A mishmash of one evening

I went to a work/social function last night. It was a birthday bash for a friend/coworker, so there were work people and a lot of my friends there. It's so interesting to see work people outside of work. I found some things of particular note:

~I saw several people from work smoking who don't normally smoke. When I mentioned it to them, they said that they smoked occasionally when they drank. Um...are we back in college? Are we freshmen again? I thought only skanky, freshmen girls held on to the "I only smoke when I drink" rule. I guess I was wrong...

~I asked one of my friends, N, what she thought about the guy that I've been on a couple of dates with. We ran into her at the Dogwood Festival on Sunday, so she met him then. She was sorta mum about him, so I just point blank asked her what she thought about him. I assured her that I wouldn't be upset if she didn't like him, I was just curious as to what she thought. She said, "You deserve a really cute guy...you could do WAY cuter! But...he seemed nice..." If you know me at all, you know that I appreciate honesty. I thought this was nice of her to say. He's not an Abercrombie and Fitch model or anything, but I *do* think he's cute...

~A coworker brought her daughter and the daughter's friend. He is only 18...and gay. He clung onto me like white on rice! I'm just the type of person that will talk to anyone and be friendly to anyone. Well...he thought he had found his new mentor or something! He was like, "You're so nice! Do you mind if I give you my phone number and we can stay in touch???" He's a nice kid, tho. I can remember when I was that age and all of the things that a young, gay guy goes through. I'm not that much older than him, but 7 years can make a HUGE difference when it comes to relationships, being comfortable with who you are, maturity, etc. Maybe this will be a new project...

~The friend that got me into this whole blogging thing, N--as mentioned above, came with a friend whose blog I thought I had been reading. I've gotten to know some of N's friends through their blogs, so I went up to N and asked her if the girl was the author of X blog. She wasn't. It's bad when you start to refer to people by their blogs, isn't it?

~Isn't it funny how things/people change? I used to hang out with one of my friends, W, all the time. He used to be my going out buddy, grab a bite to eat buddy, come over and watch a movie when you're bored buddy, etc. Well, now that I've gotten serious with my training, I haven't spent a lot of time with him lately. We still talk and hang out, it's just not as frequent as it used to be. He doesn't really have any "hobbies," so he's been hanging out with some of our other friends more. We were just sitting around before the party last night and catching up when it hit me how different we are now. Not different in a good or bad way, but it was enough for me to notice.