Last night we were at the FHVAC awards dinner at which Dawg was sworn back in as captain after two years off from the job. The Steff had mentioned something about seeing me. I said, “well, he wants to stay home” and she said “that doesn’t mean we can’t go out” and I took the careful pause to consider why that statement does or doesn’t make logical sense, and then answered “that’s true.”

Back in mid-2008 I came to NYC a few times before permanently moving here to live happily ever after with Dawg and the kitties. One visit we went to a fund raiser for a friend in need, another time we did a fund raising event for the FHVAC itself. At each event I met Dawg’s World. Remember all those people he used to talk about on his orange blog that were like a soap opera on steroids? Dude, those people are real. And I was meeting them. AND THEY CALLED ME POPPY BECAUSE THEY KNEW WHO I WAS! And then they would look into my eyes, all serious, and softly but firmly state “you break his heart, I’ll break your legs.” Welcome to Queens! Every single time someone said that to me I would start giggling because I knew in my heart how much I loved Dawg then and I am pretty sure not one day has gone by since where the level of love hasn’t maintained or grown more. But how were they to know that from watching a Boo Berry cereal video?

In case you’re newish to my life or just want to reminisce, here is said Boo Berry video from October 2007, when we were just good friends and I was popping his Meeting a Blogger in Person cherry:

Adorable, right?

To bring this back around to full circle and to show you my point of writing this whole entire post: Until now I have quietly considered all of Dawg’s friends my friends, but I haven’t felt like they were mine mine because I don’t hang out with them alone since they were Dawg’s friends first. I have always felt like I’m really only supposed to hang out with my own friends (that’d be Robin and Rachel, and Mena back when I worked at the last job) because to hang out with Dawg’s friends without him was in some way disrespectful.

But they want to hang out with me even if Dawg is busy or tired. It’s happened more and more frequently lately that his friends invite me to stuff even if he can’t come. Dawg encourages me to hang out with them when he can’t, so this mental block is only in my head. So I’m going to stop having a hang-up about whose friends are whose and just accept the kindness and generosity of these people who will still break my legs if I break Dawg’s heart, but who accepted me with open arms, this girl from the Internet who randomly picked up her life and replanted it from the Vermont country roads life to the Big City life just to be with a guy they all respect and admire as much as I do. And I think now that he has met my Vermont friends (we met a bazillion of them last week during our Very Short Visit) I feel even more comfortable that the friend field is now magically leveled… the brain of Poppy at work.

I have no clever, uncorny ending, so I’ll leave you with an awesome photo of your 2010 vollies captain, 1st lieutenant, and 2nd lieutenant:

Dawg, The Steff, and KC