Making Friends

Since leaving New York, moving home and becoming single I've decided it might be nice to make a few new friends. Don't get me wrong, I love the friends I have. It's just that I rarely get to see them since they're all the way in the big city. It would be nice to know a few faces around Colchester. I used to know a lot of people in town, but lost touch with them during the college years of my life. Most of them have moved on to bigger and better places (much like I did until Fox nearly killed me).

These past few months I was feeling quite sorry for myself, which is not a good thing. I hate feeling that way and didn't want to feel that way, but couldn't seem to get around it. Last week, however, I miraculously discovered that I am not the only one suffering this regression thanks to the recession. (The Recession Regression?) Turns out, several of my old high school friends have also moved back in with mom and dad. I am not alone! What a relief. I have since smiled more, had actual PLANS and no longer consider myself a one girl pity party. Hooray!

My exciting new small town life began over the weekend when I was invited to happy hour with a few old friends. Yes, please! I could not have been more excited to drink cheap margaritas while catching up with my high school BFFs. We went to this cute little Mexican place near the water. One of my friends brought a couple of her grad school friends along. I was thrilled to be meeting new people.

As the afternoon turned into evening and the tequila started to kick in, I was thoroughly enjoying myself. I was in a heated conversation about Jonathan Papelbon and his ego, (I say he can be as cocky as he wants. The other person in the convo - an obvious Yankee fan - thought otherwise), when my girlfriend asked me if I knew of some guy who graduated from Manhattan College with me. I won't mention his name or any names for that matter as this story is about to get pretty freaking embarrassing. I did, in fact, know this guy, so I said I did: "Oh yeah, I know insert name here! He was in love with me freshman year!" Oh, no, Jenny. Did you really just do that? Shoulda kept your big mouth shut. Turns out one of my girlfriend's grad school friends has been dating this guy for some time now. Fail.

Could I have been more embarrassed? I don't think so. My jaw hit the floor. My face turned red. What a jerk I am! Now, if you know me well enough, you know that this is not like me. I don't often make such egotistical remarks. Comments like this don't normally come out of my mouth. It was the tequila, I swear. How was I supposed to know that guy and this girl were together!? I tried to explain myself. The thing is, this guy really was in love with me. He actually said those words. We met freshman year. He was in one of my classes and we shared mutual friends, so we hung out a few times. He decided he had a thing for me and coincidentally his roommate decided he had a thing for my best friend who lived down the hall from me. The two of them made frequent, unexpected trips to our dorm. One day he decided to tell me that he thought he was "falling in love" with me. I hardly knew him! I was freaked! After that, my best friend and I tried to keep our distance from them. That was the extent of our "relationship." Cut to five years later and I'm blabbing to his current girlfriend that he used to be in love with me. Damn you, tequila!

As soon as I finished explaining myself, (though I'm not sure his girlfriend understood/cared), she whipped out her cell phone and started texting him! "What's your name again?" she asked. I told her. "I'm asking him if he knows a Jenny from Manhattan College." Two minutes later he texted back asking, "Erasmus?" Ha! Told ya I knew him.

I can only imagine the conversation they had later that night. It doesn't really matter, though. It happened several years ago and honestly, what even happened? Regardless, I still felt kind of terrible. My attempt at making friends was an utter failure. At least I entertained one of the old high school friends in attendance. He laughed so hard margarita almost came out his nose.