That's what the internet is for?

I've been lucky enough to have 2-3 good friends, but these were formed 20+ years ago. I talk to my on-line friends much more regularly, and it's been so much easier to find folks more like me on-line than I'm going to find around here.

There probably are some people like me in this neck of the woods, but being different from the "natives" is not something anyone advertises.

Heck, we stand out just by not having one of the handful of last names that is prevalent around here.

I make pleasant chit-chat with people I come in contact with (although it took a long time to get that down--it took a couple of years to come up with a good answer to "so, how many kids do you have?" and the like) but I've had more luck meeting on-line friends IRL than interacting with people around here. I'm pretty sure I know the qualities I have and that I value...but the geographical environment in which I find myself isn't conducive to finding those qualities in other people.

I'm just grateful I live in the communication age that I do. Beats snail-mail pen-pals, I guess.

cm