There are friends, and there are friends

1) There are the ones that make you laugh. Laugh and laugh and laugh.
2) There are the ones that laugh at your jokes. They make you feel good.
3) There are the ones that share the same interests as you. You can bond.
4) There are the ones that will gladly watch a movie with you. They make good dinner companions.
5) There are the ones that will call you up when you hit rock bottom. They lift you up when you are down.
6) There are the ones that will call you up when they hit rock bottom. They make you feel needed.
7) There are the ones that share your sense of humor. I know this could be redundant to 1 and 2, but not necessarily.
8) There are the ones that truly understands you. Very rare.
9) There are the ones that will actually change your behavior. This is obvious when you find yourself acting the same way as the person, or you find yourself quoting the other person a lot, etc. This also goes for vice versa; when they act the same like you.
10) There are the ones that you can honestly call "best friend."

I spent some time yesterday with someone who hit 10/10 on this list. And the funny thing is, I don't think we're even all that close. I sometimes wonder why that is, and I realize it's because our lives are still pretty different. And maybe I should somehow be more picky in who I call "best friend." But I guess it's not always the closeness of the friendship or how often you see each other that counts -- what counts is the amount of enjoyment you have when you ARE together. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

I could totally write a self-help book on this stuff.