Camille's Wishful Wednesday: Getting Rid of Useless Baggage To Make Room For Worthwhile Possessions

***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.***

So in the past week, Camille has managed to not meet any super questionable men she had to get rid of.

She did, however, get contacted by worthless men from her past.

I don't know that these men are all-around worthless. They are just worthless when it comes to Camille.

One doesn't even have a name on this blog because he's relatively ancient history.

But I will give a brief history in Camille's own words.

She told me he called but that she didn't call back and was worried she was being rude.

I told her she shouldn't feel bad because this particular guy wasn't good enough for her.

She said,

"Just bc he had a hidden child for 10 years, smokes weed EVERYDAY, plays video games EVERYDAY, never took me out, ad has gucci mane as his idol means he's not good enough?"

She was being funny by asking the question because she agrees with me.

Camille says she'll return his call after her finals are over. I hope he was just calling to wish her a belated birthday.

Of course he didn't leave a voicemail cause that would take too much effort. Moving on.

She has decided to give up on King. I suppose that's for the best.

Camille thinks he doesn't like her the way he used to. That's a very good reason to move on.

And then she received a belated birthday call from Malik. They had a three minute conversation in which she acted as uninterested as possible.

From the content of the convo, it seems as if he was feeling her out for the possibility of picking things up where he'd last carelessly left them.

I'm glad she made it pretty clear that wasn't an option.

We decided she would no longer put up with any kind of just-not-that-into-you behavior. I think it's a good rule to follow for myself as well.

Once a guy starts acting up, he's out. That's a luxury those of us without lifelong bonds like marriage and children can do.

And she's gonna try and stay away from guys that are of different religions. It's not something to even be concerned about.

But in Camille's case, these guys come from these religions that have such strict views that dating someone of a different religion is more a hindrance than anything else.

There is a guy that has been brought up that could be interesting.

All I'll say for now is that he comes from an easygoing religion. He's also reported to be a gentleman, from a nice family, and a genuinely good person. And he's an athlete.

I'll leave it at that until there's something more concrete to go on. Such as actually meeting him. He's a friend of a friend.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: One Wrong Guy After Another

***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.***

I don't know if people read my quick intros about each person each day. Since they don't change much, I figure people don't.

I'd like to draw your attention to Camille's intro above. I say she has in-my-20s-dating-follies. Today's post is partly dedicated to just that.

You may remember my story about the time Camille gave her number to the butcher she met while running an errand for Malik. If not, read it here.

She had to get rid of that guy. And now she has another guy to get rid of. This guy approached her because he saw her bag with the name of her law school on it.

He asked questions about the school and expressed a desire to go there. She ended up giving him her card in case he had more questions.

And of course he began calling and texting because he "wants to be her friend." Camille attracts some weird guys, and this one is no different.

After I stopped laughing, I was able to get the whole story. He has a problem with texting her at inappropriately late times. Like 11:46 pm on a weeknight.

She told him she was available to answer more questions about law school but that she wasn't looking for any new friends.

Camille attracts... persistent... men. So of course, he didn't take the hint. To him that must have meant, "try harder stupid."

Since that time she's gotten rid of him. And now there's no one.

Except that cute law student she has the crush on. The one who can't remember her name.

During her winter break from school, I want Camille to meet some men who are not lame or just not that into her or forgetful or creepy. A nice guy who is genuinely interested in who she is as a person. Where is Hitch when you need him?

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: Completely Single Is The Assumption

***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.***

Last week, I talked about Camille's crush. That has been fun, but it's not the substance that makes a love life.

What does make a love life? Dealing with dates and triumphs and disappointments.

You do all that so that one day, you'll end up with the love of your life and live happily ever after. Or whatever.

Camille isn't at the point of happily ever after yet. She did call Malik back. She left a message simply stating she was calling him back.

That was over a week ago. She hasn't heard back from him yet. I'm not going to say yet. I doubt she will hear back from him.

He may call just to say what's up in a few weeks. But that doesn't count because it won't be a reconciliation attempt. It'll be guy stupid-ness and habit.

But it's okay because Camille did say she was over their situation. I wasn't sure her over-ness was going to stick, but it has.

I'm glad to hear that because Malik wasn't right for her. At least not while he was behaving the way he was. So. On to the next.

There is this other guy who I mentioned waaaay back when I first started writing about Camille on this blog. You can read the post here.

His blog name is King. Camille described him as the "like of her life". She ran into him last week. It kind of rekindled some thought possibilities for her.

She suggested they do lunch, but nothing has come of it yet. She has a super busy daytime schedule because of school though. So maybe I'll have something interesting to say about that in a few weeks.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: A Schoolgirl Crush is Still Fun

***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.***

Last week, I wrote about Camille's new crush. Well, he's not a brand new crush, but he was new to this blog last week. This is something I find incredibly fun for a couple of reasons.

I just think crushes are cute to begin with. And Camille is one of my friends who is usually pretty serious. By serious, I don't mean boring, I just mean she's not very silly, she's mature. But I like the silliness that comes along with a crush. Silliness suits her in this situation.

Since Malik isn't completely out of the picture, I suppose I should update. Camille had a school event last week. Malik called her during that event, I'm assuming because he didn't expect that she would be busy at that time. She didn't answer the phone right then.

I suggested she text him to see what he wanted since he didn't leave a voicemail. She said that was rude and she would call him later. I haven't asked her about it in a couple of days, but she hadn't called him back yet. If she does, I'll let you know next week if he had anything important to say. Don't hold your breath.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday:How To Spice Up Your Time In The Library

***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.***

Camille has a crush on this guy at her law school. He's so dreamy. That's what she keeps saying about him.

And this is a true crush. Most of what she knows about him is info gathered from other people. She does extra little things to catch his attention. The bulk of their convos take place on the law school's library elevator.

I love crushes. They're a fun way to add some spice to an otherwise boring situation. Camille spends a lot of time in her law school's library, so having a crush there who also spends a ton of time makes for some interesting IMs throughout the day.

Here's one: "I was just in the library and that guy was in there :). I held the elevator for him twice and he commented on how fast I move. Lol. Then we has a mini convo as we walked to our lockers. He soooooooo dreamy, ;) lol."

I don't think this crush will be going anywhere, but it's still so cute. And the best part about those IMs? They weren't about Malik. Camille still hasn't heard from him. Good riddance, I say.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday:Regression, Remorse, and Roller Coasters, Oh My!

***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.***

Last week, I told a funny story about Camille accidentally picking up a butcher-man while running an errand for Malik. I'm pretty sure she has forbid him from reading my blog, so I'm thinking he still doesn't know about it. It's probably for the best. So butcher man is a person of the past.

So now it should be free and easy sailing with Malik right? Of course not. Because he can't manage to keep it together for more than a short amount of time. I'm not saying Malik is a horrible guy. I'm saying that perhaps he and Camille have very different ideas of how a courtship is supposed to go.

So here's what happened: last Saturday, Camille went to get herself some food, but it was enough for two people. Malik said he was hungry and had just gotten off work, so she offered to bring her food to him and share with him.

He kept talking about having to go to the gym and being off schedule. She figured since she drove all the way to him that he would wait a bit to spend more time with him. She basically was there only long enough to eat and watch him get ready for the gym. When she asked him outright to wait to go to the gym, he said no, citing the importance of keeping his schedule.

Camille was pissed. They're not at the point where she stays at his house when he isn't there, so she left when he left, even though he'd only be gone for an hour. He was trying to make conversation before he left, but she was pretty upset and didn't say much. She basically left while he wasn't expecting it. He was standing on the sidewalk watching her drive away (that sounds familiar...).

Camille sent Malik a BBM later to tell him she thought he was rude. He apologized, but they haven't spoken since. She hasn't even really had the desire to reach out to him to see what's up. That's a far cry from what was going on three weeks ago with her emotions regarding him.

Camille told me her usual pattern is to really like a guy when they first start talking and then for those feelings to fizzle out even before they end things. I can imagine if they all have see-saw behavior like Malik, that would be the case over and over again. Only two men have inspired her to still like them before things ever ended. Malik isn't one of them.

If Malik doesn't reach out to her, I don't know that she'll reach out to him. Maybe things between them will just fizzle out like her feelings seem to have. Which sucks because I like Malik when I met him, and I had hope for him. I'm just relieved that Camille will not be pining over this man who insists on engaging in I'm-just-not-that-into-you behavior.

Selfish ass! If he had to stick to his schedule, he should've got his own food instead of having Camille schlep all the way to him to share hers! I just got mad about that. Seriously, who the hell does that? Malik is officially a selfish ass in my book. A thoughtless, selfish ass. And Camille deserves better.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: Back, Back, Forth, and Forth

***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.***

 So after engaging in just-not-that-into-you behavior, Malik is getting better. Last week, Camille was trying to explain to Malik that she was going to have to stop seeing him because he couldn't do the simple things she asked. Things like making time to see her once a week. I can't imagine why that was so hard for him. But when she tried to break things off if he wasn't going to improve.

He immediately improved. Like literally stopped what he was doing and went to see her right then. I'm hoping it lasts past one week. But something really crazy happened in the in-between from him starting to act better and convincing her was going to keep acting better.

Malik sent Camille to a butcher/grocery store to pick up some meat for his dad to barbecue. While she was there, the butcher hit on her and she didn't exactly say no. In fact, she gave him her number. Since that time (only a couple days), he's been engaging in I'm-so-into-you behavior. He's what my friends and I describe as an aggressive man a stalker. What makes him that way? He sent her a pic of him the day they met, and was talking about how much he liked her and how much he knew God had put her in his path for a purpose. Now, I can appreciate God talk or whatever, but that just sounds downright creepy.

She sought out my counsel to get rid of this guy. After having a good laugh and wondering what in the world she was thinking even giving this dude her number, I got the whole story. He also left her this whack voicemail that she forwarded to my phone so I could listen. This guy was saying how he felt like she was meant for him and he really wanted to talk to her because he just knew they would be something special. His only saving grace was his sexy voice. It was all very creepy and over-aggressive.

So I told her to text him, tell him she was involved with someone else and things just moved to the next level (only a slight lie), apologize for even trading numbers with him, and express a need to move on.

Camille doesn't like to be mean to people without a really good reason. And a guy who simply liked her and wanted to get to know her better didn't warrant meanness in her book. I warned her that he wouldn't take a weak push-off well and she had to be firm. I was right.

After she texted things like, "I'm involved with someone, but I appreciate the interest" and "I'm sorry, but we can't talk because I'm talking to someone already", he kept texting back saying they could be friends for now and take things slowly.

I told her be blunt and let him know he had no chance at any type of relationship with her. She finally told him that, and he responded that he respected that, but he would hold onto her number and hold onto hope. That type of response is cute in a rom-com when they're supposed to end up together, but it's really whack and horrible in real life.

So after we got rid of the crazy butcher man (for now), I made Camille promise she wasn't going to share this story with Malik. He also has a stalker person, but I told her that's not something to bond over, and I doubted he would understand why she was picking up men after she told him she wasn't seeing anyone else. So hopefully this time next week, I won't be writing about Malik's response to this situation.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: Malik Didn't Merit A Party Invite

***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.***


So Camille didn't invite Malik to Bad's, Michelle's, and my birthday party. Weird, huh? I didn't ask why she didn't invite him. When I asked whether he was coming to our party, it was at the end of a conversation where she had been complaining that he was turning out like the guys before him.
 
I figure she either didn't want to give him the opportunity to disappoint her, or she didn't want to have him come to a party and because they haven't resolved his issues, his mere presence there would ruin her fun. Either way, she'll be at our party, having fun without Malik.
 
What has he been doing to upset Camille so? He's engaging in I'm -Just-Not-That-Into-You behavior. And when Camille called him on his bullshit, he told her how much he liked her and how he was just going through a rough time right now and how he felt sure that they would be okay. It all sounds very familiar. Familiarly bullshitty. I hope he's the one guy who actually means it when he says it though. I can tell Camille likes him, and it would suck for them to not work out. It's so hard to meet a guy in grad school!
 
How Malik Can Suck Less:
1. Make plans with Camille to go out on a date that is outside of his living quarters.
2. Pay for said date.
3. Reach out to contact her more than you currently do.
4. Stop making excuses, just do better.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: Work Is Better Than Play This Week

***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.***

No quick recap since I just wrote about her last week, but I do want to take a minute to diverge from talking about Camille's love life to talk about her career planning. In the intro, I mention she's a law student. But I don't know if I've ever mentioned that she just started law school last month. So it's quite an adjustment for her, in a number of ways.

One thing she's had to get used to is the different needs for studying. She's got a study group and a study partner. She's just now coming around to seeing the merit of the study group. She's still not into the idea of having study partner. The way she's described this guy, I wouldn't want to study with him either. He sounds horrible. He's Mexican and Camille is African-American. For some reason, he thinks that means they have to always discuss race. That is a constant annoyance to her.

That plus all his habits that drive her crazy. He has allergies and won't take a Claritin, he always taps his pen, he smacks his gum, and he cracks his knuckles. For someone who likes to study in silence, it's a real hassle. Add that to the fact that she never calls him to study, he always finds out where she is and then shows up. He's now Mexican Stalker Guy. I know that's incredibly politically incorrect, but I don't care. When the only topic of convo you bring up is Jesse Jackson, Jr., Kanye West, Nas and Kelis, and the black people on the wire, you deserve it.

Now, back to her love life. Malik is pissing me off. I was singing his praises about making time to see Camille no matter what. That was rather short-lived. He cancelled on her for a date last week. And she's starting to notice a disturbing trend. They only spend time together at his house. That could be because of cheap-ness or broke-ness. I'm not sure. Last week, Malik's excuse for not seeing her is that he was "messed up." Whatever that means. Camille didn't know if he meant financially or emotionally. WTF is all I have to say.

And Malik doesn't make good decisions. He is subleasing his apartment. He made this decision before he had another place to live. Who does that? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he is starting to annoy my girl Camille off and that doesn't work for me. They're supposed to go out one day between now and the end of the week. Hopefully he'll regain her good graces. They're still too new for him to be acting like this.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: Horror Stories Made To Ruin Your Happiness

***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 [I'm going to do a quick recap even though it's only been two weeks since I wrote a post about Camille, but what can I say? I like doing quick recaps...? When we last heard about Camille, she was getting into a dating groove with Malik. Malik is a pretty cool dude who's biggest problem is that he's a different religion from Camille. That hasn't stopped them from dating though, and it certainly hasn't stopped Camille from being in serious like with him.] Read the Wishful Wednesday posts.

The type of people that Malik and Camille both are is the type to think way past the current situation (reminds me of me...) and to let things far in the future affect their present. Even if those things are only slightly possible to actually happen. Camille has been saved from doing this to her normal extent because Mailk basically does it for her. So while they've been dating for a month and some change now, they talk about things like how they would raise their kids.

I don't see a huge problem with that if that matches who you are and how you plan your life, so for them I guess it works, since they both have these discussions. The problem comes in when such discussions only highlight their differences. He would want the kids raised in his religion, Camille would want them raised in her religion. Neither of them intends to ever compromise. This leads to a discussion of couples that are able to co-exist happily in their different religions. And I'm not talking "just happen to belong to a religion", I'm talking "believe strongly in all their religious tenets and would never convert to anything else, possibly ever".

It's becoming rougher on Camille as she realizes how much she's into Malik. He's been telling her about the couples he knows that are not of the same religion and how it's possible. She can focus on the negative and so she had these horror stories to share to counterbalance his optimism.

Story #1: There are support groups out there for people of her religion dating people of his religion. She sees this as something that must be horrible and hard to endure if they have and actual support group for it. This apprehension about how so many other people handle the same situation makes it difficult for her to handle things like him asking her to visit him while he's out of town (in three months) and referring to her and the term girlfriend all in one sentence. I'm sure that under different circumstances, those things would be music to her ears, but instead Camille is trying to guess the number of days before she needs a support group. I feel pretty badly for her that this is so stressful.

Story #2: A cousin of a friend of hers decided she was marrying someone of a different religion. The guy's family threw a bridal shower for her. Turns out, that shower was a conversion ceremony. Her family was understandably upset when they found out. I don't even think Malik's religion has such a ceremony. And because his family is a number of religions, I doubt they'd even consider such a thing. And then there's always the thought that even of someone "converts" you, you can always convert back, and/or sue. But this story is a horror story nonetheless.

It's hard for Camille to think about just enjoying the moment when she naturally looks to the future. It's harder when she's dating a guy who does it even more than her. At least it's not affecting her ability to be able to concentrate on her law school work. But it certainly is interesting to watch...

For next week, I intend to investigate whether or not he considers her his girlfriend.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: The First Date And The Gala Date

***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. She's able to work on multiple parts of herself at once. She is a law student, an actively dating single woman, 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. I find her love life pretty entertaining, so she was the perfect person to add to the medley. Enjoy.***

Quick Recap [Last time I posted about Camille I mentioned two guys you need to know about for Camille: King and Malik. King has I'm-just-not-that-into-you-itis, so you'll have to read the last post to get any info on him. Malik however, has provided lots of new action. I am supposed to be writing about her first date with Malik and her gala date with Malik. I'll get to that now]
Read Camille's posts.

Camille's first date with Malik was interesting because of all the activity before the date actually happened. She drove to his place and he drove from there. While they were there, he gives her a tour and she discovers she's not a fan of the way the apartment is set up, all the way down to the too-large television in the bedroom. She informs him of this fact, which I found hilarious.

They leave to go to the restaurant (one of my favorites in the world), but they make a stop first at his... family reunion! Yes, indeed. They stopped on their way to their first date to a family reunion. And the cherry on top is that when Malik introduced Camille to his dad and aunts (or something like that), he said, "oh is this the fiance?" Their first date! Did Camille go running as fast as her feet could carry her? Nah, she just accepted that perhaps his family was a little zany.

But there's more. At the family reunion, half the family is Camille's religion, half is Malik's religion. Those two halves were having a religious debate. At the family reunion. Holy books came out. I'm not kidding. Let's just move on to dinner. Compared to the first half of the story, dinner was non-eventful except to let Camille know she was a fan of Malik and was looking forward to the gala event the next weekend.

Michelle and I went shopping with her a couple of times throughout that next week so she could find the perfect dress. Easier said than done since the style of fancy dressed look suspiciously like the party dresses I wore as a six year old. Camille wanted a floor length gown (even though she has the most amazing legs) so floor length gown we found, finally, at the 28th store. There is nothing wrong with exaggerating.

On to the gala. Malik was late, very late. He was so late! Now that I'm done beating that dead horse, Michelle and I were at Camille's house to see her off, and we were there an extra hour! Okay, now I'm done. But after we met Malik, we were pleased. Michelle and I agreed that while he was shorter than he claimed, he was attractive, had style, looked good in a suit, and was probably the exact kind of guy we like to hang out with. We imagined he would be tons of fun if he was around long enough to actually spend time with our whole group of friends.

Malik wasn't on his best behavior for the night. He was a bit neglectful at the gala. He was hanging out with his friends and taking lots of pictures, leaving Camille to fend for herself most of the evening. Then he dropped her off at home to go hang out with his friends, and came back to her house later that night to sleep. Camille wasn't pleased at all with this behavior, but I'm guessing it was chalked up to miscellaneous guy stupid-ness. Since that time, he hasn't made any such major blunders as ditching his chick for his friends, so we still like him for now. Next post, I'll update on how they've managed to spend time together even though they both have busy schedules. That's right ladies and gentleman, when a man wants to spend time with you, he does.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday

I wrote a post yesterday about some changes to this blog. This is the first implementation of that. Sorry, Lion, but your love life doesn't have enough for me to write about anymore. So, I'd like to introduce Camille. She is a friend of Michelle's and mine. We all hung out as friends at church as teenagers. She is a college graduate and now a first year law student in Chicago! I'm excited about that Chicago part because it means we'll be in the same city and that should make it easier for us to stay the good friends we've become. Cause grad professional school is no joke.

***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. She's able to work on multiple parts of herself at once. She is a law student, an actively dating single woman, 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. I find her love life pretty entertaining, so she was the perfect person to add to the medley. Enjoy.***

In most of my intros about my friends in The Medley (that's my nickname for this blog), I talk a bit about their lives and a lot about their current romantic situation. I think I covered enough non-love life stuff about Camille in the first two paragraphs, so we're just going to jump right into her love life. There are two guys you need to know about. The first we'll call King. The second we'll call Malik.

King is the guy who Camille describes as "the like of my life." She likes him, a lot. I think he's the guy she'd pick right now if she had to settle down first thing tomorrow morning. She talks about him and there is this combination of frustration, happiness, and hope. It all feels very familiar since I'm constantly at the point with men (I wonder if that means we both have bad taste in good men...). But King is this man she likes because she likes the way she feels with him. He's got this busy life and is out of town a lot, especially during the summer. The time they do spend together always produces a good story. Like the time they slow danced to that Luther Vandross song. But, King unfortunately exhibits some he's-just-not-that-into-you behavior every now and then. Does he like her? Of course. Does he like her enough? We don't know. The moral of the story? Men are stupid from age 15 to at least age 33. I will let you know if my (or my friends') personal experiences require that I raise that age.

On to Malik. Malik was introduced to Camille by a mutual friend from work. They talked for a while and decided they like each other. I should stop here to explain one of Camille's tendencies. She's that girl who meets a guy and then immediately starts thinking out the next few years months weeks days with him before there's even been the foundation for such fanciful thoughts (I know I know, I do the same thing. Don't judge us.). Back to Malik. After they met, he started texting and calling her. He called her that night. He planned their first date, he invited her to be his date at his fraternity's 100th year anniversary gala. He basically etched out the next three weeks for them. And Camille's response was amusing. She found it weird that someone else was doing what she usually does. I told her to go with it and let someone else plan out the future and see where it goes. She's liking him so far in spite of all their early hurdles (her aversion to men who aren't tall enough, their difference in religion, his zany family). Next week, I'll talk about their first date and the gala date.