Dear Prudence

I went over to my parent's house for dinner tonight to celebrate my brother's birthday. It seemed like a typical evening when I was there but tonight was a little different. After all, I've been going through some stuff with my best friend for the last 15 years and my mom told me tonight that I had to forget him. It's strange to think that her solution to my problem was to let go and I think she might have some of it right, but I can't do that. I can't give up on what has been the most rewarding friendship I've ever had.

It's strange. Ever since I graduated from college, I've been feeling more and more disconnected with the people around me. I don't think I've really added any new friends since then, or any close friends anyway. Well, besides my co-worker Lyneen, who basically knows everything that's going on in my life. I don't know...I've always been an extremely private person, so much so that I think I miss out on a lot of things that I wish I didn't.

I keep people at a distance where it's more comfortable if something goes wrong because it always seems like something does. And while I know it's probably that distance that causes the problem, I don't know how to change it. I know that my being distance and bottling things up caused some of what went wrong in my last relationship. I knew it while it was happening. And it certainly kept me from becoming more outgoing in college. It sometimes feels like I've built up this mask of who and what I am to everyone else that I can't possibly let it down now.

But the good news is that recognizing the problem is the first step to solving the problem. And I know that I've done somewhat better in that area recently. I'm actually keeping in touch with some friends that I don't normally call, which is a step in the right direction. I was, for a brief period of time, a texter, but I'm moving away from that. And I think I'm going to find out what my cousins are doing this weekend and see if I can meet up with them at some bar or another. I need to get out there and meet some new people because I don't want to keep feeling like I'm alone when the work day is over.

Elsewhere, march madness kicked off tonight. I watched some of the play-in game (or what I like to call "the opportunity to get your ass kicked by North Carolina" game) and it was poorly played. Well, I shouldn't say poorly played. There was a lot of effort from both teams, but neither team really had any offensive flow going. Perhaps it was good defense and perhaps it was just shoddy game planning, but I can't say that either team has a remote chance of playing more than the UNC beating that's about to come. I haven't really watched any college basketball this year and as a result, I'll probably suck when I fill in my bracket. Then again, perhaps I'll do extremely well as I'll be picking off tried and true methods like "which team has a better mascot?" and "which coach looks less like a cereal killer?" Those ones always tripped me up when I actually watched, so who knows what will happen this year.

Spring training is only 2 weeks away and the Cubbies have pretty much decided that Kerry Wood is going to be their closer. My least favorite columnist not named Skip has already bashed the idea, insisting that Carlos Marmel is the way to go. But Jay Mariotti, you don't mention in your column that you're a lunatic. If Wood fails or gets hurt, Marmel is still in position behind him. But if you give the job to Marmel and he fails, Kerry Wood isn't going to be able to pick that role up. It's just not going to work that way. Normally I don't like to praise the Cubs, but putting Kerry Wood in the closers role is one of the best ideas they've had in a long, long time. Way to go Sweet Lou.

I'm going to head down to CoMo on April 3rd. Anybody who's going to be in that area and wants to get together, let me know. I'd be glad to see you.