Before I go on about the stuff that I hate, I just thought everyone has to understand that I sat back and didn’t know what to write in this blog over the weekend. And no, it wasn’t because of some comments made in the forums toward my very own blog. This blog is a work of heightened extremes. What do I mean by that? Basically that the things I speak about are true, it’s just at this level that I write very freely about it. In person, I’m more or less the same way, but only if I like you and you get to know me. If I don’t know you, I’m a tad more reserved, and for good reason.

I’ve been burned by a ton of friends before. We all have been down that path of friends we thought were the best ones we could have ever found and then blammo, they stab you in the back with a long jagged edge that you just can’t get out. You can’t shake it off, and you always wonder why. It’s human nature, really. I know in the last 5 years of my life, I’ve been very hesitant about making friends.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m one of the most jovial people you’d ever meet. I can crack wise with the best of them. I tend to be the person in a group of friends who makes the crassest of jokes to break any tension or silence that might kill a mood but instead makes light of any situation. With the groupings of friends I have right now, I feel lucky to have them. They are wonderful. Supportive of my future plans. Wanting what I want in life, which is just to keep on moving forward.

So why the bad choices? Well, sometimes you can’t help it. Like a bad choice in a girlfriend, friends can go that same route. Sometimes even worse. I’ve been threatened by many ex-girlfriends of mine because when we would break up, I’d try to be friends with them. Which in turn made them assume that sex was still on the table. I was all for that if the sex didn’t have to bring along love/feelings and various other relationship stuff, which is why the union was broken in the first place. So when our signals were crossed, then the mayhem ensued.

So what’s with friends? No sex (usually) and it tends to be easier to see them at random intervals. I know my friends right now love me to death (and vice versa) and even if I don’t see them for months at a time, when we see one another again it’s as if nothing has changed. To give an example of my longest running friend, Mike is a kid I’ve known since 6th grade. We were the best of friends up through most of high school and then he went his way with college and so did I. We still kept in touch sporadically but it didn’t change our relationship. Then we just lost contact. Recently he happened to be at my job, getting his computer fixed. It blew our minds. One because we hadn’t seen one another in so long. And two, because he had a kid. His very own offspring. Yet, nothing was different. We caught up, exchanged our new numbers and have been talking like we always did.

Another example of a friend that I had that burnt his bridges with me was this kid Jack from elementary school and junior high. We were close, always going to each other’s houses. Our parents got along. His dad tended to like me more than his very own son, but that’s besides the point. But then things changed when I became the Valedictorian of my elementary school. You see, his mom was a very important member on the PTA in our school and thought her son should have been the choice candidate. The only problem was that the school actually did it fairly and by all accounts, my average was higher than everyone else’s in the entire school by 4 points. So to give you an idea, I had a 99.7 average for my 5 and a half years there and the next person who was got the next honors was 95.6 percent. So from that point on, he decided to back stab me at every chance he got.

When we got into the same junior high, I was excited. Until the day that he lied to this girl who lost her wallet (that he found and kept) and said I had done so. Those next few weeks were some of my worst, because the girl had her friends torment me, calling me a thief  and trying to pick fights with my left and right. I had finally had enough of it and had to tell one of the deans in the school, who then sat myself and the girl down where I explained my story and didn’t understand why she had thought I took the wallet. She told me, “Jack said so.” Which blew my mind. Why would my friend do that to me? He was a jealous fuck, that’s why. Who had many issues with his parents and always tried to show them he was what they wanted in a son, even though that son they wanted was me.

I confronted him and he denied it of course. Luckily the girl and her friends overheard and basically called him the thief and a liar. He went home and cried to his parents but his parents had no sympathy for him. His dad got the belt out and decided to give him some of the old fashioned Bing Crosby love. And his father told me, “It’s sad that we won’t see you anymore James. Loved you like a son. But we don’t want him associating with you and bringing you down his deplorable path.” I was a smart kid, so I understood that.

So the point I’m trying to make is that friends are great. Unless they throw that trust away and throw it down the crapper. Then it’s something I tend to hate. But right now in my life, I’m happy with my friends right now. It’s a great eclectic bunch of people who hate the same things I do and love the same things I do. I can talk movies all day with some, and speak about politics with others. It’s great to have that in life. So we’ll end this one on a good note. And if anyone hated this blog… well, good. At least you’re feeling something.