My only local friend is Netflix...

[jairen82]

and The Office. It works for now...until I run out of episodes. I've always had a problem in the past of friends not returning my phone calls, ignoring my presnece, generally treating me as if I'm invisible. Happened again tonight, and it made me a little furious. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to worry about people, but then I remember that I

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[annissag]

Whoops. I didn't notice I wasn't logged in when I made my last comment. Which is good because my last line didn't come out the way I meant it.

I posted:

"As far as your cynicism...it's difficult to find true friends."

I'm having a hard time with this, too. In the 10 years since I left Washington, I've made all of 1 friend: my husband. Oh, I have acquaintances and sometimes I even go out with them (maybe... once a year or so, if that).

I feel like I'm in a state of arrested development when it comes to friends. Everyone I meet tends to get compared with the people I was friends with over 10 years ago (and am still friends with on some level). The thing is, those friends back then were so good. I don't think it was normal for people to be as close as we were at such a young age. My siblings are constantly surprised that I maintained such close ties with my high school friends.

How do new friends compete with that kind of relationship?

--------

I didn't mean to say that new friends had to compete in such a way that they had to be better than your old friends. In fact, I'm not quite sure how to word exactly what I meant. Do you grok me anyway?

[jairen82]

I certainly do! I think you're saying ideologically your old friends synced up better with you than any acquaintances you may have made in (Ohio is it?). I feel the same way about friends I made in High School and friends I made in College. We were all seeking the same thing, and we really only had time in our lives to play the social game. Once you start working and having a family especially they become your primary concern (your friends) and others are secondary at best...even old friends. So it's not just difficult for new friends to fill the void of friendlessness one might feel, it's impossible, because you're surrounded by the same type of people (people whose friends become the family unit and the primary concern). It's not so much that you couldn't find someone who syncs with you mentally and emotionally, just that you really don't have the time you did before, and that makes it impossible for new friends to compete.

At least I think that's what you were getting at :)

[annissag]

That's better than anything I could come up with. Thanks for taking that plunge into my head to make some sense of my ramblings!