The pros and cons of imaginary friends.

I've had lots of friends my whole entire life.  I've never needed to make up imaginary friends, and honestly, my non-sleeping imagination is a little bit lazy (but my sleeping one -- whoa).  Now, I'm a homebody for sure.  I'm not a fan of going out, or spending all my time with people, or steering clear of alone time at all.  But let me tell you what, living in a new city can suuuure make a body relish relationships.

Just for the sake of juxtaposition, let me tell you a bit about my college years.  I already told you I never really went out; however, living in campus housing for three years and with a dear, dear friend for the fourth, I was never left wanting in the friend department.  That's actually my favorite thing about college, and the thing I miss the most by far: having at least twenty friends within walking distance, many of whom would be happy to hang out on short notice.  Choices, immediacy, and no need for pre-planning.  Perfection.  No, wait -- the scheduled weekly dinners with my darling dinner group were the highlight of it all.  I miss those times more than anything.

Now let's take a look at my current situation.  My best friend lives over half an hour away, so we see each other once or twice a week.  That wouldn't be often enough...if I actually had the energy to see anybody on a weekday.  But that's beside the point.  Anyway, she lives far away, and so does her fun roommate, and my friends from school are either A.) tired like I am B.) live far away C.) have families that they need to spend time with or D.) all of the above.  I love them, but our lifestyles don't make for easy regular hang-out-ness.  We have a BLAST at school, but I personally would like to have a blast outside of school every now and then as well.

That's where my imaginary friends come in.

Are you familiar with personality projection?  Oh, I am.  That's because I do it all the time.  Here's how it works:  I choose someone who is famous or somehow noteworthy, and I decide what they're like.  I generally do this under the guise of psychological hypothesis, but it's really just me giving traits to people I don't know.  Case in point?  The entire college baseball team the four years I was there.  In my head, we were all best friends, or we would be if we ever would've met.  I would think stuff like, Oh, that guy, I can tell by his musculoskeletal structure that he enjoys outdoor activities, so he would probably take me fishing, and his alpha-male-ness would like the fact that I don't bait my own hook.  And his easy smile probably means that he is kind, but he's got that mischievous twinkle that means he would love bantering with me and playing jokes on each other.  Did he just order Mexican food from that place in the dining hall?  I LOVE Mexican food.  We would probably go on dates to places that have Mexican food, and I bet he would be a big fan of my chicken tacos.  We're totally MFEO.

That's pretty much the way it goes for me, baseball player or not.  Creepy, right?  I know.

So, that's kind of how I spend my time.  I'm sad right now, because I just watched a few episodes of last season's The Office, and Michael Scott left.  And I cried.  And I cried the most when Jim Halpert got a little teary about it...because Jim is one of my crushes.  My poor Jim is sad that Michael is leaving, and he said Michael's the best boss ever even though he's ridiculous.  That just shows how quality Jim is, and it shows that he values a person's motives and character instead of their actions, and that's really sweet and understanding of him.  That's so adorable.  We're totally MFEO.

When Law & Order: Criminal Intent ended not this past season, but the one before, I bawled when the captain died.  BAWLED.  And don't even get me started on how Vincent D'Onofrio and I are soul mates simply based upon how well he plays Bobby Goren in that show.  But we have so much in common, and he's smart, and I'm smart, and he's probably a melancholy-choleric, and I'm a sanguine-phlegmatic, so we're totally MFEO...

...except that he's not REAL.

So.  Pros to having imaginary friends?  They do what I want, and they're always there (as long as I have books to read and television episodes saved on my DVR...speaking of which, have I told you about that Criminal Minds episode with Alex O'Laughlin in it yet?  Oh my goodness.  He's a serial killer, but it's because he's OCD, and with my people skills and psychological intuition, I could SO help him.  We're totally MFEO.).  Cons?

Ehh, I don't know...I can't really think of anything.  Oh well.