The Importance of Being Breezy

Dating in New York - Double Black Diamond terrain (skiing on the mind) - is not for beginners. After three years I've learned a lot, and one strategy that I've found most successful is The Being Breezy Method of Communication.

Are you familiar with the term "breezy?" It means you're laid back, go with the flow (but not indifferent). It means you Keep The Crazy In. It means you might get the upper hand. Woo hoo.

Before I go on and on about Being Breezy, I figured I should do a little Urban Dictionary'ing to make sure it didn't mean anything else too. Of course it does!

Not what I was going for. Is there nothing innocent left in the world? So, in the future just so we're all on the same page, I'm referring to the second definition, below:

In my terminology at least, Being Breezy is inspired by this scene of FRIENDS:

MONICA: Yes. Well I got his machine and I left a message. But it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, because you know it was like a casual, breezy message. It was breezy! Oh God, what if it wasn't breezy?

PHOEBE: Well, how could it not be breezy, no, 'cause, you're, you're in such a breezy place.

MONICA: Here, I got it. I'll will play my message for you guys, and you can tell me if it's breezy enough.
...
MONICA: (on machine) "Hi, it's Monica. I'm just checking in 'cause I got this message from you and I didn't know if it was old or new or what. So, I'm just checkin'. So let me know, or don't, whatever. I'm breezy."

JOEY: Hey, you can't say you're breezy, that, that totally negates the breezy.

And I'm not the only one who conjurs up this memory when they hear the word. Just the other day my friend Laurel told me a story about how she texted a guy on a Friday afternoon about seeing a movie. The purpose of her text was to sound breezy. "It's snowing and it's Friday, want to see a movie?" Did you feel that breeze? Nice.

While it ain't easy bein' breezy, the alternative is not pretty. We've all acted a little impatient, perhaps a tad dramatic, when it comes to guys. (Otherwise known as the first year I lived in the city and was a certifiable dating psychopath.) But we've grown out of that phase.

We've learned that Being Breezy > CGS.

Seriously. Just ask me about The Russian.

P dot S: If this season of the Bachelor will teach us anything (it most likely won't, and please stop judging me for watching it), it's that having uncontrollable CGS will not take you to the end, Chantel O.

(Except in the case of Michelle, but that's just a case study of the accuracy of the How I Met Your Mother's genius Hot vs. Crazy scale).