Friending

I often comment that when you move to a new place alone, finding friends is almost harder than finding dates. Granted, some people are able to walk into any room and immediately have 5 new buddies, but I'm not one of those people. Acquaintances aren't the same as kindred spirits anyway. That's the tough part. Anyway, this article pretty much sums it up. Here are my thoughts.

• I don't like the title. We're not in elementary school anymore, needing a new BFF every year depending on who's in our class. I think a girl can definitely have a handful of best/closest friends, but a true BFF should hold a special spot. He or she likely invested a lot of time into learning your quirks and sharing memories and shouldn't have to share that title all of a sudden.


• When I first moved, I assumed that most people I met didn't have room for a new friend, either because they were in serious relationships or because they had been here awhile and I figured they had their own cliques. This was such a wrong ASSumption and kept me from being the one to make the first move. Yes, all my local friends have their own busy lives, but they're still just as willing to make plans with me as I am with them. It's also nice not to search for friends with the same relationship status (or lack thereof). The diversity of having single, dating, engaged, and married friends is awesome.


• As this article says, when the hell IS it ok to randomly ask someone if they want to meet up in an hour? On the same token, is it too weird to go ahead and ask a new friend to schedule something for 2 weeks from now? Do you need to be friends for a period of time before asking for a favor? And are you allowed to dump her if she turns out to be a bummer after a couple of "dates"?


• I think being a girl is great when it comes to this issue. We can totally bond over a simple compliment on someone's shoes or a shared love of bubbly, spas, celeb gossip, and food. I, for one, am hooked with any one of those things. I don't know how dudes do it.