Valentine's Day: Deprechaun Style (Bromance me up and down, till I say stop)

Yesterday, I went on an awkward 'man date' with one of my buddies. Everyone will be able to recognize the rituals of what a 'man date' or a 'bromance' is and even the New York Times has chronicled some everyday examples of its existence: "Dining together across a table without the aid of a television is a man date; eating at the bar is not. Taking a walk in the park together is a man date; going for a jog is not. Attending the movie "Friday Night Lights" is a man date, but going to see the Jets play is definitely not."

So, simply defined, a 'man date' is two dudes with nothing to do or no one else to do it with, socializing without the crutch of business or sports. It is the kind of one on one and time-intensive outing that I might reasonably arrange with my wife, if she would have me but otherwise must settle for an uglier and more manly surrogate (my buddy and ex-roommate, Henry who was in town).

Looking at the past, I can see that I was a serial man-dater as I had 'dude to dude' times with this roommate all the time: we went on errands together, ate meals at dimly lit restaurants for some reason (after the second or third time, we just started to order in), hung out at the bookstore, picked out movies to rent (why can't two dudes watch Titanic together?).

Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed the time that I had with Henry yesterday as we caught up on life and had dinner (somehow, it turned very romantic with candles and wine). All in, I think we gave the same life updates in 10 minute circuits and then had nothing else to talk about the rest of the time and it became painful.

So at the very end, to avoid more one on one time, we tried calling those marginal friends who we really didn't keep in touch with (those friends on Facebook that one, only after putting them on the wait list,begrudgingly accepted) but they were appealing to us in terms of numbers because it would not just be us. We went out with them but quickly realized why we didn't keep in touch with them (boring).

Anyways I have made a resolution at least for this week: no more using precious resources and wasting time bromanticizing buddies as I have to half-ass a Valentine's day situation for Babyboo.