Friends

Friends...several kinds.
Like most people, I've always had a very small, close knit group of friends that know me very very well. My close friend circle has always grown and shrunk over the years, with some friends dropping off the radar due to us moving around. However, there has always remained a few people in my life who I know always have my back, as I have theirs. These are people I have defended, stood up for, cared for, and shown kindness to. This also includes some friends who were super close for a while, then we drifted apart only to pick up that trusting chemistry the minute we reconnected.
The other kind of friend is the one I keep at a distance, the one I love dearly but know from experience that they haven't always had my back. In fact, sometimes I've been witness to these people throwing me gently under a big yellow bus. Why they do it is beyond me, except I wonder why they waste their time trying to act like they really like me, if they don't underneath it all? This category, as in all friendships, includes family members. Recently a good friend of mine and I talked alot about how family members are the ones who do this quite frequently. It's very common, even among the tightest clans. Also, I've kept some friends at arms length because I have to in order to have any kind of privacy. Discression is not everyone's greatest virtue.
The worst kind of "friend" is the frenemy. These are the ones you already know you don't really care about but they insist on orbiting your life like a dying star puttering out sulfuric gas. These people give out compliments lined with razor blades. The compliments are really full of insult, and they are about as warm and fuzzy as a rhino's hide. I have met alot of these type of friends through out life, mostly at jobs. One time, I had a fun get together with about 20 people at our home in PC. A woman came who clearly didn't like me, who was always asking me about my marriage, my background, and clearly had a competitive itch to scratch with me. My own gentle husband, stood up for me and told me during that party that she was never allowed in our house again. Enough said. That particular woman was never invited again, and even years later tried to track me down in Myspace! can we say nutso? Anyhoo... that's one extreme from the other. I'm sure we all have our relationships that are tried and true, and have maintained their trustworthiness. Whatever your friends are like, they should never be hard work!