Dear Adrian,

To increase readership of this blog, I will, from time to time, reply to my emails in this space. In this case, Adrian asked me if I was available to go for a run with him today. We have been running together once a week for the past five months or so. I replied to Adrian’s email on the blog and then sent him an email that contained only the link to this post.

I’m in. Let’s meet down by the bridge at 3:30pm, as per usual. I also wondered if you were available to play a game of pool with me tonight. Flattop Johnnies has free pool from 11am until close (1am) on Saturday nights.

I realize this is the first time I have asked you to socialize outside our normal running routine. We have been enjoying our weekly runs together, and I figured now would be as good a time as any to take this next step in our friendship. Just so we are perfectly clear about the trajectory of our friendship, here is a list of the remaining steps we’d need to take over the next few months to truly become friends:

1. We play a few games of pool at Flattop Johnnies
2. I introduce you to my girlfriend
3. A group dinner: me, with my girlfriend, and you, with your latest match.com hopeful
4. One of us saves the other from a tight spot (one picks up the other from the airport, or helps the other move, or edits the other’s graduate school admissions essay, or takes the other to the hospital after sustaining a broken bone, or watches the other’s pet while he is on vacation, etc.).

After negotiating through these steps, you will probably be on the outer fringe of being wedding-invite material. If, however, you pass the above four steps with flying colors and I still decide not to invite you to my wedding, please don’t be upset with me. I want to have a small wedding and my girlfriend is set on inviting her entire extended family, which is very large.

See you at 3:30pm,
DrG.