My best friends are many people. They’re the people I lived with in college, the people I met as a teenager on the Internet through my love of Something Corporate and the Get Up Kids, the people who lived with me in a renovated Victorian mental hospital on top of a hill in Northern England, the people who shared my ecstatic stress in grad school, and the people who edit dirty books with me on a daily basis.

My best friends are my parents, my boyfriend, my perfect little dog, and even a girl who drew a stick figure with a text bubble reading “I hate rap!” on the first day of middle school.

I’m a lucky person, and this list could go on for a very, very long time.

And did I include Justin’s cat, George? I fucking love that cat.

(56 day challenge)

Man, after my last entry, I really wish I could say my best first date was with my very handsome boyfriend. However, that would be an outright lie. Not that our first date was bad, per se, just more than a bit awkward. Our second date was fantastic, though.

(For the reader’s knowledge, about three drafts were written here detailing at least six dates. However, I felt bizarre broadcasting the memories to the interwebs, so you shall be spared in favor of the awkward, contrived response below.)

Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of first dates. I normally think second dates are marvelous, but to me, first dates are reserved for stories of how awkward and awful dudes can be. I don’t think I’ve had one particular best first date, although they’ve involved awesome things like pool hopping in West Campus, the most delicious Indian food this side of the Red River, kayaking, and the Victoria and Albert Museum (best place on earth). Instead, I’ve had a series of bizarre encounters with the opposite sex that I recount on a very regular basis, often to humorous effect.

So yeah. No real best first date. Several worst ones, but that’s another story…

(56 day challenge)

So, this day belies the challenge’s origins in the mind of a teenaged girl. Alas, I shall play along, partially because I am and will always be a hopeless romantic.

I believe I must be horribly sappy here and say that I perpetually want to be in the arms of my very handsome boyfriend, Justin. Aside from looking like an amalgam of various movie and TV stars, he is absolutely the most interesting, intriguing, and intelligent man I’ve ever had the privilege of spending time with, and even when he frustrates me to no end, something happens each day to remind me of this.

Wanting to be in his arms isn’t a really big deal, though, since, you know, we share a bed. It happens pretty often.

God, I can’t believe I’m the sort of horrible human being that would compose a mini essay on her boyfriend. I apologize sincerely, folks.

(56 day challenge)

Staunchly heterosexual, much to my significant other’s chagrin. Not that I don’t think ladies aren’t gorgeous, totally sexy creatures. I just can’t talk myself into being attracted to them. Quite a modern dilemma.

(56 day challenge)