I went to a Sportsman's Club today with a couple of buddies of mine. We shot pistols and they taught me so much. It was great. One friend was Troy, a Marine who served in Iraq that I met in the gym, and the other was Jeff, who is a fighter and a tough guy, whom I met in the gym also. I haven't had friends who were not involved in either coaching with me or involved in sports with me, well, ever. I have never had non work/sports friends. That's weird, right? I mean, I can't relate to most people. I know it's a weakness of mine. I think every man is soft if they haven't boxed or trained combat sports or served in the military or lifts weights or fights or has fought or played football or hockey or rode a bull. I know that's a weakness of mine. Like the dad's at the youth sports teams that my kids were on. Great guys, I am sure. I picked up one friend from youth sports, and he's a police officer. So I respect him. And he squats. But I don't know the rest of them and they have regular jobs and stuff and they aren't big. One of them could be the baddest guy on the planet, I know. Probably not. Like minded folks seem to gravitate to each other. The brain guys over there, the former athletes over there. I'm not snobby , just don't feel like doing the fake talk and all the fake handshakes and theirs is all soft and clammy and then they feel me squeeze theirs and they try to tighten up but there is no strength there. I'm like, aw man. Aw c'mon, man. Lift a little, damn. I like talking to the mothers, because I don't judge them at all. Sexist or something, I know. I don't usually shake their hands but if I do, I don't judge how they shake hands. Actually, I lied. If it's a firm as hell handshake, I always say, GOOD HANDSHAKE! Which is inferring that they don't know how to give a hard handshake because they are a woman, I guess. Whatever. I can't help it.
So I'm sitting here thinking about non work or sports friends that I have had. I had a friend one time that I went to camp with as a kid, Beebo. Cool as hell. It was a camp that my dad, Dr. Steel ran. Beboo used to say to me, "Your dad is a great man, Jim Steel, a great man." He lived on the same block as my aunt in Beltsville, Maryland. He would say to me, "I do not like your aunt, Jim Steel. She calls all the parents when it is report card day." I loved my aunt, but she was a busybody.
I haven't had any girl friends that weren't work/sports related, either. That'd be weird to me. And sorta not right. Some other bias lies I their somewhere.
I was talking to my friend, Cristi the other day. We worked at Penn together and she is the head strength coach at NC State. We were talking about guns and I told her that I was going shooting with two friends of mine from the gym, Troy and Jeff. She started laughing her ass off. I asked, "Why are you laughing?" And she said that she had never heard me say that I was hanging out with "some friends". Weird, she said. It's true. I have never said it before. But Troy and Jeff do fit my prerequisites of my judging of men, though, so it isn't that weird.
I had a blast with my new friends. Maybe I'm evolving, or something like that.
