I've been strangely satisfied with my life lately and it's an odd feeling considering I'm not getting laid nor am I dating someone. As well, I didn't win the lottery or quit my job.

When I ponder the reasons why I feel so contented (here when I should be working) everything seems to point to my association with the straight guys I run with. This group of guys is so not like what I expected them to be like.

I mistakenly assumed that when you gather a group of straight guys, it would be some beer drinking, cussing, farting, teasing, mess of girl & sports talk.

But these guys are nothing like that. They're real positive and encouraging. Not only do we run together, but I've biked with one of the guys, texted back and forth with another when I was helping him bake a cake that I gave him the recipe for, just normal stuff. We can talk politics, history, world events while running, as well as the goings on in our lives and families. There's still sports talk and a little cussing, but it's nicely balanced.

The cool thing about these friendships (versus my other ones) is that they're low maintenance. If someone said they were going to go running and didn't show up, no one gets their panties in a wad about it. The guys all know that sh*t happens.

When I compare that to my existing friendships (mostly to women), the contrast is startling. Most of my female friends are high maintenance, that need lots of care and feeding. They need their attention, their compliments, and they need someone to sit there and agree with them when they are complaining. If you aren't attentive enough, then you're more than likely to get grief about it.

For example, I was having dinner with one of these friends and then out of the blue she says "I'm still mad at you about my birthday". Here's me when I hear this ---->

Her birthday was in May and I have no idea what she's talking about. When I ask her about it, she says that she doesn't want to talk about it and just wants to forget it. Well, she's doing a bad job of forgetting since this is the 3rd time she's made a snide comment about it. <giggle> Speaking of... I just ignored a text message from her just now. I know she wants me to pick her up (re: chauffeur) for a party tonight.

Then another couple women are hosting a baby shower for a 3rd friend, but they're having conflicts over who's going to take care of what. Neither of them really wants to do any work for the party, expecting the other person to do more. Each of them has complainted to me about the other, and somehow I got invited to this shower and got guilted into bringing dessert .

Hanging out with 'friends' shouldn't leave you more mentally drained than before you met up with them. Also, the usual activity with my hag friends revolves around food or drink. Can't we go do something physical instead of sitting on our asses making them bigger with calories?

I find myself hanging out with some of the old friends less and spending more time with the 'guys'.

So if you're looking for less stress, a way to keep healthy, and need to get away from some of the drama in your life, find a bunch of straight guys to go running with. It's done wonders for me mentally and physically . As an added bonus, I'm not feeling sexually frustrated...weird.