You know what sucks? Being in Freshman Year Friend mode for the third time in my life. It was bad enough in my actual freshman year. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “Freshman Year Friends” are those girl on your hall in your dorm whom you befriend your freshman year of college. 9 out of 10 times these girls are only in your life for the first maybe second semester of college. These are friendships of convenience. They are the first girls you meet. They are usually nothing like your friends from home whom you chose at age 7 and have nurtured through the years. Yes, these are the girls you settle for to have friends to go to the dining hall with and go to the parties with until you find your true college friends, who you are still friends with today, even if you all live in different states.

I had to relive this awful freshman year friends experience again, when I moved across the country not knowing anyone, except for a couple of guys from high school .  I met a few doozies my first year through work, and then my second year I met Miserable Mom, and she’s been keeping me laughing ever since. Once you meet that one, truly great girlfriend, the others are drawn to you. It’s like when you start dating a guy exclusively and all of a sudden great guys are hitting on you left and right. I met Hip Mom, Sexy Mom (and a couple of other moms… none of whom were already moms when I met them except Sexy Mom), and there were others who I had to leave behind when I chose to live this year as a gypsy, like Page and AdventureBizBabe, and of course Sister. While they’re only a phone call or email away, it’s not the same as driving over to one of their houses to play with the kids, or watch a movie, or go out for lunch.

So here I am for the third time in my life, Girlfriend less. Tonight I went to another Meetup Group at a dance club, and for the first hour walked around asking random women if they were there for the Meetup. None of them were, but were kind enough to ask me to hang with them. Finally after another 45 minutes, the group leader showed up with glowing stick bracelets so group members could be identified.

I gave 100%. I talked to strangers, I danced, I order my second signature drink. The bartender went all out on it and while Virgin, it looked like a party in the glass! It was so pretty.

But alas, the night was a bomb. I didn’t bond with one girl. They were nice enough, but total freshman year friends, and at this point in my life I’d rather go to a movie alone, than fake a friendship until a better one comes along.

On a good note, I’ve been talking to a really nice girl in yoga. She seems pretty busy with her 3 kids, but it’s nice to see her two or three times a week and talk about hair and yoga teachers. I also met a real southern belle today in the sauna. Yes, I broke sauna etiquette to talk to her, but it was called for. The mens’ sauna is just on the other side of the wall and as we both lay on the hot wood benches with our eyes closed, some guy with a voice as deep as Trace Adkins started cursing up a storm in there. I knocked on the wall to get him to simmer down, as he was making some rude remark about Californians. I yelled, “Hey! I’m a Californian, now shut up!”

He may or may not have, because that was enough to get a conversation going with the southern belle. The conversation was going great except that I was running out of water in my body to sweat out, and the threat of death by dehydration was becoming very real. So we agreed to be workout partners. We’ll meet next Wednesday because that was the day I knew I had scheduled in to be there, and we can take it from there.

So I suppose I’m making progress. At least I’ve stopped talking to my laptop. I still talk to my dog, but I did that when I had my friends around me. I tell you, this experience makes me appreciate my friends more than ever. I will see a lot of them in a few weeks. I better hug them A LOT!!!