Friends

Often when I meet someone that I get along with really well 

there is a common formula that occurs. First, I meet the person 

and am infatuated by them. I will think they are the most 

perfect person ever because I will only look for the good things. 

My internal monologue is something like: 'Oh man, this person 

is so witty and intelligent. They like the Beatles? I like the 

Beatles! They have exactly the same music taste as me. 

They've read the Secret History? No f-ing way. They find 

Black Books funny? This is getting creepy now. How did 

I manage to find my future best friend here tonight?' The second 

stage is when the person doesn't live up to my unreasonably 

high expectations and I either start liking them slightly less or 

become annoyed by them. Internal monologue changes to:

'Your voice is louder than I remember. How do you not know 

about this obscure historical event that i'm studying? You led 

me to believe you knew everything. I understand all of the words

you are using right now but they don't really make sense in that

sentence. Yeah, you have Bright Eyes on your ipod but it's 

overshadowed by all the Jay-Z on there.' After a while I remember

that I'm not perfect and that everyone has faults and that the

person in question is probably a nice, interesting person and so start 

liking them again. I call this the Obama effect. In saying this, there 

are some people who don't fail my unrealistically high expectations 

and I continue to idolize. I just read this back and I sound pretty

judgmental.