Today's my day off and I'm just hanging around the house, relaxing before the busy weekend starts up. Just thinking about people in general and who we hook up with for whatever reasons. I've never stuck to a certain type of person to hang around with.

Some of the people I've been close to and some who I talk to every day are (the descriptions although maybe politically incorrect are just there to paint a more vivid picture). Here goes:

- funny, fair, and honest group of girls, not interested in being popular

- a 40 yr old woman in my grad course when I was 22. She was living with a musician, was very sarcastic and hillarious as we quietly mocked our course in order to survive the year. She had her boyfriend's valuables packed in a box that was permanently by the front door in case she ever wanted to kick him out!

- the group sl*t was/is my best friend - one time, years later at a party she was rating her conquests and one of the guys who got a low rating started demanding a re-do! Hilarious. We're all still friends and she's married now - to one guy.

- HIV+ gay guy - did lots of clubbing and pubbing with him, camping, crazy life with lots of fun. Btw, he's married too now!

- a good friend who spent 10 yrs roaming the world, living and working on every continent except Antarctica. She lives here now and we hang out regularly & share the love of live music. I lived vicariously through her emails of adventure while I was getting married and pumping out babies.

- ADD/obese friend who I've known for most of my life, hang out with a lot and is the person who can make me laugh the loudest. Our husbands both know when we are talking to each other on the phone.

- friends who have no kids and no interest in having them

- friends who have lots of kids (but we don't bore each other with kid-talk)

- a single mom with mixed race child (like mine), 10 yrs younger than me, who agrees with me that everyone's abnormal and there's just "acceptable and non-acceptable abnormal"

- a crazy, energetic everready bunny type, who gets briefly b*tchy when she feels insecure

- a slightly nerdy, super smart grade-skipping Asian who is also great at baseball and hockey, but brutally stupid when it comes to basic life skills (I married him)

All these people in my life are different in many ways, some obvious, some not so. But the common trait among all of them is they are all good people who have supported me and each other throughout our time together.

What I will never waste my time with is a Nasty Person.

Nasty, bitter people just suck the life out of you and leave a trail of acid wherever they go. They don't want you to be happy and don't like you to succeed. They like to control, but even that doesn't make them happy. They sometimes try to hide who they are, but sooner than later their true colours come out.

My advice to anyone is keep yourself surrounded by good people and they'll accept you for who you are, celebrate with you when you succeed, and support you when you're down.

Wow. That was theraputic.

Cheers.

Chris