Many-to-Many: Redefining friendship

Many-to-Many: Redefining friendship

I plan to continue the friend string, partly because I like it, and partly bc I received overwhelming positive feedback (yes, like 3 people said something nice about -- all 3 people who read my blog). The will be a good time to discuss this topic further, but for now, off the top, I have some initial reactions:
* I am comforted by the fact that David, and his commenter, all define friendship how I did: quality one-on-one time, and the effort to spend it.
* The big bear hug is problematic for me. As a Californian, I am prone to the big bear hug when seeing friends esp if I haven't seen them in a while. However, I have a bony chest without much padding to protect me there. Invariably, someone (often myself) has something in that general area that stabs my chest. Can we all agree to transition to a less intense hug and a kiss on one cheek? (My chest is still sore from when Forest was in town earlier this week and I stabbed myself with my own hoody.)
* My friends never take off their shoes and stink up the room with their feet. My friends are perfect (and astoundingly beautiful) and never have stinky feet.
* Friendster: I still don't get it. Of course I have friends who I keep in touch with mostly thru Friendster, but that's just cuz we aren't organized enough to keep track of each other’s emails. On the other hand, why do people I don't know keep asking me to be their Friendster? I might correspond with you if you say something interesting, but I am certainly not going to commit to a friendship with someone I know only thru their profile. That would be disrespectful to my real friends and entirely miss the point (as I see it). Same goes for Tribe.
* This issue about prefering to be with your family watching TV scares me a little. I mean, I am glad this David character likes his family, but doesn't he also want friends? What happens if his wife dies or leaves him (goddess forbid)? Is it wrong to spread yourself around a little just to avoid pain? Hmmm. Ok, maybe that's not the issue. Maybe I am happier when I have a variety of inputs, and when I am happier and more interesting, I have more to offer the people I am closest to.