Group dynamics. I have been thinking a lot about them lately.

Last year, two or three groups came together every so often to form one huge one... to play team sports, go clubbing/drinking, have houseparties, celebrate bdays, dine out, etc. There was a lot of excitement, enthusiasm, and momentum, while we were getting to know all the players, sizing each other up, figuring each other out... And the intensity was sustained for almost a year by semi-turbulent, somewhat-sensational interpersonal push-pulls, heightened by a significant amount of ambiguity and perhaps even some wishful/hopeful thinking...

Given a group with a fairly even ratio of young-ish men to women, throw in a little bit of time... and you really can't hope to avoid the Melrose-Place Syndrome. It's gonna happen. In a big group, in a big way...

The heyday of the huge group eventually ends. Unregrettably, since the antics were getting played out and players were getting old... The group is a shadow of its former self, has dissolved back into subgroups, and/or lies dormant, awaiting a Renaissance. And the aftermath is, to be honest, a little creepy. I'm creeped out, sometimes, when we get together in certain fragments these days. Oversensitive. I feel as if I know a too much, or I haven't forgotten enough...

Yes, I think that's what I need to do. Move past the year(s) past. Reminiscing past the new year is for pussies without a new act. GET CURRENT.

Through the changes in group dynamics, and though I'm up-and-down a lot about the people in my life, what stays constant is that I really do care... You all fascinate me to some degree, and I really do hope to keep every one of you around me for the rest of my life... (Why do I bother to say this?)