Adventures in girl-dating, or: The Search for BFF Forevers.

A question for my female readers:

Have you ever been on a girl-date? You know, hanging out with a girl you don’t know very well, kinda testing each other out for friendship? Anyone?

…Bueller?

So, a while back (like, months and MONTHS back), I talked/blogged about how I wanted to make more friends in this area. I had only been living here for a month or so, and I began to notice that I pretty much only hung out with Joe. Of course, that’s not a bad thing in and of itself, but a girl needs girlfriends, right? The funny thing is, after I talked about needing to make more friends EIGHT FREAKING MONTHS AGO, I didn’t really make much of an effort to do it. Fortunately I have made a few friends that I hang out with sometimes…but mostly it’s still The Joe and Tabitha Show…or more like the Marathon.

For whatever reason, Joe recently remembered that conversation, and he decided to set me up on a girl-date this weekend, with two of our co-workers. He’d heard from both of them that they, too, were lacking in female friends around the area, since they’ve only lived here for a short while as well. So this past Thursday, the three of us got an email from Joe, which basically said, “Hey girls, you should all hang out and get pedicures and talk about tampons and Angelina Jolie and stuff. Cuz, like, I’m a guy, and I don’t really care about Angelina Jolie. No offense.”

At first I felt suuuuuper awkward about being “set up” by my fiance. But the three of us worked out a plan to meet Friday night and hang out…

Can I tell you how weird it is to get ready for a girl-date and realize you’re just as nervous as when you’re going on a first date with a guy? I must have tried on at least six different outfits. I spent extra time on my makeup. And I (rather unintentionally) showed up “fashionably late.”

Anyway, it turned out to be a lot of fun, and we got along really well. We all acknowledged the minor awkwardness of having someone’s significant other set them up, but we all also admitted that we were glad he did, because we like, sooo totally click, ohmygooosh! Our “date” lasted about six hours and included several stops: a Thai restaurant SLASH sports bar (yep…weird combo) with a live band comprised mostly of more of our co-workers, then a little Danish restaurant and bakery where we had the most delicious chicken schnitzel and a “surprise” dessert that I could eat every day for eternity…and then we hit downtown Santa Barbara for some dancing, stopping at several bars and clubs to check out the scenes. All in all, a complete success, except for the few creepy/sleazy guys we had to literally SHOVE away from us.

The best part?

Knowing that Joe’s motive for this whole setup was completely genuine, and not a means of getting away from me or giving me some kind of hint as if to say, “Um…I’m kind of sick of you.” No, he knows that we both are totally content with just each other, but that we still both NEED time with other friends, and that’s all it was about. And when I talked to Joe after my girl-date, he was so glad to hear I’d had a good time and that we all clicked so well.

So, my girlfriend count just went up by two in one weekend — SCORE! I feel like such a playa.