Surreal relations

Human relations are weird. I have this friend 20,000 K away. I haven't seen her for 6 years but she's my best friend in the world. She understands me completely despite the distance in both kilometres and time apart. Then I have this friend who utterly and completely disregards the existence of the Internet (no, I'm not making this up). We use to talk a lot over the phone but since he got a cell phone (instead of a house phone) that went down the toilet due to his being a cheap bastard. So now we almost only communicate thru text messages (and the occasional meeting every 5-6 weeks). Weird indeed. I know him and his habits well. And the same goes for my friend in that far away place on the other side of the world. But then on the other hand, I've come to know this other guy thru a horror movie message board with whom I have spoken to extensively about, ahm, love (yes, he's a guy and I'm a guy and yes we can talk about... that. And we're not gay). In contradiction to my other two aforementioned friends I have never met him, nor spoken to him, or know what he looks like. Or anything. Sometimes you think about whether a friendship would last if you stopped talking to each other and only wrote emails or letters. But then on the other hand, what if an email friendship were to end simply because you met and found out you didn't like you saw? Didn't like their looks. Or you found out the mano a mano chemistry just wasn't right? Or you discovered they had a bad body odour. Weird stuff to think about indeed. Or maybe you DID like them but never heard from them again because for some reason THEY didn't like you (obviously the aforementioned reasons wouldn't apply since yours truly has the looks of a Greek god and the smell of the most beautiful rose you could ever find in the garden of Eden). But weird stuff indeed. As I wrote in my post yesterday I spoke extensively with Diabolik of Cinehound Forum. Actually I met him years ago, only once and only for about ten minutes. We then 'met' at Cinehound... which is kind of odd seeing that Cinehound is located in Athens, Greece, which is a 1000 K away and we live within a hour's distance from one another. Anyway, we met and have spoken thru the Internet quite a bit but when we met in person recently at a film (geek) fan fair we hardly spoke. It felt kind of weird. But then, as I described in yesterday's post, we spoke at great length over the phone. Weirdness galore. And now we're going to meet again. Wonder how that'll turn out. I'm always hesitant towards people who talk extensively about boozing cos, well, I drink moderately not least due to fucked up health (check the 'about me' section for more info on that). I remember Mark Savage (of Melbourne fanzine 'Fatal Visions' fame) who spoke about Australians and alcohol during some interview in Fangoria (he's also a film maker) and he talked about how Aussies are such heavy drinkers that if you don't drink you are being looked upon with suspicion - which labeled him as suspicious since he doesn't drink at all. I know this other bloke, he's got tons of mates (and I'm one) but I recon he doesn't really have any true friends simply because he's always out and about doing something different, different to what he did just 5 minutes ago. He never stops and allows himself to get to know people, or let them get to know him. A pity really. Or is it? Am I in the wrong here, is it better to have heaps of mates instead of a few good friends. If your few good friends leave you or croak or something, then what's left. Wouldn't it have been better to have another handful of mates to replace the ones that left. No? All weird indeed. Oh, and my leg still hurts. I thought I'd be going back to work tomorrow but... I'm not. No way I'm gonna risk rupturing my poor thigh once again. Hmm, we were talking about friends weren't we! When I was a kid, in fact all thru my childhood, I had this friend, Ingmar, who would live with us thru out the entire summer. From I was 6 y.o. and for almost a decade. At some stage all that stopped and I haven't seen him for many years. Then 6 months ago I'm visiting my folks, the phone rings and my dad says: 'Hey, it's Ingmar!' I answered the phone and sure enough it was him at the other end. It was the weirdest thing ever. I mean, this wasn't a question of meeting or talking to an old adult friend that you haven't seen for a few years. This was talking to a man, an adult, that I had never spoken to before... as an adult. When we last spoke we were kids (or just on the brink of teenage-hood anyway). It was nothing less of surreal. And no less surreal due to the fact that the lingo of the old country was almost lost and... all very David Lynch'ian. But as I said before, starting off this post, different relationships are... uh, I don't know. I'm rambling. Maybe I should just cook some dinner. Be seeing you, mate. Or whatever.