Yesterday, I had an enlightening chat with a friend—one that reminded me how absurdly complicated adult friendships can get. Picture this: a woman, super busy running her own business, juggling life with kids and a grandbaby, who also has a high-maintenance boyfriend—yes, that’s her daily circus. She meets someone new at work who insists they need to hang out—preferably on the dance floor! Cue the confusion and frustration. Why is it that some folks seem blissfully unaware of your busy schedule, wanting to pull you into their fun while you’re just trying to make it through the day? Sometimes, we become mere characters in someone else’s narrative, even when our reality is nothing but juggling knives while blindfolded! This article dives into that hilarious yet poignant reality—how do we navigate friendships when everyone seems to be in their own dance of delusion? Trust me, it’s a wild ride! LEARN MORE
I spoke with a friend yesterday who shared an experience she had. It could have been my experience, easily. But this was her narrative, so let me relay it for you. I told her I might.
I met this gal some years ago, on this blog. She an industrious woman with a ton of faith. She owns a business, which got into in her 50’s. This is why she rarely posts any more. It’s a good story, where her faith paid off.
So she has the business, which she works at full time. She also has a significant commute to her factory. Nearly an hour, each way. Suffice to say, she’s busy. Especially now, because holidays are high season for her.
She meets people on the job. Like me, she has Libra and Capricorn. She presents well. This is how she termed it. We’re similar like this, but I have my mouth and my weirdness. My point is, or rather, her point was, she’s nice. She comes across well. She’s polite! She can go to conventions and represent her business. She stands up, she holds up, she does what she has to do.
So she meets people, and they like her. The like her persona, which is real, but also not a whole person? How can you know a whole person in five minutes, especially when they’re working?
She met the gal in this story in one of these scenarios. They met, they chatted and she wanted to talk again. She wanted go to lunch or something.
My friend said she was busy, which she is. Besides running her factory, she’s got kids and a brand new grandbaby. She’s also got a high maintenance, live in boyfriend, who she cooks and cleans for. She needs to move and she’s working on that as well. I’m sure you getting the picture. She tells this woman, “well, I don’t know.” I mean, how can she fit this in? Her mind, races.
The fact is she’s tapped, but a person like her; a person who does, will always try to do more. My friend also thought it would be nice to go have lunch, sometime, so she tells the gal of her situation. She’s short of time. She has to go back and forth to the factory… whatever. IT’S HARD TO HAVE FRIENDS RIGHT NOW, especially if you’re oldish and work (more than) full time. But she trades numbers with this gal so they might get together at some point, and what happens?
The gal starts calling her and she wants to go dancing. Badly!
You can probably already see, this would be a hardship for my friend. I suspect, the last thing she’d want to do is get home from the factory and get dressed to go out… with this woman or anyone else. Get back in the car, after she she just got home, etc. Plus, she’s not sixteen, anymore?
She says, “no”, but the woman can’t hear her. Instead, she keeps imploring her to go dancing with her, again and again. Eventually, the woman starts blowing up her phone.
My friend becomes exasperated and says, “Look. I can’t. I don’t want to go dancing, I have a lot of things I have to do. I’m not going, dancing.”
The gal says, “You know, you’re a BITCH!”
Well, okay. All that, for this!
There are people who are not only living in a delusion; they want you to help them maintain it. Join them there! You’d be a fool to comply.
I’ll tell you how this friend and I maintain our friendship for the last dozen years or so. Barring an emergency on either end, except for the rare occasion when we speak on a weekend, our conversations take place when she’s driving to or from the factory – period. If I don’t like that – tough. That’s the times she has, that she can talk.
On the other end, I recently found my voice mail messages – six months of them, and she was on there, repeatedly. I was not notified of the messages all this time, so obviously, I ignored them. She didn’t say a word. She’s an adult! She knows me, knows I have a good heart, knows I would pick up the phone, if I could… it must be something. Talking to a client. Who knows with me, but do you see the difference here? I can breathe!
She also knows, most times, when my husband walks in, I will end our conversation. This is how I live… she’d probably do the same in my circumstances, I don’t know. My point is, we’re both real people, having a friendship with a real person. This means we’re realistic and accepting about the limitations on both ends.
So who is the real perp in this other interaction? Who is real bitch? No doubt this woman will run around and smear my friend. Can’t count how many times it’s happened to me.
My friend has Venus in Pisces, I have Venus square Neptune. The people who pull this on us, very likely have these aspects as well.
See, this other woman wants to dance night away and meet John Travolta from the 1970’s. My friend wants to get some sleep! This gal imagines my friend into what she wants and needs her to be, with no regard for who she actually is.
If you do this to people – stop. Friends or lovers, there is no excuse, especially after a certain age. And this is a common story. So common, flesh and blood people with really value to offer, have pulled their horns in, hard, just to survive.
Do you notice, this woman never gave a moment’s thought to what my friend, might want or need? It’s remarkable, because now she makes her exit, feeling she’s got the goods on my friend, the bitch. What’s she’s really got is a handful of air. Not that this helps my friend at all.
The Venus Neptune Landshark, strikes again!
See yourself in any of this? Got Venus and Neptune mashed in some way?