argh.

I swear, some people are just put on the planet to make you feel like you've completely missed the point of "youth" and/or "potential." You know what I mean? The people you know who always seem to be doing something cooler than you, something just slightly more obscure or artistic or interesting. Sometimes you're welcomed into their hyper-active lives and it's a whirlwind and you love it but you never quite figure out where they come up with the idea to do all these things. How do you even hear about so many events?

Social capital, that's the answer. People who really take advantage of the "it's not what you know, but who you know" thing. Slash, schmoozers and networkers and hyper-friendly people. The more people you know, the more events you hear about, the cooler at least some of those events are bound to be. It's simple arithmetic.

My problem is that I much prefer the consistent company of a select few to the social butterfly lifestyle. I'm not a homebody or antisocial, it's just in my nature: I overindulge in everything, including people. I meet someone, I like them, I want to spend time with them and 4 times a week doesn't seem excessive to me. I fit my life around it.

Other people seem to be more abstemious (GRE word o' the day! slash, WordsThatDon'tDefineMe.com) -- they meet with a rotation of up to, what, like 50 acquaintances? something like once a month each. That's exhausting. That is a lot of scheduling and not ditching, first of all, and on top of that, it's a lot of coordination, memorization of personal details and showmanship. Those kinds of relationships require you to always be your Show Self -- always witty, always cool, always ahead of the trends, always showing off a little. It's not easy to entertain people all the time; it's actually kind of a pain in the *ss. And after all that, you know you can't actually call any of those people if you want to be your low-key self on a Sunday afternoon, or need a sympathetic ear when you've had a bad day. It's a lot of work for what I would consider a relatively small payoff. So maybe you hear about more concerts than you would have otherwise or you get invited to house parties where you meet more of these acquaintances. But mostly all you come away with at the end of the day is a false sense of social security and cirrhosis of the liver from all those parties. Lame.

Slash, I'm 24. Shouldn't that be what I want?