One of the guys

A friend from college came into town for some hockey this weekend, and because I love reunions, I met up with him and some of his buddies who were all strangers to me. By 10:00, I found myself in a familiar situation: a girl out with a bunch of guys telling crude jokes and laughing till I cried.

Last week, I had a drink with one of my girlfriends who grew up a guys' girl just like me. She remarked that it's easier to be friends with boys, or maybe "safer" is the better word. Her point wasn't about women being catty, but about the ease of conversations that don't require emotional investment and the lack of pressure one feels in those relationships. Last night was a case study in how true this is.

Take this for example: we meet, I introduce myself, we shake hands, and then I mock their outfits (stupid Caps jerseys), and they laughed. I didn't have to pretend to make nice to try to get things started on a good foot. We were already on a good foot, because guys tend to roll that way.

Before the night was up, we spent time inventing drinking games and then inventing new rules for the invented games, competing to spot the drunkest mess we could at closing time and inventing a hashtag to share the best ones with the world, and I almost peed my pants three different times.

In the long run, I'm sure that those kinds of friendships, casual in nature and generally lacking is support, aren't enough to sustain me, but it's pretty nice to have them!