I can't say a sentence without talking about my friends.

Since I can't sleep, I'll blog something.

I realized tonight as I was meeting and greeting people at the Givology event over in Chelsea that I talk about my friends a lot. I was speaking to one particular new acquaintance for quite some time -- long enough to get past the lame intros of what we do and who we know at the event -- and we began talking about interests, experiences, anecdotes that we were reminded of by something that was happening on the dance floor, etc. As we talked, I realized that I repeatedly mentioned my friends in everything I said. Even if they didn't need to be mentioned.

For example (and all these are hypothetical):
New friend: "Yeah, have you seen that new [blah blah blah] video on YouTube?"
Me: "Yeah! My roommate -- well, old roommate actually -- Jenn showed it to me. She's really into their music. It's a pretty good video!"

Or:
New friend: "So this place isn't really your scene? What do you normally do on a Saturday night?"
Me: "I don't know. Usually just hang out and chill with friends...but a lot of my friends are out of town right now. Like that guy Sam I told you about before? He's in Japan. And my other old roommate Jeannie is in China. And Mallory is in Boston but she's coming back soon! Sooner than I expected. I'm pretty excited about that."

OR:
New friend: "I had thought about going on to do accounting or something but in the end chose finance and went to b-school."
Me: "I see. My friend David right now is finishing up his classes for accounting. He has his final thesis due on Monday...mainly why he's out of commission this weekend. He works pretty hard but he seems to enjoy accounting so I think it'll pay off for him. But good you chose finance and are happy with that too. How was your b-school experience?"


It's to the point that I think if someone were to say something really irrelevant like, "This is my favorite shirt because I love this shade of blue." I'd reply with something even more irrelevant and completely random like, "My old roommate Jeannie loves blue. All her sheets and blankets are blue."

I attribute this partially to my verbal diarrhea of unimportant conversation insertions (friends and non-friends related) but I'd more like to attribute it to how much my friends matter to me. I can't talk to anyone, even a stranger that I met 15 minutes ago, without somehow [stupidly] mentioning one of my friends and some tidbit of information about them.

That, combined with my love for meeting new people, will be the reason why millions of random New Yorkers will somewhat-stalkerishly know the strangest pieces of information about...well, all of you reading this.

I don't apologize for spewing your business out there. It's just a sign of my affection for you. I promise.