Since my divorce a few years ago, i’ve been quite comfortable with my decision to “stay flexible”, not committing to any exclusive partnerships. i like living alone, not being accountable to anyone – just my own conscience and my dog. At the moment, i “hang out” with a few special gentlemen*.
But what to call this? Who are they? As humans we have a pesky bent toward having names for things, so our overloaded pea brains can comprehend where everything fits, and we can get on with life. Not happy with tags such as “boyfriend”, “friend”, “man-friend”, “significant other” – or the overworked “fuck buddy”, “friends with fluid exchange benefits”. None of them truly apply. And each of these friends are unique… serving different roles in my life, so no one tag would apply to all…
Leave it to xkcd to help me sort out at least one of these situations. There’s one local gentleman that is my closest friend, and we’ve struggled to “name it”. i like this… because i’m a huge dork, among other things.
*the actual number is a state secret… they all know that there are others… but the details are mine, thankyouverymuch.
Love The Daughters. Love Mrs. Wife. But I spent a few decades living alone in an NYC apartment and while that may sound dreadful to most, I miss it terribly. I am quite comfortable in my own skin and throughout all those years, I never felt pangs of loneliness. I can sit in an empty room with a piece of string and entertain myself. I am Mr. Gump.
*sigh* the chart.
You can’t argue with a chart.
I like “friends with fluid exchange benefits”. I’d be proud to be introduced as that at any dinner or cocktail party.
Once again, mathematics has proven the superior vehicle for describing the universe.
I found as a teacher that a computer spreadsheet was the one thing a parent wouldn’t argue with.
so he’s a six sigma kind of guy, huh? (i just wanted to talk that way to see if that got you hot and bothered, being the geek you are)
How about the nth conjugate in an n-dimensional space where n is an unknown (except to Daisyfae) positive integer? And how about these conjugates being ortho-normal such that they cannot interact? There are subtle meanings to the word conjugate here.
DaisyFae, get on witchyer bad self! Check you out playin the field you hot mama!!! I’m so jealous!
I like “statistically significant other.” It has a nice ring to it. I’ll have to use that sometime. As to “friends with fluid exchange benefits”, ewww, TMI.
Further to gnukid’s hypothesis, I just want to know if you used JMP to arrive at your conclusion. Have you proof tested?
Nuhrr-nuhrr!
‘ i like living alone, not being accountable to anyone – just my own conscience and my dog’
And really you only have to be accountable to the one with puppy dog eyes.
unbearable banishment – other than living remote 9 days/14 days in DC for a year, i’ve never lived alone in my life. ever. crowded home, to college apartment, boyfriend-husband, family… i’m REALLY liking my alone time. very, very much…
stephanie – it convinced me! always better in black and white….
uncle keith – i’ll be in the DC area more this year. would be delighted to do so, just to fuck with your friends and colleagues…
kyknoord – everything i need to know about love can be assessed by differential equations. don’t get me started….
annie – if a computer said so, then….
gnu – you are a damn fine sexy man… let’s talk matrix algebra sometime?
BLT – oh, you’ve kicked it up a few notches… as for ‘ortho-normal’, oh, yeah. a couple of ’em are WAAAAAY ortho-normal…
amber – it’s working for me right now. who knows about tomorrow… getting comfortable with myself is job one, and anyone else in my life is (at least for now) a supporting cast member.
silverstar – i like the way it sounds, too. Instead of your basic “S.O.”? You’ve got an “S.S.O.”… how can that not be cooler?
rob – no, it was done via basic cyber/personal stalking methodology. proof testing? is that a euphemism?
alex – so i’ve been told…
“friends with fluid exchange benefits” is the BEST description EVER
living alone is king, i love it, though i don’t get to do it anymore, i’d say you are definetely living the high life Ms. Daisy, keep up the good work, as my daddy once told me co-habitation is the best way to f#ck up a good relationship, i’m one of those people perfectly happy staring at the walls and my cats and rambling around my own head, though i must admit now i’d miss the damn boy to much but that’s cuz he’s at the cute cuddly stage, someday he’ll grow up and it won’t be nearly as much fun.
nm – a bit long for a calling card, though. i’ll work on a shorter version…
kono – i loved having my kids at home, and still enjoy them around. but there’s something wonderful about grabbing the guitar, turning on the amp and jammin’ in my jammies, and not worrying about who’s around, who’s sleeping, etc. can’t currently imagine cohabitating again, although i’ve learned to ‘never say never’.
You hussy *grin*
My eighty year old mother has been keeping company with the same gentleman for almost twenty years now. She normally introduces him as her “driver”. I have so far managed not to point out that in golf, the driver is the longest wood.
dolce – why, thank you! [wild grin]
chris – welcome to the park! i think i love your mother – and perhaps we are somehow related, because between your musical tastes and you reading list (never mind the ‘geek factor’) i suspect you’re supposed to be my brother…
Hilarious . . . having just finished a course in Symbolic Logic, perhaps you could call him your “corresponding conditional” . . .
tysdaddy – OH MY! This doesn’t apply to my Statistically Significant Other (now called my “SSO”), but it DOES apply to one of my other gentleman friends. He is now the “CC”… (that would be the one that lives several hundred miles away…)
Pingback: Knee-dful things… « Trailer Park Refugee