Comprehensible, comprehensible! Not a bit reprehensible...

Yes, I realize that being ridiculously rich is not a superpower. My point being that it might as well be, the way those people are treated. So give me a break.

Happy fifteenth birthday to my sister, the littlest E.

By my reckoning, there are four people that read this blog. Three of them are close friends. It's the fourth one I want to talk about: M1, this is for you. (Quick side note: I think the Ms 1-3 sound like robots in a science fiction movie, don't you? Like the next episode of Star Wars is going to feature R2D2, C3PO, and M1 as they try to stop Anakin's wacky hijinks.)

I've known M1 for about six months now; we were introduced by M3 and usually only spend time together when she is also in attendence. We don't have any problem getting along: I like hanging out with people who are as good or better than I am (as M1 is, by far) at trading barbs and cracking jokes (see the comments on my last post for an example). This verbal banter and a healthy dose of quantity time has led to an...association that I just can't define and a question that applies to a few people in my life. I also have this question about DTA's friend Maxwell House and any number of M3's other friends, although most of the latter live far away now and are thus less worrisome to my overwrought little brain. Anyway, my question is this: at what point do you get to claim people as your own? When do people become MY friends and not just the friends of friends? Does it make any difference? Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

Some part of me is aware that this isn't really a question at all, that I people are never mine, per se, and I should just be happy when I see them and quit analyzing things all the time. And I am happy to see M1 and Maxwell House and S, but I'm also borderline obsessive about things like this, and by "borderline obsessive" I mean "standing smack-dab in the middle of the capital city of Obsessive, waving a flag and wearing a beanie."

So that's what I'm thinking about today as I copy edit at this half-finished book on Alternative Dispute Resolution and try to get the lyrics to "We Both Reached for the Gun" out of my head. It's going to be a long day.