From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhtsa!alice!npoiv!houxm!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!hall
Newsgroups: net.singles
Title: friends and hugging - (nf)
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.1910
Posted: Thu Apr 21 04:35:02 1983
Received: Wed Apr 27 06:19:32 1983

#N:uiucdcs:26600039:000:950
uiucdcs!hall    Apr 21 01:47:00 1983

I've got a woman friend (platonic) whose actions are confusing
at the moment. It's not earth-shattering, but I'm  curious  if
others have encountered this. I'm one that usually likes to hug
someone on a friendly basis. The first time you do this, it's
usually made clear if the recipient likes it or not. I can handle
that either way. Well, my friend now has a slightly different
reaction. Sometimes she's very friendly and indeed is often the
"hugger" and not the "huggee". But other times she's quite cool.
We are talking about friends here, and by far the most important
things to me are sharing feelings and her company in general, but
these fluctuations are new to me. She's really a super friend (the
best); I'm just frustrated at times when I don't know what's expected.
It just somehow sounds blunt to ask "Do you want me to hug you?"

Anyone out there know someone like this?
--John R. Hall, University of Illinois, (...pur-ee!uiucdcs!hall)