The No No Friends

I have to start by making two comments. One, all my friends matter to me-A LOT! I could go on and on about how much they mean to me but it would be boring and only make me cry. So if I talk to you at all, it means I think highly of you.
Second, I want the world to go my way. I won't even sugar coat it-I am that selfish. Of course, it doesn't always go my way, but just so you know, I honestly wish that it would every single day.
I talked to my friend Jennifer last Saturday. She lives in Texas so I don't see her that often, and neither of us are phone people so I don't talk to her that often either. But I miss her, and I love her to death, and I am really crossing my fingers that she gets a job in Salem, which is a hell of a lot closer to me than anywhere in Texas.
But the truth of the matter is that everytime I spend time with Jennifer, I feel like I am bucking the system. See, Jennifer isn't suppose to be my friend, or it might be that I am not suppose to be friends with her. Either way, I often feel pressure from society because Jennifer is a lesbian and I am not.
I have no problem with Jennifer being a lesbian. It is like being 5 ft. tall or 6 ft. tall-what is, is. And Jennifer and I have talked about this-I forget she is a lesbian all the time. That might offend people but I can't help it. Jennifer talks to me about her girlfriends but since that is how I have always known her, I don't find it odd. (Jennifer has admitted to me that she forgets she is a lesbian as well-liking women isn't all that strange to her either after all these years.) But that is where society wants to trip us up. Childhood friends that "turn" lesbian are okay to keep as friends because when you met them, everyone was just a kid and didn't know "better". Co-workers and family members fall into the same category-you can't really help being around them so they qualify as okay too. But to meet someone who is openly homosexual, not be homosexual yourself, and then go on to call them one of your closets friends is like asking for trouble. The number of people who assume I am gay, and denying myself, are numerous. And that whole assumption comes from the idea that there is no way a straight person is ever so comfortable with homosexuality that they would culitvate a friendship beyond it. Hmm-I am so positive Jennifer is a good person, I would leave my son to her if anything happened to my husband and I.
So where do I get angry? I get angry that society can't accept a friendship, for a friendship. I feel this pressure with a lot of my friends actually. For whatever reason, the phrase "birds of a feather, flock together" seems to be the mantra of people today. So my friends that are good Christians, male, and homosexual almost have to be the same system bucker I am. Because I am okay with friends different than me. Or maybe I should say that ALL my friends have the same basic qualities of being some of the nicest, smartest, most caring people I have ever met and the rest of society is using the wrong criteria to make a friendship work.
Happy Birthday Jennifer-you are just as a crazy now as when I met you!!!