Bliss Sage, thank you for the kind words. In a way, that's the nicest thing anybody's ever said about me.
Ain't gonna lie -- it's been a long road.
It frustrates me too. It's like there's this constant subtext running in any interaction between a man and a woman, sizing each other up, evaluating each other's value, each other's sex-worthiness. I understand it's necessary for mate selection, evolution, blah blah blah, but sometimes I wish it could just... stop. Stop this stupid game. Let's forget about whether you're "good enough" or I'm "good enough", both stop the posturing for position, and just enjoy each other's company, discover and share common interests, etc.
And ya know what's sad? If I ever brought up this sort of thing to a woman in real life, especially an attractive woman, she'd probably be thinking, "Bullshiat, he's trying to trick me into bed."
"Let's just be friends" should be a wonderful invitation, but instead it's almost universally given, and taken, as a wholesale rejection of a person's core sexual identity.
I need to just be friends with lesbians.
There's more discussion on this in the depressingly titled
"I am giving up on male friends" thread.