Dating: Who's off limits?

In general, this is a good way to stay out of trouble...

• Colleagues ("don't dip your pen in the company ink")
• Friends of my ex-boyfriends (I just can't do it)
• Ex-boyfriends of my girlfriends (that's asking for drama)
• Guys within a circle of friends ("get it right the first time")

Note: These are good rules-of-thumb, but "rules were meant to be broken".

For example, I've dated a co-worker (no regrets, in this particular case), but that can only be done once, so choose wisely and plan to suffer the consequences if things don't end happily ever after. As for the second guideline, one friend of my ex-boyfriend tried to use the reason, "His chance has come and gone. Why not?" Uh... I'm still friends with my ex-boyfriend. Yes, I might have too many rules. One girlfriend argued that it's difficult to meet people in order to justify dating someone I had met first (refer to guideline #3). In this particular case, the boy was not necessarily an ex-boyfriend, so it was a shade of gray and a test of our friendship. In terms of the last rule, dating a friend can be great (in theory), but your reputation can be tainted if you date everyone in the circle. Not to mention, you can lose mutual friends if the relationship goes south. I may have to add to this list in the future.

[Tags: dating, rules]