Fnord wrote:
There are lots of people who are nice to me when they see me, but who otherwise seem to forget all about me when I'm not around. This includes relatives, co-workers, neighbors, and people at church.
Do they count?
Those are not friendships. They are "situationships". Real friends think about you when you're not around, and demonstrate that they do so, usually by communicating with you in-between the times you are involved in your joint activity.
I have many "situationships" and only a couple of real friendships. 3-4 would probably be the max I could handle, anyway. It seems very hard to find the right person who will be a real friend.