Second Boyfriend

Zach and I in freshman year, with Tim on the side.

I'd like to share with you an anecdote I find amusing. At one point at Amnesty I was trying to tell my fellow interns something and I said "one of my boyfriend's brothers-" and I was interrupted by Warren saying, "wait, you have more than one boyfriend?" Immediately I lamented the ambiguity of the English language. But then I remembered my joke second boyfriend.

It all started my last semester at college (last fall). Well, I suppose it started in freshman year, when my main group of friends was mostly made up of guys. Sure there were some girls that we hung out with off and on, but the main group was Tim, Zach, Steve, Jeff (current boyfriend) and occasionally Trevor. As so many groups of friends are wont to do, this group drifted apart. Last fall, Tim was taking the semester off (and had already left the group mostly for a frat). Steve was, as was so often the case, mired in doing schoolwork, running, and playing video games, so he hung out less. Jeff had graduated. That left Zach and Trevor. I had drifted apart from them, too - Zach, mostly because of a girl, and Trevor, for various activities. Since many of the people I had been hanging out with had graduated, I decided to hang out with Zach and Trevor again.

Zach had a new girlfriend and we soon became friends. Then they broke up. I stayed friends with both of them. But Zach and I mostly hung out alone. At first, we just met up at the dining hall for dinner once a week or so. Then we would occasionally go out to dinner together. Someone assumed we were dating. We laughed. We went to see (500) Days of Summer together. I said, "Zach, I think we are dating." And thus was born the joke of the second boyfriend. Basically, a friend, who you go on dates with, but it's not romantic or anything, but everyone else thinks you're dating. I suppose we are now on-again, off-again, though Zach has asked to resume our dates via Skype due to him being in . He wanted to be my first Skype relationship, but I reminded him that my boyfriend and I were long distance for two semesters. Sorry, Zach. It will still be special.

Review: (500) Days of Summer

2009

Directed by: Marc Webb

Written by: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend, Chloe Moretz

(500) Days of Summer is a lovely little film about breaking up (yes, it's not a love story). I loved the use of anachronistic storytelling, it actually drew you in more instead of being confusing. Plus, it's kind of the way you think about the past - not usually in chronological order like a traditional story, and there's the 'oh wait right that happened' aspect.

Gordon-Levitt is adorable and so is Deschanel... their interactions make a lot of sense and seem so realistic. They're both somewhat average characters - as in, you probably know people like that. The message is mostly that yeah, there will be girls (or guys) like Summer who will be total bitches, but in the end life doesn't end when the relationship does. There are other people out there.

The movie reminded me of one of my all-time favorites, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was similarly quirky and disjointed, though not quite as weird. There are also little tidbits that push it to that next level, like the 'author's note' in the beginning, and Tom's friend's comment that "you should turn it into a novel." Kind of great.

Grade: A

PS - Awesome soundtrack, too. Two Regina Spektor song including "Us" which might be my favorite of hers, the Smiths, and a bunch of indie stuff I'd never heard before but really liked.