G. Love said "ain't nothing wrong with the booty call," and he was right when he said, "Everybody want a booty call now and then." It is the best of both worlds: You get laid and you don't have to deal with the strain and pressure of a relationship. This is not to say that we should live our whole lives jumping from one booty call to another. Some people do, of course, and if that is what they want, well, more power to them. But I find that a sting of booty calls can get tiring and wear a person down emotionally, even to the point where one wants a steady solid relationship.
A big problem is that sometimes the booty call starts to turn into a bona fide relationship. Sometimes this is a good thing and both people are happy, but sometimes people get hurt. I have been on both sides of the situation, and it is never easy. The easiest way to avoid the problem of pain is to just talk about the situation, but this is rarely done, either out of fear for what will be said or for just not wanting to deal with the issue. Even when the terms of the booty call are discussed, it can still lead to one person wanting more, even though it was specified that nothing was supposed to develop.
The fact is that every booty call is different, just as every person is different. Some people will always stay the night after a booty call, others will take the person out for dinner or breakfast, and still others believe the booty call consists of sex and that is it. Whatever your own personal views on the subject are, make sure you take this into account when deciding whether something more is supposed to come from this casual encounter.
One of the best pieces of advice I can give on the subject of booty calls, relationships and hookups in general is this: Approach each one with an open mind and try to forget the baggage of past relationships. I say this from experience in both my relationships and booty calls. I was once hurt pretty badly in a booty call-like relationship with a friend, and afterward I realized I would end things in other hookups, only to realize a week or so later that I wanted to be with that person again. The same thing happened in my dating life during high school when I got dumped once and swore to never again be dumped. After that I found myself ending relationships I did not want to end and regretting it later.
I guess, in the end, the one fact that must be recognized is that even though the booty call might seem like a simple arrangement to this complex thing we call love, it is not always as simple as we would ideally like it to be. This must be taken into account - just because it is a booty call and strings are not supposed to be attached, people can generally still get hurt in some way.
So communicate, make sure you are both on the same page throughout the relationship and hopefully it will decrease the chances of someone getting hurt.
If anyone out there in Love Land has any questions, feel free to send an anonymous line at photos@theeagleonline.com box in front of The Eagle office at MGC 252.
