Do you pick your friends, or do they pick you?

I think it's a mutual occurrence. If I'm not interested, it won't matter if they come on to me. If they're not interested, I won't press the matter. Most of my new friends come from work or friends-of-friends, where we share interests.

It's a combination of both, I guess.

Both, of course; you can't establish a friendship if the two people involved are not both willing to do so.

Actually, they're both accurate to a degree. I have actively befriended people and been befriended by people. More commonly, we'll become friends without any effort by either of us.

My friends pick me, but I pick my boyfriends.

daver: I first read your comment as "I have actively beheaded people"

Anon: Oooooh! Ask Daver about his "bash the rooster and stuff it into the barrel" ale recipe :)

**anonymous: I did just get a very nice axe that would be suitable for beheadings, should the need arise.

It's a more mutual thing. Often it depends on schedules and proximity. The people I meet whom I like and manage to make plans with and spend time with, become friends. I have some friends where we're really just acquaintances who really like each other, because we've never managed to put in the time to really become friends.

OK, on second thought I think I pick my friends more than the reverse, but the reverse does also happen. Perhaps it depends on how open people are to being picked.

I've always found that selecting friends is pretty much like selecting a mate, there is a chemistry there. You seem to have the same life values, the same sense of humor, similar education, similar hobbies or interests, maybe some mutual friends & are of a similar economic status. I tend to have many acquaintances & few close friends. The newest friend was one I made a couple of years ago & we just clicked right from the first moment. She has a wacky sense of humor & is always up & happy with an insatiable curiosity plus being very fair in all her dealings. She doesn't gossip & only wants to help people. She is one of those rare ones who will be a friend forever & I already feel like I've known her forever. We rarely see one another & rarely talk on the phone, but we email back & forth a lot & go out socially once a month & I can be sure that she will always be there in a crisis.

I am not sure if my friend's pick me, but I do know that there is an instant "click" that goes off in my brain when I first meet people who will become my friends.

I speak my mind, and for some reason I have very few friends. Does that mean the world is full artificial people or just weak people?

or that my mind is marching right left, right left?

OK jen I know the mind kant march. I was speaking figuratively.

jen: you can if you are good friends

I pick my nose

You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friends' nose!

um.. what daver said originally..

Yeah, what Mimi said.

I can think of one specific instance where a good friend of mine picked me. Most of the time, though, it is a mutual thing.

miykal: it means you're full of yourself.

We sniff each other out.

Neither is really accurate... the best way I can put it is that I notice that I seem to be friends with people. It just happens.

my friends pick on me

I pick my cats nose

bill - your friends pick on you

just shoot me now.

Also, I pick my nose. But I never pick my friend's nose.

i think it is a combination of things and force higher than us!

i don't necessarily go out of my way to make friends, if someone makes the effort to know me, and i mean really know me, then we become friends, guess it's just my way of not getting hurt, i leave all the responsibility on other people, i know that's not fair, but that's just me

Both. It just sort of happens. No 'actively' about it.