I used to hang out with boys....period

I don't know when it happened, but suddenly I'm not even a buddy to the boys. I never thought I would say this, but I kind of miss being the buddy. I'd get the cool nicknames and get to hold hands (because I was the buddy they felt that was okay). Now...now I am nothing, maybe a smile and a 'hello', is it because there is so much buddy material floating around me that I am no longer considered a cool buddy to have? Have I changed so much over the past couple of years?
In high school I had my group of boys that I hung out with and every Tuesday and Thursday we would play the sport that was in season. We played basketball in the cold, baseball in the spring, hockey in the parking lot of the doctor's office. They were my boys and I was the only girl in the group, if any other girls tried to move in on it they were usually my friends who were a bit jealous and who failed miserably to be as cool as I was.
I found that I was much the same in college. The buddy, the girl who you went to when you had girl problems, because for some reason guys think that because we are a girl we understand all girls. If only they knew how different we all really were. I didn't understand the motivations for half the girls these boys would be interested in. Yes, being the buddy brought heartache because I fell for more than one of my "buddies", how could I not? I saw the real them and they enjoyed hanging out with the real me, and even though I cried many nights because in the end the guys didn't want me as anything more than a buddy, it was better than being all alone.
Okay, so the real reason I was writing. I went to the dentist this afternoon and as I was sitting in the dentist chair reading a magazine waiting for my cleaning, I remembered an apartment of boys I used to hang out with who owned a green dental chair much like this one:Minus the strange contraption on the head rest. I used to hang out with a lot of cool boys. Sumo-wrestling in the snow, coed hockey teams, Sunday night game night, cheerleading for a flag football team, playing on a flag football team. Yeah, I used to be cool, what the heck happened and can I get back to being cool again??
There was even this kid Mike who watched Lord of the Rings every day but he was still a cool guy. I used to watch it with him almost everyday too. I still remember the day that I stuffed my bra and walked up to him sitting on my couch and pointed at his leg asking if that seat was taken. When he called my bluff I sat next to him instead and went on and on about how I noticed him trying to hold my hand and he could hold it now if he wanted to (which he grabbed my hand and held it, I need to see if I can find that picture). I also went on about how I noticed he was wearing orange and orange was the color of passion. The whole joke inspired the soundtrack, "Is This Seat Taken - and other songs Mike sings in his head when I pass by." Which yes, I gave to him at the end of the year. Yeah - I used to make creepy look cool.