Friends come and go. And there really isn't anyone you can count on for everything.

There's Friend A, whose life seems to have fallen apart over the last few years. In her frequent absences (even when she lived here, which she no longer does, I rarely saw or spoke to her), I would get so pissed at her flakiness. Then we would meet up, and I would remember her intelligence, charm, and grace. Then she would disappear again. Cue the same cycle.

There's Friend C, who took a powder from the Bay Area for more than half a decade. Now he's back and I speak to him less frequently than ever. He can be amusing, fun, and smart. He can also be phenomenally self-centered and unaware of the world around him. Maybe he was always like that. Maybe he's become like that. Does it matter?

These are both good people. Neither of them kill puppies for fun, at least as far as I'm aware. But my friendship with both seems to have revolved around a focus on them, and I'm pretty much done with that.