Everything Good List

It's been awhile since I had this list. It's always nice to do this list and relish all the good and nice things. So here it goes.

-Nano Hana along Valero St. Makati. Melts in your mouth wagyu steak. Fresh hamachi. Crispy tempura. Good tea.
-HSBC Champions 2006, Shanghai China. Being able to watch some of the world's best golfers play.
-Being able to see Tiger Woods practice and play live. Enough said.
-Luke Donald. Eye candy. Crush worthy. My new idol.
-Seeing world's No.1 Roger Federer in flesh..Gwapo rin! Haha
-the fast approaching Christmas season. I can feel it already!
-McDonald's Chicken Rice Burger. Better when it comes with fries.
-McDonald's hashbrowns. A very recent discovery for me!
-my FRIENDS. Close, not so close, and acquaintances included.
-laughing for no reason. laughing at Dad's corny jokes.
-being able to keep in touch despite of and inspite of...
-having silly conversations
-KOI and a cool aquarium. New pet fishes, thanks to Glenn. It's not mine though. Hehe
-iPod Nano's Red Edition.
-spa massages. Aaaahh...feels so good especially after a workout
-The Entourage. Definitely tops my fave tv show list.
-getting more than 8 hours of sleep
-Hizon's regular ensaymada
-Sunday mornings and Saturday afternoons :)

Are YOU my Friend or Acquaintance?

I always remember my mom telling me I should consider myself extremely lucky if I could have 2 or 3 real close friends. I find this rather true especially now that I don’t go to school anymore, where I used to see my friends nearly everyday. Now I have 2 friends whom I consider my best best friends, plus 3 more if I include my sisters. While I do have a handful of friends, I can’t really say that I have a solid meaningful relationship with each one of them. Some are good casual friends while some are just plain acquaintances. This is what Malcolm Gladwell prefers to call as “weak ties”, friendly yet casual social connections. This used to frustrate me, having a lot of weak ties and only having a few close friends. I don’t like doing the small talk routine, the “Hi, hello! How you doing? Okay bye” stuff. I want to have friends whom I could have good long meaningful conversations with and whom I can be my crazy self without getting judged. But with hectic schedules, busy careers and love lives to attend to, it’s virtually impossible to remain in contact with everybody. It takes a looot of effort and time to maintain relationships, what more build a new one right?

So how do you choose which friends you’d like to keep as a good friend and just as an acquaintance only? While I don’t consciously choose whom I should be friends with, according to Malcolm Gladwell (he’s a genius for having this kind of thinking), we usually become friends with the people we do things with and whom we resemble the most. We don’t seek out friends; we just relate a lot more to those people who occupy the same space that we do. Most of us, he says, keep our acquaintances at arm’s length since we already have our own circle of friends to whom we are devoted. “The reason we don’t send birthday cards to people we don’t really care a great deal about is that we don’t want to feel obliged to have dinner with them or see a movie with them or visit them when they’re sick. The purpose of making an acquaintance, for most of us, is to evaluate whether we want to turn that person into a friend; we don’t feel we have the time or the energy to maintain meaningful contact with everyone.” (Gladwell, Tipping Point).

However this does not mean we should take our acquaintances for granted. Weak ties are just as important, if not sometimes even more important than the strong ties we have. Gladwell offers a different perspective. He says that the more acquaintances we have, the more powerful we actually become. Acquaintances can give us access to opportunities and worlds to which we don’t belong to. Acquaintances can also bring new ideas and information that they are more likely to know that we or our friends (since they occupy the same world that we do, they most probably know what we already know) don’t.

I think I should learn to see the value and pleasure in casual meetings. I feel that I should also invest equal amounts of time and effort in my acquaintances the same as I do with my friends. I should be happy and grateful I have weak ties. I shouldn’t feel frustrated if the person or people I want to know better, whom I want to cultivate a relationship with doesn’t share the same sentiment. After all an acquaintance gained is still an added wealth. ;)