I've come to think of myself as one of those people who is not good at maintaining friendships over time. I'm reasonably good at establishing friendships. Turning aquaintances into friends seems to hinge largely on the frequency of contact. This could explain why most of my friends (& girlfriends) have been coworkers at some point. Especially with my current hypersocial job, I've become someone who can strike up a conversation with just about anyone. However continuing the friendship seems to require an externally imposed schedule. It could be work, a regular drinking date, yearly events like festivals and the like. Without these my contact with most 'old' friends seems largely comprised of mutual promises to meet at some vague time and location. Facebook, this blog, or any other kind of social networking doesn't solve the problem. If anything it highlights the pitfalls of trying to keep in touch. Most peoples Updates and posts tend to either be trivial and thus needing no more response than a meaningless thumbs up / like, or they communicate some life changing event like childbirth which is equal difficult to glibbly comment on. My own updates, tend to be content clipped from others or random pictures of my fur children. To try to say anything more meaningful or to try to really catch anyone up on my life reminds me of every horrible Christmas letter I've ever recieved. "My dog made new friend in the park today, his name is Gus. Tails were wagging, butts were sniffed. It was a good day." Or worse, I feel like I'm trying to write some kind of social resume. Instead of jobs I'm listing relationships.
2002-2005 Married,
2005-Present, Committed Relationship.
Instead, today I'm sending out this rant by way of explanation of why I'm a terrible friend. I like having friends. I like keeping in touch. I just suck at it.
