Nothing Interesting that's something this time

I think that many friends are better as long-distance friends. Friends that you look forward to talking on the phone with once or twice a week, or even less frequently. I especially look forward to visiting with these friends over dinner or for an afternoon when I am in their area. With the best ones I experience the time-lapse effect of completely bypassing the awkward introductory period. We can just jump right in to the banalities of our new families and houses and projects at work, instead of the old ones of idealized college dreams or high-school promises.

But that's it...if my long-distance friends come to visit, after two days they are driving me crazy. Sometimes I even ask myself why I am friends with them. But when they leave, I am ready to get back on the phone and ask how the trip home was. When I lived in Hawaii, I had people coming out of my old, old picture books to visit. Each individually suddenly realized how long it had been since we had seen each other, and had to rectify the situation. With free room and board. I even had two of my old high school students come out to visit after they had been through two years of college. Let's just say that they wore out their welcome fairly quickly.

Most of my friends are long-distance friends. As I think about it, there aren't too many people that I have met who have to be in my life on a daily basis. Or weekly, for that matter. I can occupy myself just as well. But I still want these interesting people in my life, and I think that I must play a small part in theirs. I guess we can build each other up from afar enough to make the continuing effort worthwhile.