“It must be exhausting to be you!”
“It’s a living.”
– C. and Margot

It is a great thing to have friends who are not just wonderful, but wonderfully interesting.  Take Margot.  We work out together three times a week during which we have deep conversations, rant about our frustrations, swap recipes, plan parties, debate politics, discuss religion, trade books, and do our best to absorb tidbits of life wisdom from each other.

We also spend an inordinate amount of time dodging her would-be suitors.

Margot has this amazing ability to turn men into stricken puddles of hormones at her feet – without trying in the slightest.  And with good reason!  She’s frighteningly funny, devastatingly intelligent, both pretty and charming, has eyelashes about an inch long that flutter just so, and gorgeous masses of blonde hair.  Boys trip over their own feet to talk to her.  Which, as you may imagine, can make things a bit congested on a jogging track.

Last night a very nice, very eager boy who met her once about a year ago and has been smitten with her ever since, accosted us on our workout.  He seemed harmless enough so we struck up a conversation in which she took the lead, and I hung back and let the boy have a go.  I was too busy chuckling at him to realize that five minutes in she had skillfully maneuvered me between her and her gallant.  When I did catch on and tuned into the conversation, I understood why.
“And this plays into my theory that nothing in life is free.  Take Facebook, it’s a classic philosophical example of the interconnectedness but inherent loneliness of human life!  Did you see my latest status update?”
“No…” Margot said politely, as she couldn’t very well say that she didn’t even know what his last name was, or confirm they were in fact Facebook friends.
“It was about this very theory!  I explained it all!  Of course, this probably stems from my many romantic failures in high school.  This one time…”

A half hour later she threw me a look of desperation so we politely excused ourselves and ended our jog early.

The truly funny thing about this incident for me is that it is, approximately, the 4073rd time it’s happened.