Pix, not sure if I've said it here yet or not, but you did good by your beautiful boycat. And it sucks. I would advise against doing an unintentional wake by sorting all your photos of him for an afternoon. That way leads to a painful-face the next day, trust me.

smonster,

I am so glad you are on the upswing. That must feel really good. Did your psychiatrist pick up on it as well?

Well, this was my first session with a psychiatrist here, so it was really weird giving him the whole backstory and trying to represent it accurately. My psychiatrist at home definitely saw a difference - I switched to Zoloft and changed jobs at about the same time (Oct. 2010), so I really don't know what's what.

I’m going to miss him a lot.

Byron was a wonderful cat and you gave him the best life. And he returned that love. I am sorry for your loss and thinking about you all tonight.

So there's this girl I've had a general crush on for approximately 20 months, but I haven't really done anything about it because what's the point. But I figured that if there was one girl I knew that I would ask out, it would be her (well, there are others, but I thought she had the highest probability of dating yes).

Since I am the dateless wonder, I take female friends to my company holiday party so I'm not so alone. This year, I asked her, and she said it sounded like fun.

When I messaged her to confirm her availability, she did. And also spelled out in no uncertain terms that it should be clear to everyone we were just friends, we're friends, she wants to hang out with her friend, she's not interested in a date.

Why do I even ever entertain the slightest notion, the tiniest inclination to actually ask a girl out? Now I'm getting rejected even without asking! (This is actually the second time I've been preemptively rejected, but I wasn't interested the first time.)

So sorry for your loss, Pix.

Ugh P-C, I've been in that situation too many times. It's hard, no lie, but in a week or so you'll be happier to let her go her way.

Pix, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Polter, it's too bad you didn't have the mental wherewithal to laugh--textually, anyway--and say "Oh, gosh, no, I can't imagine anyone thinking I'm dating you."

Once I stressed to a guy that it wasn't going to be a date, because I didn't want to be that chick that led him on, and then "suddenly" said no after we were getting on so famously. That's a really uncomfortable place to be in, and if she suspects that you do Like like her, she might be trying to spare you a very awkward scene in the future.

The guy I told that regarded it as a date anyway, and the next day sent me a long email about how well suited we were romantically for each other. And then (in front of me) told other guys to ask me out platonically if they wanted to go on a stealth date with me.

Which is all sorts of behaviour you wouldn't indulge in, PC. But it's the sort of thing women can be trying to forestall, without trying to act like a bitch.

Yeah, I can see her position and desire to avoid a certain awkward situation. And it's probably better to know and move on. But it's annoying. And doesn't help my general state of mind.