrific. She's slightly terrified at the thought of committing to someone any time soon. And of course, she has the occasional man who really catches her eye and her heart.***
Read T.G.I.Fridays posts.

Last week, I gave an update about Michelle and her older man. I don't have any new news from her, so I imagine that means things are the same as before with no change for the better or worse.

But I do have some news. Terrence has resurfaced, and not in a good way. If you clicked that link to review the history of Terrance and Michelle, you would see that they've been through a lot.

The plot thickens. Michelle's sister called her to tell her she saw on Terrence's Facebook page that he had changed his relationship status. From having a girlfriend. To being married. That's right, the man announced on Facebook that he was married.

I was like WTF. Michelle was upset by the news of course. She and Terrence have such a long history and she had to find out 3rd person through Facebook. This makes me extra glad that when I was confused about how and if to tell I was engaged, I ultimately decided to reach out to former guys and let them know myself.

Terrence didn't do that and now I think he's even more of a jerk than before. But I have so many questions. Is he married to that crazy chick from December? Did he have a real wedding? When exactly did he get married? What went into the decision not to tell people he was doing it before he did it?

There's not much to be done except to be sad. But Michelle is a glass half-full type of girl and I love that about her. She took the news as a sign that she really needed to work on herself emotionally so that she didn't feel to connected to him.

If Michelle can get past her feelings for Terrence, she feels like she would be more emotionally available when she meets new potential guys. I like that she's thinking that way because she's looking forward to a time when she'll be emotionally ready for an adult relationship with a man who's worthy of her.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: She's Over Bachelor #1

***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.***
Read Wishful Wednesday posts.

Last week, I mentioned that Camille was in Barcelona for a class trip and that Bachelor #1 was with her. But she came back from Barcelona and the first thing she told me after congratulations on my engagement is that she's over Bachelor #1!

I don't know the whole story yet because with the way my schedule has been going, we just haven't had time to catch up. But I figure this will make for an interesting story. I was hoping she'd come back with tales of a passionate bloom of relationship, not a dead panned statement.

But I will have more next week. And not just about another guy she's just not that into, but also about how wonderful Barcelona is.

Lion's Life Saturday: My Love Fest Was Premature

***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.***

Read Lion's Life Wednesday posts.

Last week, I basically wrote an ode to Lion's girlfriend, Rudy. I think she is great, mostly because of how great she's being to me. But like the title says, the love fest was premature.

I got engaged on Sunday, and Lion is going to be my best man. I'm having a maid of honor and best man, and so is my fiance, and we don't think it's weird, so neither should you. Moving on from the run-on sentence...

I told Lion I was going to send Rudy her own separate invitation so he could still get a plus one and bring his father or his brother. He was immediately horrified. Literally, the pitch of his voice raised as well as the volume.

He requested that I don't send her a separate invitation because he wasn't sure how long they'd be together. I told him if they've been together all this time, what's 8 more months? "My wedding isn't 2 years away, it's in a number of months," I said.

He didn't care. But once he explained it, it made more sense. He is going to be sorting out residency programs that could be God-only-knows all around the country. Rudy hasn't moved back home to Boston yet, but she has quit her job and is working on transferring to a different grad school.

Lion feels that they may not make the transition. Every couple has issues, but he feels like theirs will become insurmountable in the face of all the big life changes they've got coming up.

Now that I've got a chick crush on Rudy (she's just so sweet!), I'm officially emotionally invested in their relationship. So I didn't agree to not send her an individual invite. I did, however, give him til mid-December, when they're supposed to go out, to come to a decision about them as a couple.

If he still hasn't sorted it out, I'm inviting her because I love her. And then if he must end things, he'll just have to wait until after Valentine's Day to do it.

I'm fully aware that this is my first behavior that can be officially classified as bridezilla. I'm putting one day and one invitation ahead of my best friend's happiness. I'm aware. And I'm sorry (not really, at least not yet).

Michelle's T.G.I.Fridays: More About The Older Man

***Michelle is a girl that grew up next door to me and we attended the same church. Now she's in her early 20s and living the single life. She goes on these dates that are either lovely or horrific. She's slightly terrified at the thought of committing to someone any time soon. And of course, she has the occasional man who really catches her eye and her heart.***

Read T.G.I.Fridays posts.

My last post about Michelle was just a short update on what I knew about her love life, which wasn't much.

She read that post and filled me in on more stuff about the older guy. She asked that I not name him yet until we know for sure his lasting power. I would just name him for the alphabet dates, but that would be rude, at least for now.

So instead he just gets called the older guy. I'm fine with that for now. Because everyone else who got a blog name turned out to be useless, so this guy could be wort the wait.

The reason I didn't know all the details of Michelle's love life is because she works a lot. She has an internship she's doing this summer that works a lot of hours. It's for class credit. I believe it's required for her undergraduate degree (even though she already graduated) or it could be for her Master's. But the point is, it's right in the line of career training and could present a job opportunity for as soon as she's done with school.

But back to the love life. This older guy works a lot so usually when they hang out, it's her going to his house. It wouldn't be always that way if she wasn't staying at home with her father this summer. But he looks out for her. He even gave her gas money, which was nice.

The older guy is still getting used to the idea that Michelle is so much younger than the other women he's dates. He's 33, not 35 like I previously said. But still, there's a 10 year difference there and the most he's ever done before is 4 years. He's slowly adjusting and realizing the benefits of being involved with a woman not quite yet in her mid-20s.

1. There's no wedding itch. 2. There's likely to not be an ex-husband. 3. She's likely to not have yet experienced enough to leave her with a man-hating chip on her shoulder.

Michelle isn't trying to rush him to the altar and he is loving that. Loving it, you hear me?

But Michelle is still waiting to see if he's going to step up his efforts or leave them in this situation where they're fitting each other in when they have a chance. Building something real takes more than just your super free time, it takes commitment and mutual desire to spend more time together.

If this guy makes that turn into something more, he'll get a blog name. I just hope he makes it an organic move and doesn't decide tomorrow he wants Michelle to be his girlfriend. I hate when her guys do that. How about building a foundation guys? Not just having a girlfriend for the sake of the title. I guess hope that's the benefit of an older man.

Big Bad Thursday: Moving In and Growing Up and Having Fun

***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.***

Read Big Bad Thursday posts.

Last week, I talked about Bad and Jordan starting their new lease for a new apartment. I also talked about a job interview Bad had recently. Lastly, I talked about a double date my fiance Easy and I went on with them.

So, now for an update.

Their new apartment is great. It's so great that it has me re-thinking my anti-Hyde Park stance. I know moving there would do nothing to shorten my commute time to work, but it would be so great.

Their apartment is on the second floor of a walk-up in a great location (meaning relatively good parking for Hyde Park). The building has a courtyard that's so fantastic looking. They have a nice size bedroom and bathroom. Their kitchen has soooo much counter space. The closet is huge. And since Jordan is an interior designer/set designer, it will be amazingly set up as well.

Their neighbors are all really nice. I went over there the day they moved in to hang out and help set up a bit. While we were walking to and from the car, we could hear strains of jazz coming from the window of one of the neighbors. It felt like a montage scene from Love Jones.

Moving on to the next thing. Bad is still waiting to hear back from the job, but they have just completed their interview period. They told him they'd let him now yea or nay, so hopefully he'll hear something soon. I hope he gets this job because it would be more money and less stress. That can only make life easier for his relationship and his status as a grad student.

Also, Easy and I have spent more time with Bad and Jordan. I got engaged on Sunday and I told them when they came over to my parents' house for Memorial Day. We had a barbecue that grew larger as the list of attendees expanded.

They were excited to hear the news and really happy for us. Jordan was there not just as a guest, but also to work. She took a look around the first floor of the house and took notes and pictures and talked to my mom about what she wanted in terms of redecoration. I think she will come up with something great for the house. I tried to put in a good word to get her to fix the gold tiled fireplace first, but she said that wasn't the biggest concern.

Bad, Jordan, Easy, and I, along with one of my younger cousins, played the Wii. We played the Michael Jackson game and Rock Band 2. Good times. Hanging out and laughing together is good for the soul, you know?

My parents bought champagne and had each of us give a toast to the newly engaged couple (yay for us!), and I'm pretty sure I think Bad gave the best toast. It was a great moment because it really solidified in Easy's eyes how much Bad cares about me and my well-being.

I talk a lot about working on friendships with the girls of my close guy friends, but it's nice to be on the flip side of that and know that these two men who are both so important to me are working on a friendship themselves.

Oh and Jordan and Easy had each other cracking up. They have a pretty comparable sense of humor. If we move to Hyde Park, being near them will certainly be a big bonus.

I wish I had taken a video of Bad and Jordan doing the dance from one of the songs. I don't even remember which song it was, but she did the girl's part and he did the guy's part. They were just so cute!They'd kill me for saying this, but I can't wait til they have kids cause those kids are going to be gorgeous.

Just one more thing, I was so glad they were able to come over and really hang out with my family. Jordan's family lives in St. Louis and Bad's parents just moved to Florida. So having that family time is something not so easily accessed for them these days. Bad is already like a part of the family, and now it really feels like Jordan is too.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday:

***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.***

Read Wishful Wednesday posts.

Last week, I mentioned that Camille was going to Barcelona. I had the weeks wrong. She left last Friday, but I thought she was leaving this Friday. So she's gone on her trip, and I have nothing to report about her week since I'm not in Barcelona to watch.

But I imagine that things are going well with Bachelor #1. At least I hope so. Since she's over the guy she met at the wedding, this guy is the only real prospect around that she hasn't said she's "over".

There is still King, but he's got a lot going on right now with school and work. Camille has never said she's over him, but he's not exactly pursuing her aside from requesting she apply to his job for her internship. That's some lazy ass pursuing if you ask me.

I will say this for Camille: with all she has going on with these men floating around, she's doing a good job of being single. When I think of someone doing well at being single, they're not stressing about their single-hood. They're focusing on bettering themselves and enriching the non-romantic parts of their life.

Camille is focused on school, career planning, her friends, and being healthy. She seems happy and fulfilled and so any man who comes along will be a great addition to her life, but he wouldn't be her whole life.