a safe pair of hands....

Hmmmm

There is a safe zone when you are part of a couple. There are things you can do and say and you *know* people will not take them as having any serious intent because you are in a relationship.

Harmless flirting can be engaged in. (Please note this is NOT to say that all flirting is harmless). You can be quite close to someone without anyone else commenting, you can dance with a person without anyone (including that person) concluding that it is simply a form of public foreplay !

But when you are single, all that changes. And I've been not-single for so long I've forgotten the rules :(

This afternoon someone made a comment which makes me think that my normal happy friendly self may have to watch what I say and do. (It was a third person thing - so I am not too concerned, but it got me thinking)

I guess it takes us back to "When Harry met Sally" territory. You know, the whole "can men and women really just be friends ?" thing. Is being friendly to someone an indication of intent purely because they are the opposite gender ? Can I only be friends with the same gender, and have to either not talk to the opposite gender, or with the opposite gender I have to expect that they or an observer will assume that there is more to it than that ?

I'm kind of confused. If I meet new people, there will sometimes be a potential for one of those people to turn into a good friend, regardless of the context in which I met them. But that will only happen if you talk to them, get to know them. But if that person is male, and I talk to them and start to get to know them better, will they and/or other people assume there is more to it ?

Right now I feel more "Good Life" than "WHMS". In "Good Life" there was a line from Barbara "there are men, women, and Barbaras !". Thats how I feel, and expect to feel for a while. Kind of apart from the whole gender thing.

I guess I have to face up to that not being the reality. That I am single, and I am female. Ho hum.