Yesterday my girlfriend and I were invited to a cookout - barbecue as they are called in The South - by a friend of mine. The problem was another friend of mine that I had soured on was going to be there. See, him and I started out pretty tight. But the more my girl and I hung out with him and his significant other, the more he started to send off some seriously bad vibes. He was constantly making little sexual jokes about my girlfriend. At first I ignored it and we continued to hang out with them. But after awhile all I wanted to do was stomp him into the ground, so we stopped hanging out with them- except on softball nights. Needless to say I was hesitant to go yesterday.

I swore to my girlfriend that I would try really hard to ignore and have a good time. Well it actually went really well. We all got along, we even mixed it up in the pool in a physical but friendly game of water basketball. Afterwards, all of us sat around the pool swapping stories and laughing. It does show me that I can interact with other people without constantly thinking about committing violence on others. Yet another step in the right direction - I hope.