Making New Friends!

Have you ever noticed how after being married in order to find a cool couple to hang out with you have to somewhat "date" them? Say, we meet at church, we chat, get along, and I say- "hey, let's exchange numbers!" Then we invite them over. After a nice dinner, talking, they go home and we are left to analyze the evening.

Do we think we might become GOOD friends, or just casual aquaintances?

I find myself thinking about these things when we have new friends over. Am I needy? I don't know. I sometimes feel like I have a somewhat large appetite for interpersonal communcations. I guess I like being liked. And I guess I like knowing that I have the approval, interest, maybe admiration of others. I am oldest child- what can I say. I like being looked up to. I play that role comfortably. I feel happy when I feel like I can show someone "they way things are" .
There's more to why I like being liked as well. It's because for a long time growing up I wasn't liked, or at least didn't feel liked very much. Pretty much through all of 6-10th grades I felt more like an outsider amoungst my peers than included. I really don't know why. I mean I was different than them. In the midwest there's always that whole, being "mormon" thing. No one understood why I didn't drink, smoke, swear, fit in or try to "be (their version of) cool" . I also think because I was an oldest child I had no social examples to teach my how to be socially ept.

Anyway... it's just the way it went and I of course believe that all those young life experiences have played a part in why I am the way I am today. Why I crave interaction, I LOVE having good friends, ones I really feel like we "click" with. We can laugh about crazy things and see eye to eye on most things... as well as appreciating eachothers differences. Really my sisters fit into these categories for me more than anyone else. But over the years a few other people have grown close to us. Felt almost like family, in all the best ways.

I am inviting comments on this post about friends, do you look for new friends, what do you like about them, do you need more or less, or just quality friends?