Some say that the ideal relationship would grow from two people who have been friends first. But some also say that hooking up with your friends is a Bad Idea. So which is it?
Actually I think I'm the only one who thinks it's a Bad Idea. Most other people respond, "Why not? If you're both attracted to each other it might work out all right."
The key phrase being, if you're both attracted to each other. How do you even get to knowing that? With someone you just met, you can kind of tell. They might call you a lot, go out and pursue common interests with you, ask personal questions... But friends do all these things on a regular basis!
Communicating feelings (aka "Making a Move") is a vastly different experience for the friend versus the non-friend. Again, the non-friend has some of the above-mentioned clues to help them calculate their odds. However, the friend is basically left jumping out of the plane, hoping the parachute works but for all they know, they're carrying a backpack full of bricks. And they're blindfolded.
And what if they get rejected? With the non-friend, no big deal. Besides, they can kind of tell before then that they might not be interested in "that way". Again based on clues that they put together like Watson. But with the friend... can we say AWK-WARD? (on a side note, awkward looks awkward when it's all in caps) I would be mortified and worst of all, I'd be scared the friendship may never be the same again.
So I guess I take my opinion back. It *might* work out all right to hook up with a friend, but the balls necessary are just way beyond my reach. So to those of you who have had successful relationships with friends, I salute you and I hope you're very happy. It was a brave thing to do.
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On a slightly appropriate note, I'd like to make an apology to the white guy in the black pick up truck who waved and said hello to me at the Mira Mesa exit. I was a doofus and pretended to ignore you, which was quite rude of me. You were actually kind of cute.