There are certain people that you know that when they’re around you, they tend to bring out the best in you, and when they’re gone, their effect still remains. Erin can be described as one of those people. In the five years that I’ve known her, no one has given me better, funnier, smarter, or at times more frustrating conversations than her. She’s one of those people who you can’t use basic words to describe her. The word “cute” brings to mind someone who is naïve to the world, and the word “hot” makes people think of some air-headed blonde who never has anything to say that she hasn’t heard anyone else say before. “Alternative” gives off the impression that she’s got a ton of piercing on her face, and would just as soon kick your ass as talk to you, and she’s opposed to people calling her “beautiful”, part shyness and partly because of the fact that people who are considered “beautiful” are kind of timid…again, something that does not describe Erin. The best I’ve been able to come up with is “smoky”…which is a combination of compliments, rolled into one description: intelligent, semi-seductive, and sexy…and really, I’m don’t think I’m off the mark with that last one, and even that seems like a weak way to describe her. She’s one of those people who you can probably best describe her by quoting lyrics from a punk band. I’ve been trying literally since the first day I met her to get a date with her, and despite not having any success to this day, I still talk to her. Depending on who you ask, it’s either based on being stubborn, or if you ask me, it’s because I have better conversations with her than I do with anyone else. I can’t win an argument with her to save my life, even though I still say its not because she come up with that great of points, but its because of who I’m talking to, the part of me that deals with logic kind of shuts down. Very few people actually talk to her as much as I do, which is their loss, really. It just means that I’m one of the few people who realizes how smart, funny, intuitive, and genuinely interesting she is, and for that I have to consider myself lucky. In the five years I’ve been asking her out, there usually hasn’t been a definitive answer as to why she’s against it, but if it’s because one of her friends that she talked to before dated her and ruined the friendship that way, I’ll just add another name to “the list”. Even though we’re been friends for this long, and I wouldn’t stop talking to her for any reason, that would have to be the one problem I have. I tend to be kind of “out there” with my thinking…I can’t really focus on one thing for too long because I usually start on something else midway through, which accounts for a lot of lost ideas, but the idea that eventually, for some reason, I would be able to date someone who I have that much in common with hasn’t gone away. I don’t understand how something that I’m just that sure about can’t happen. She’s probably the best person I get advice from on anything from what jokes to use in stand-up material, to trying to figure out what the fuck is going on with NASCAR. Finally, I just wanted to say that the reason I’m writing this is because she’s dated guys the entire time that I’ve talked to her, they usually last a few months, they fuck up, she doesn’t take their shit, and it usually ends…but the guy that she’s talking to now seems to basically be a great match for her. It’s kind of like the idea that you’re friends with someone like this, and when they find someone that they’re happy with, the part of you that knows that they deserve to be that happy does rejoice, but still, when that happens, in your eyes the dating world becomes that much more drab and empty…I guess that comes off sounding a little different than I meant it to. Anyway, I’m sure that by writing this, though hopefully not, it’s gonna be a little awkward, but knowing her I can’t see that really happening. Besides, I’ve had enough ideas pass through my head without writing them down to know that its better to get something out before logic steps in and says not to. Anyway, I’m done.