So I have this friend...

I've kinda been in a huge slump for a couple of weeks. Part of it is being uncerimoniously dumped and the other part is going through all this grant stuff for work (but the guy thing is more on my mind, of course). While I may not be writing about it, I've been talking to friends, drinking, eating, working out, and some other naughty stuff ;-). One person I've always shared my trials and tribulations with is AR. We always talk on the phone, e-mail, text, but the funny thing is we never met. Unlike the blogging community where there communication is mostly written, with us we call each other in the middle of the night-usually drunk (hey, for a dialing drunk like me, it's better to have him to call than one of the ex's) and text and chat on almost a daily basis. I met him on CL when he was "looking for an attractive Indian woman". At that time I was unemployed and between looking for jobs on CL, I would peruse the personals for fun (and the casual encounters for a laugh). Call it my feminist nature (or more like sheer boredom), I replied to the post basically saying "WTF! Why do all you guys go for attractive?" and he wrote back with "WTF! You girls do the same thing" and from that debate, it lead to us exchanging more e-mails and eventually numbers. Now, why have I never met this guy you ask? As nice as he is, he also is kinda dumb in that when he wrote his initial personal on CL, he didn't realize when you log into craigslist.org, it's for the SF Bay Area. With him logging on from Houston, he thought he was posting in his city, but alas now he knows. Now we've been friends for over a year and we still haven't met. AR now lives in Denver and even though he's closer to SF, we still have not met. Not that I'm looking for anything romantic from him, but it would be interesting to meet the man behind the voice, especially after the past craziness...

This past weekend, he sent me this e-mail and seriously, more than any of my "live friends" he seems to be taking on the role of a therapist and I love it. I think that these steps will hopefully get me out of this slump. Any other ideas?

okay brownsugar.......i know we've been talking for a while as u can see from this email....and lately u've been acting weird and i think u should ease up on the whole guy thing......thinking about guys 24-7 isn't going to solve anything.........and getting ur PhD isn't going to help you forget......u have to make a lifestyle change if u really wanna make things work.......maybe u need a fresh start in san fran....i've been in denver for 6 months and i'm looking for a fresh start in a few weeks, i've had many fresh starts in college too when i was there..and even in texas.....it's always good to have a fresh start....here are some tips for your fresh start:

* u complain u are fat, so hit the gym and work out and set some goals to lose weight instead of complaining...it is easy to lose weight at this age...but not when ur older

* u claim u're ugly so get a makeover, it's not hard, and it's more common than u think.....get a makeoverand start wearing makeup and get a hairstyle change and start channeling some perfumes for your newstart....hit up a make over salon or something

* are you happy with ur job? are you really making what u should?...u have a master's degree so why are u not settling for the best u can get? u should look for something better for urself, just get your resume ready and get out there....

* why not move to another part of town? meet new people? sell ur stuff on CL and buy all new stuff for a new apt. ....make a fresh start and forget about the past guys, delete their names, numbers, email address, whatever u have to do.......

start it over i think these things can channel out your guy frustrations and help you get where u wanna be, but u can't get anywhere if you don't do anything.....