SHE HAS NO LIFE

Dear Jellybean,

I have no life. I have friends and everything but we never hang out outside of school. On weekends, I never have any plans. My weekends are usually spent cramming food into my face while watching chick flicks. When we get back to school after the weekend, they always talk about how much fun their weekends were and I alwasy feel like such a loser around them. Whenever I do hang out with my friends I always feel like they don't want me there and I'm just getting in the way. What should I do?
-No life

Dear No life,

Invite them over! There's no better way to jump-start weekend friendships, than to have people over to your place.

Evening get-togethers are easy to plan. Just come up with an excuse to have a girls-night-in, whether that's an evening watching DVDs, or a sleepover party. Maybe there's a new movie out on DVD that you're dying to see, or you want to celebrate the immanent arrival of summer with a summer movie marathon. Clear it with your folks, then ask a few of your closest friends from school to come over on a Friday or Saturday night, rent the movies beforehand, have a few simple snacks like chips and pop on hand, and let the fun begin.

Or, if you find you're more craving daytime friend time on the weekends, plan an outing to an amusement park, to see a movie, to go watch a parade, or whatever fun is available where you live.

Point is, make the effort. Put yourself out there, and invite people to help you make your weekends more fun. For all you know, they've been waiting for you to do this! Hopefully, it will start a tradition of you seeing (at least some of) your friends on the weekends, as well as during the week at school.