What is a friend?

I have been having some candid conversations just today with two people that I consider very good friends.

One friend I have known for over 10 years, have shared a third of my lifetime with. Happy events like the birth's of my children, my marriage, and my accomplishments personally and professionally. She has also been there for my tragedies. The loss of my mother to cancer, the loss of my stepfather. The loss of my ability to bear children teamed with my own cancer diagnosis all at the same time. The discovery that I carry the very cancer gene my mother died from. The loss of my job, and my sanity, and the loss of my self esteem so many times.

I have been there for her in many of the same ways.

We have gone through trials in our own relationship that caused us periods of time apart, reevaluating our decisions in our lives, and reevaluating our need for one another. We have always found that we need each other more than we need to fight over things that aren't ours to change. Because our friendship is bound by a love and respect for one another.

The other friend I have only known for a few months, have never met in real life, and have not had memories created with each other. We have not supported each other through our tragedies, we have not celebrated our achievements. What we have done is shared them when we discovered a commonality. We have supported each other in recent illnesses, and job woes, and life challenges, and we have found likenesses that have formed a kindred friendship. A friendship where there is trust, and true caring for each other.

If I were to ask this question of people who do not blog, who do not open up on the Internets, who do not spill their deepest darkest secrets for all to read, the response would be very different. I know that even in our blogging community there are people who do not believe you can trust full heartedly someone you have not met. I know there are some that maybe open up too much and and when we read what they are writing we want to say "why did you just put that on the web?" But there are many of us that truly develop close relationships with their fellow bloggers.

I have met some of my closest allies on the web. Through online birth clubs, and spin off chat groups, and right here on my blog. Many I have met in real life - trusting and caring for them as much as those friends I have shared a lifetime of memories with.

Is this lifestyle that we lead, with people we may never meet, is it a fad? Or is this the way of the future?

No matter what it is, how do you determine who is an "online acquaintance" an who is an "online friend"?

-------------------------------------------------------------------

To end this sharing the love post, I have to gross it up a little...

To this I pose a warning: If you are easily disgusted by bodily excretions, do not read on...

Seriously, where does it all come from? That stuff that keeps coming out everytime I blow my nose. Because seriously, at the rate I am going, I should be losing close to 10# a day.

So where, seriously does it come from? And is there anything I can do to chemically alter my fat cells to come out the same way?