I’ve always been sort of a crummy friend.
Because I’m pretty content with my own company, I don’t call to chat about nothing in particular, I don’t want to schedule play dates every weekend and I don’t drop in just because I’m in the neighborhood. For the most part, it’s fine with me if we conduct much of our socializing via e-mail. We can have loads of fun road-tripping to a concert, geocaching in the woods and taking a Tai Chi class together, but let’s not overdo the togetherness, OK?
The old friends I can count on two fingers know all this about me, and they’ve wisely collected a lot of other friends to fill in the blanks and satisfy their socializing needs.
About a year ago, I moved away from the longtime friends I can count on two fingers and now live in a town roughly 100 times larger than my old home.
Surprisingly enough, I must have managed to sneak into town without notice. The people looking for a crummy friend like me apparently don’t even know I’m here, yet. Obviously, they’re as crummy at friend-making as they are at friend-keeping – a quality I understand completely.
How do I go about finding these women who won’t want to do a bunch of stuff and won’t be phoning me all the time?
How can I get them to surface, these gals who will be content having lunch every 6 months and spending an occasional afternoon visiting antique shops or seeing a chick flick? How can I show them that I, too, might feel smothered if we see each other two days in a row?
OPENINGS AVAILABLE: busy new friends with low expectations.
