Friendship First Dates

Making new friends is like finding a new beau. It's stressful and seems impossible. How do I approach a stranger? What if she thinking I'm hitting on her? What do we talk about? What if she thinks I'm too weird?

I do have a small group of girls that I hang out with in Houston, but when most of them are married it's harder for them to have time for you. So it's necessary to friendship court some new ladies so you don't end up all alone with your stuffed dog Bogart.

I have actually met some girls through pole & the gym that I talk to pretty regularly, I just need to make the transition into hang out friends.

Sarah used to work out of our New York office but recently moved to Houston. I had met her before and she seemed cool, so I sent her a text to make plans for Friday.

I was honestly nervous. We had shared brief conversations so I didn't know if we would really have anything to talk about.

Friday night I picked her up...after missing her street and not noticing until I was practically downtown. We headed to Gloria's for a late dinner, and it was so much fun! Luckily Sarah is such a cool girl and really chatty so there weren't any awkward silences. We talked about work, how we both ended up in Houston, and dating/boys.

Next we walked over to midtown. We were going to start at Wonderbar but it was practically empty. I don't know where everyone was because it was after 10. That's a highly logical time to go out, right?

Instead we kept on to Little Woodrow's. Little Woodrow's is really laid back. The whole bar is practically outside. Here we had one of the most awkward pick up lines ever. Do you remember the show Pick Up Artist from the CW? One of the techniques that the boys were taught was to open up with a random question. Ok, so this guy comes over, "Can I ask y'all something? Do you prefer a guy that's wearing a tshirt because it's so hot in Houston or a guy that's out wearing a long sleeve shirt with pit sweat?" Did he really just open up with a question about sweat? I just kind of looked at him like he was crazy. Sarah is more sociable than I am, so she humored him. We ended up letting his friends come over to our table. They turned out to be pretty cool. One guy was married so we got to hear all about his wife and how they met. It was a really sweet story. And the other guy resembled Stefan from Vampire Diaries. (I may need to hit up TVD rehab).

**side note. The next time we hung out we stayed in, watched suites, and played board games with her co-worker...that looked a lot like Jeremy Gilbert (from TVD). I hope this trend continues!

Next we hit up shot bar to get the dance party started. Sarah even found someone that tried to teach her how to two step. It was a great night and if I would stop being a hermit, I'm sure we'll hang out again soon.