Friendship Upgrades

Have you ever seen that email joke which talks about "if women were computer programs" and it mentions the program Girlfriend 1.0 being upgraded to Wife 1.0? (etc etc) DH and I were recently talking about how this concept can be applied to friends. Acquaintance 1.0 can get upgraded to Friend 1.0, to Best Friend 1.0, etc. Theoretically these people can also be downgraded, to Moocher 1.0, Former Friend 1.0, Drinking Buddy 1.0 and so on and so forth. Some people can make it to V2.0 - those who you are friends with, lose touch with, and then re-aquaint yourself with. Having recently been through a rather painful downgrade myself (I was the programmer, not the program), DH suggested that I have some friends who "might need upgrading." All in all it's a very entertaining way to think about one's friends. Friendships also change as you grow older...some people you see often, some not so often. I have friends who I see (in the flesh) maybe only once every 5 years. Once we meet again, it's as though we never had the time in between and we just carry on as it once was. Other friends live in the same city as I do, but I don't see them all that often...but somehow that doesn't seem to affect the quality of our relationship either. Depends on the person I suppose....It's also interesting when people you meet in the normal course of your daiy life suddenly become very important, and interesting when you retain friends you dind't think you would. Often the ones who I don't think have 'staying power' end up being the very ones who get upgraded! Friendship is a funny thing. I have this on the brain tonight because I was at 007's birthday drinkies when someone asked me how I knew her. The truth is I only got to know her as well as I do now AFTER we had known one another (literally not biblically) for a long while. She and I got to be friends because the circumstances of our lives had us suddenly spending a lot of time together....I wonder if we would have the friendship we have today if we hadn't had that opportunity. Life, and friends, are just like that, I guess...where opportunity and inclination result in something wonderful. What can I say, my friends rock. :)