Birds of Various Feathers

I have a friend at work who is pretty darn awesome. She does all kinds of artsy things and has interesting comments about the world. There is another woman at work who refers to this friend of mine as "My friend So and So," as if I am not friends with her, as if I have not gone on outings, had her over to my house, bought artwork from her. This doesn't bother me. I just find it interesting. I find it interesting that in the work world, people can be friends with the same people but SO not be friends with each other. And not even know that we're really close with common people.

I also find it fascinating that the friends we make in the work world are so completely different from the friends we make at school, at church, or through other common interests. My work friends and I are all part of the library world. We can talk about OPACs and "customers vs. patrons" and know what the heck is going on. We can also laugh ridiculously over the people who come up to the information desk and ask for "a book," no particular book just "a book." It's funny to us, but it's not really funny to my college friends.

Ah, college. High school. The friends we are friends with because of a common geographic location, a common class, a common age. I realized the other day that I have no idea exactly how old my work friends are, but I know to the day how old my high school and college friends are...In the work world age is *almost* irrelevant. Surely, I'm closer to those at work who are closer to my age than to retirement, but I don't associate with them strictly because they've got age in common with me.

Friends come in all shapes and sizes, and I'm discovering how many feathers we have. You know, birds of a feather and all that. Clearly people have quite the variety of feathers to coordinate!