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I was watching Clerks II yesterday (for the third time!) and I feel a lot like Randal at the end, where he's lamenting how he doesn't want to have to start making new friends at his age. I feel the same way.

It's so much easier to become complacent, to live in your own insulated bubble.

Craig made a good point about it yesterday. He said that there are different stages in your life where you make friends. In school, it's the people you go to school with. When you're in college, it's the people you live with and take classes with because you have similar interests. When you get a job, it's the people you work with, and then when you have kids, you make friends with the parents of your kids' friends.

We moved in-between stages.

I had already made the work friends, and the people-with-similar-interests friends. Then we moved. Now I work from home most days, so my opportunities to meet people are much smaller. Even the days I do go to the office, my coworkers are all older than I am, or we just have absolutely nothing in common. They're nice enough acquaintances, but I probably wouldn't go further than have lunch with them one day.

We of course don't have children yet.

I'm still puzzled as to how grownups make friends. Especially ones that live in the wings like I do. I'm not like everyone else, and consequently, I've attracted a husband who's not like everyone else. We don't watch sports, or Desperate Housewives. We don't like going to bars or clubs and dancing. Our taste in music is even along the sidelines. The fact is, we're specialized in what we like.

So we spend a lot of time online. When your social network is the WORLD, the opportunities to find the commonalities are that much bigger. And we've made some really lovely online friends. But when the people you feel closest to on the inside are possibly on the other side of the continent or across the ocean, it doesn't really make for good dinner plans.