That’s been the case for some time now, but it struck me today.
Nearly all my close friends are women. Obviously if I’m commenting on it, this is not how it has always been.
I grew up running wild with two brothers. My favorite playmate-cousin was a boy. Yes, I had a female best friend in high school, but in all, my friends were weighted towards boys. After high school–yep, boys again.
Girls were, aside from the few exceptional exceptions, boring. Most girls I found unable to talk about anything interesting, much less willing to do so.
Now, though…I have two close “real life” (as in they live near me) friends. They are both female. I have online friends I have known for years, and am very close to. Most of them are female. My ex-and-still-adored roomie, for instance.
Today I went for coffee with one of my near-me friends. We nursed one iced coffee each, and then ice water, and talked for three and a half hours. And it seemed like minutes. I only knew it had been a long time when my stomach started hurting from all the laughing.
Recently I’ve been visiting my friend D at her house. I take my netbook. We swim in her pool until the kid is worn out, and then she watches TV while D and I talk writing and travel and all sorts of awesome things. I don’t dread circumstances leaving me alone with her mother, either–a forty-year schoolteacher, she has some fascinating stories to tell. It’s a rare evening when I actually open the netbook, and then it’s because D has hers and we write or edit in companionable mostly-silence.
I exchange email after email with my friend in Australia who is working in my evenings. I go into chat and talk and work for hours with the mostly-female contingent there.
And I have to wonder–did all those other women grow up, or did I? 😉
I’m very similar! I grew up (almost) one of the guys (especially since I was so geeky. 🙄 ). Now, I can barely count a guy friend in my circles (other than my husband, of course).
…what I’m wondering about is… what happened to the guys? 😛 Did they, uh, regress? 😉
Maybe? As they age, they seem a lot more concerned with the things that made me roll my eyes and walk away from the girls twenty years ago.
“How’s my hair?”
“Does this car make me look younger?”
“Which teeth whitener should I use?” 😉
I’m… about half-and-half at this point. I’ve always had female friends though; I just preferred to be around the boys. 😉
I suspect tedious women tend to disappear from one’s social life more readily than tedious men for a variety of reasons. The women that annoy me generally don’t like my company any better than I like theirs. With guys, I think sometimes they figure there’s always the chance their manbits will like your ladyparts. My male friends tend to be of the oblivious persuasion (and very focused on their careers/interests), so.
*snerks at guys sticking around*