Friends should have a trial period.

So, I'm just pondering. Do friends have an expiration date? Maybe we should all acknowledge a certain waiting period before deciding if we will truly be friends or not. You meet someone, you think- "hey you're swell, let's be pals!" Then maybe you exchange numbers, emails, facebooks, etc. It's cool. You meet up a few times, you have drinks, you have food, you have conversation. But, soon things change. You hang out less, post less, text less. Your budding friendship apparently did not bloom. Is this a bad thing? I think not. You gave it a shot. One or both of you found your reasons for not taking it further. It's like dating. Eventually you decide you are incompatible.

When you think of it as related to dating it makes more sense doesn't it? But then it gets just as sticky. If you've had dinner at the friend's pad or God forbid-stayed over at this new friend's house, it's much like sleeping with that person you were dating. There's a closer bond, one you can't shake. No turning back now. Plus, now there are friends of the friend that are your friend. Oh, shit. Trouble.

So, now you are still hanging with the new friend AND with the friends you met though them. But, you start to see how high maintenance your common friend is and you start to like the friends of your friend better. Perhaps, they too are new friends and have started to realize how fucked up the friend in question is too. Perhaps, they are just freshman and have yet to experience their downfalls. At any rate, the original friend you made starts to become stray and you think not much of the whole brief interlude.

Yeah right! Now you have common connections. There's no getting away. When your new found, then lost friend is out where you are- you wonder "Wow. They are having so much fun... why couldn't we still have that?" Or "Wow. What a Bitch, so glad I'm not in that circle anymore."  Either way, you're still involved. And in the social media cyber-world, you are doomed. Your status page will constantly remind you of all you are missing- the good, the the bad, the ugly– and don't forget the pretty! You won't delete that new found and lost friend. it piques your curiosity, like an accident on the road. You bitch and moan at the rubber neckers, but your foot eases off the gas as you pass too.

To be continued... leading up to "Friends have an expiration date"