This week, I soak in some nostalgia after I missed a friend’s birthday. If you’re in the same trap, you can use birthday reminders! As of now, join in to find out how a friend relives a legend, how an engaged couple isn’t very happy and how bad dates can give you good friends!

Have you ever wondered why you always end up dreaming about people from the past? I often dream about friends back in Pasadena. I find myself hanging out within those familiar school corridors. There are those little nooks and corners that your gang hangs out when you’re living in a small town. In a big city, you may end up not responding to their greetings without an ecard dashboard to keep you posted. That way, you can bring back the distinct flavor of your teenage days. If dreams are your visits to the subconscious, you cannot get over dreaming about people who made up your past.

A few days back, my mind kept going back to a girl I dated in high school. For no apparent reason, she filled up my mind from morning till the end of day. It was a very eerie kind of feeling. And while I was going back home from work, I saw her across the street! You generally have a difficulty in recognizing a long-lost friend. But thanks to my little meetings with her in the subconscious, I could easily know that was her. The surprise was that in my dreams, I don’t get to talk to her. Mirroring those dreams, before I could call out to her, the signal turned green and she was gone!

Someone here is reviving the legend of Martin Luther King, Jr. to make a fresh start this year. Adrian, who’s all set to propose to his steady partner Cathy in February, is looking at this hero for some much-needed inspiration in life. His enthusiasm is infectious and with the amount of reading that he’s doing these days, you had to admire that this guy is really going the whole way! “The past inspires the future,” Adrian told me when I patted him on the back for this rather serious initiative.

The crux of Adrian’s study is that he’s looking at the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. as an example to teach him the meaning of life. Surely Adrian can get plenty of examples of determination and hard work from the man whose contribution to humanity is unparalleled. It would be really something spectacular if Adrian can change his ways and become the person he’s decided to be. The only part we are concerned about is losing out on a friend with oodles of goofy charm!

Meanwhile, Adrian is already planning on the big event of Cathy’s birthday. He’s taking no chances on sending invitations. Adrian is carefully making sure to track RSVPs to the event so that nothing shoots out from the blue to surprise him unpleasantly. Here’s hoping things work out for him!

While Adrian plans his big day, there’s some trouble brewing with the other couple billed for the altar this June: Kate and Henry. Readers of my newsletters would know that Kate works from home, as a freelance professional. Because the job entails that she stayed cooped up at home for entire days, Kate is feeling claustrophobic. Her mood swings like an overworked pendulum, often throwing her partner into a tizzy. No matter what Henry does, Kate receives with a generous doze of cynicism.

Now, if you have been in a relationship, you’ll know that when you run out of patience, you have actually run out of steam. Henry is not unfunny or stuck-up in the least. It’s just that somehow the spark has gone out of this romantic couple since the question of getting married has popped up. After the initial excitement, as the other attributes of marriage started to sink in, they don’t seem like they are in this together. Kate and Henry come across like two isolated individuals grappling to come to terms with a reality that has pulled a fast one on them.

Blind dates are more likely to go wrong than right! If you’ve been in the dating arena for a while, you’d know that dates can go from bad to worse. Your date may talk too much, may not talk at all or may just have nothing common to talk about. There are also those times when you make great conversation but a romantic spark is miles away. At the end of evening, you may find yourself taking each other’s contact numbers to keep in touch. This is not to meet as dates again, but to catch up as friends do.

Megan went through an experience that is very similar to what I’m talking about. The guy she met was fun to talk to, decent and well-behaved but that special chemistry was grossly missing between them. “But I really liked talking to her, you know,” Megan told me, “And I’m actually waiting for a call from him!” The best part about such a turn of events is that you know that the evening was not an entire write-off! At least you have a new friend and friends are a rare treasure these days.

Here’s a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote for you: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”