Frenz

My girlfriends.
Tans courtesy of instagram filters.

Some (cliché-loving) people say that friends are the family that you choose. That's obviously true. I don't have that many friends, but the ones I have are the ones I really want to keep around. Maybe more than I want to keep my family around sometimes, to be honest...

When I was living abroad there was a time when all I wanted to do was come back and see my friends, do things with them, have talks about serious and not so serious stuff with them, catch up with what they were doing and have some drinks or lady terremotos* together.

I have different groups of friends, most of whom I met at university. What I do with them is very similar, but varies slightly depending on who they are. For instance, with my girlfriends we have drinks, smoke some special cigs (they do, I don't) and talk about life and partners, or the lack thereof. I know that's very heteronormative and if we were in a movie we would definitely fail the Bechdel test but I don't give a damn.

I also have two friends who are married and now have children. Whenever I meet them we mostly have barbecues (my friend Javier really likes them), drink beers and catch up on our latest complaints (aka lives).

Additionally, I have some ex-colleague friends with whom I drink posh drinks, eat finger food and talk about our professional lives and nerdy interests.

When I was in Lancaster, I had a friend with whom I talked about life and our political interests always accompanied by some pints which we bought in rounds so I always got drunk and ended up hungover. I'm not proud of that, but it's a fact.

Ex-colleague friends when we took a stroll around Valpo once

It's nice having friends. The bad thing is when they start standardising their lives but you are still stuck in your twenties (even when you're 37), because that usually means you have less and less things to talk about.

Another bad thing is when we start working and are always too tired to get together, so we end up seeing each other every six months and feeling really sleepy at 11 pm. I remember when I was young and I could spend the night anywhere, just for the sake of having fun. But now I always want to spend the night in my own bed. I guess that's a sign I'm really 37. Although this is mostly a thing that sucks about (paid) labour and ageing, not friendships proper, so ignore it (or think about it and do something before the time comes!).

In this week's post you have to write about your friends. This is one of the topics you chose, so you could pretty much say whatever you want about friends and/or friendship.

One suggestion when this post was voted was to write about hanging out with friends ('dates', according to Sergio) and what you do when you get together.

Other things you could discuss are the best places to meet friends and what qualities people should have to become your friends. Personally, I'm very open, but I draw the line at racists, fascists and people who justify the coup d'etat (yes, I'm not over that and I never will. And no, I wasn't alive. I said I'm 37. Focus, people).

Whatever you choose to write, make sure you write 200 words.
Also, leave comments on at least 2 of your classmates' entries and 1 comment on MINE (I won't give up asking you to do this!).

* lady terremotos are a middle-age-crisis drink which consists of sparkling wine and pineapple ice cream. I know that's what (some?) people drink on the New Year's but if you drink it any time during the year it's called lady terremoto, just so you know (according to me, though. Patent still pending). Note that pineapple ice cream does not exist in England, or at least in the town where I was living so, yeah, I missed it.