The March Of The Party Goers

      Happy Pi Day! I don’t really celebrate it, it’s not really a holiday. Like May the 4^th, it’s cute, but not really a holiday. I will be having pizza tomorrow, but that’s to celebrate Friday, not Pi Day. I am a bit of a numbers nerd so I can appreciate it. I think I’ve mentioned, more than a few times, how I geek out when the date has special number significance, so I get it. Had I thought about it, and had I known I wasn’t having practice today when I was doing the shopping for the week, I may have picked something pie-like. It’s fun. But I noticed the people I know who posted about it, got a lot of serious nerd backlash. I’m often surprised that people can’t just ignore something they don’t care about, why do they have to tease people about it? It doesn’t make any sense. This one guy I know from the music scene, and I’m starting to kind of become online friends with, often posts these elaborate math problems that he’s working on. I’m not sure if it’s part of his job, if he’s in a class, or if he just does complicated math for a hobby. I imagine if it’s for work, he might not be posting it. I just assumed he does it for fun. There was a time in my life when I did math for fun. I was trying to figure something out, but it was still of my own doing, for pleasure. When I saw that movie A Beautiful Mind, I got freaked out a little bit, because it reminded me of the time I spent doing math. Anyway: The guy I’m referring to, posted about Pi Day today. Anyone who knows him, knows he’s some form of mathlete, so why call him names? If that’s friendship, I think I’ll pass. I don’t often read the comments on people’s posts. Maybe this is a little game they play. If so, I’m glad that I’m not “in.”

     I think you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. Perhaps that’s why they say: “Guilty by association.” Although, I think that may apply in person, more so than online. I’m not sure you can judge a person by their online relationships, because so many people are different online than they are in person. However, there’s still something there. People who regularly get into arguments with people online are kind of showing their hand. People constantly making nasty posts probably aren’t much fun in person either. I guess you can kind of tell. I know if someone was regularly being negative about my posts, I would delete them. If you want to be a troll, or a basher, you can fuck off. Most of the people I “know” usually have nice things to say. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve been thinking about “friends” a lot over the past few days. I didn’t end up going to my “friend’s” Retirement Party. The 50^th party we were at was rolling along, until it was too late to try to squeeze the other one in. There was a moment, about an hour and a half in, where we kind of looked at each other as if to say: “You want to go hit the other party?” But we never said the words, and there were still many conversations to be had. It kind of solidified for me what our preference is. When I talked to the Eruption last Thursday, which was awesome by the way! 5 months, and it was like we lost no time at all. It felt great to have our drummer back, better than ever. Although now he’s too sore to play again this week. Weird. But anyway: They had all said they were not staying at the Retirement Party that long. So, if they weren’t going to be there, there wasn’t really any point in us going. In reality, if I wasn’t in the Eruption, I wouldn’t even be friends with this group of people.

     Then, Sunday’s barbeque took it to a different level. That crew has a whole different vibe. A lot more our style. It was hard not to draw comparisons, because just the night before, we’d been hanging out with our “friends,” but this other group is so much more inviting. A lot of hugging going on. I’m not much of a hugger myself, but they are. And that’s okay. Most of our friend groups can seem kind of cliquish. A lot of them have been friends since grade school, so you’re not really going to break into that. I’m surprised how many of these groups we have slipped into. All 3 of our friend groups have been friends since at least high school, and we didn’t meet any of them until we were in our twenties. We are one of the only new additions to any of these groups. But still, there are groups within the group, and you can kind of tell. However, the Sunday group is a little different. People tend to hangout as a group. The cliquish thing doesn’t really happen. We are more of a unit, than a bunch of units. It felt a lot better. A lot less pretentious. I’m not sure I would’ve noticed had it not happened so close together. The Saturday group has a few hipsters, and some people a little more fashion forward. Sunday’s group was not like that. A little more relaxed. I’m not sure if I can nail down “the” difference, but Sunday was a lot more my style. But still, that was a lot of standing! I felt like I was standing for 2 straight days. That’s not my favorite part. I try to sit and stand in equal amounts, but sometimes the only seat is off in the corner by yourself. And I’ve noticed, through years of trial and error, nobody looks good sitting in the corner by themselves. And now, this weekend, we do it all again, with 2 different friend groups. Another 50^th on Saturday, then St. Patty’s!