Who Needs Free Will...

I had a great dinner last night with one of my girlfriends at my favorite restaurant: Chaya Venice. I found it interesting, though, that the focus of our conversation was almost completely on why we (women) stay in relationships that, well, basically suck.

I know it seems kind of deep for the blog, but, bear with me - it needs to be explored.

Out of my group of friends (be it high school, college, present, etc), I can honestly sit back and say (in so many words) to a number of them, "What the hell are you thinking? That guy sucks - you deserve someone better." And, as you all know, my friends can TOTALLY say the same. Unfortunately, as we discussed last night, there's this thing called free will that, with friends, challenges us every day.

See, because we are supposed to be adults, we are also supposed to be able to make our own positive, healthy decisions. We accept the opinions and feedback of those we trust, but in the end, it's our choice. We lay in the bed we make or whatever that saying is. And for the most part, women suck at it.

I have beautiful, talented, smart, funny, amazing friends and sometimes, with some of them (yes, some of them have found their Prince Charming), I want to shake the crap our of them (with nothing but love, of course) and tell them what to do. I want to make their decisions for them and believe you me, the feeling is mutual. There's a great "Friends" episode where Monica decides that she needs to make all of Rachel's (ironic, eh?) life decisions for her. For comedic purposes, the plan backfires, but, if you think about it, it really is a great concept.

Why can't I designate one or a small group of my friends to make all of my love life decisions? I would make the initial "selection" but then my friends would have the say. Granted, it wouldn't be as exciting for you all, but, my dating life would be much easier, healthier, and more "on point". All of ours would. It could possibly be a dating utopia. Picture it: Your friend's lame-ass boyfriend is caught making out with another chick. You tell her to leave him and she does. Wham bam thank you ma'am. Drama is over - she heals and moves on. Easy peasy.

Ahhhhh, the simplicity of it all.

But, since we can't make decisions for our friends and vice versa, we will continue to be blinded by love and lust and crap like that and will do things that make our friends want to beat us. Maybe some day all our decisions will align and we'll live happily ever after. Until then, I'll elect to wear padding so the beatings don't hurt too much.