Forumites,

I'm wondering if someone can help me out with just general socialization. I've never been the type of person who could easily make friends. I seem to make good friends while they're in the same geographical vicinity but then once we're no longer in the same place, it's like someone took a machete to the wire (i.e. we got along really well as classmates but once one of us graduated we totally lost touch, we were coworkers and got along really well but as soon as one of us changed jobs that was it, we were good friends while they lived in Dallas but as soon as they moved I never heard from them again etc.)

Part of my problem might be my lifestyle. Between my job and my family I'm extremely busy and I get really tired easily, so even when I have a "friend" it can easily be a month or two before the next time I see him. Where *that* gets really frustrating is when he tells me about himself, and it's so long before I see him again that I've forgotten everything he told me!

Don't know if this is relevant to the discussion but it gets REALLY frustrating when I can't find people who share my interests. For one example I love to play poker. I only one who person who even likes to TALK about poker, but I only get to hang out with him a few times a year (and he's not only an excellent poker player but a great teacher! I sometimes try to imagine how much I'd be making at the tables if he'd been able to give me a lesson a month for the last 3 years!). For another example I love to go on cruises. I do have a couple friends who like cruises but our vacation and financial schedules just never seem to mesh. Nobody likes the Indianapolis Colts that I know (maybe I need to move to Indiana LOL! No way, winter is too cold there). The particular videogames I like, TV series I like etc. - nope, nothing. Makes me feel alone.

Now all of that I can somewhat understand because they're somewhat unusual hobbies, but I also love to play tennis. Tennis is a popular enough sport that I should be able to make friends with a few people who play tennis at approximately my level and always have a few numbers I can call to play, but nope. Can never seem to make it happen.

That brings up another interesting point - for tennis, there are what are called "ladder" websites where you can enter your rating and send an email to anyone on the list and ask to hit. I've met several good hitting partners that way, but have just never been able to make a human-to-human connection, I can't tell if they're just not interested in making friends (just want to get some exercise and need another person to do it etc) or if it's me, but I can just never seem to connect human to human.

Since I'm already rambling, I'll throw in how jealous I get of my wife all the time. She's the type of person who just walks into a room and exhudes charisma. Everywhere she goes everybody she meets just loves her, always wants to hang out with her, always setting up "girl lunches", going out to drink and dance on the weekends, going to concerts etc. It's not just her powers over people that make me jealous, it's that everything she truly loves to do, she has 2 or 3 close friends who ALSO like to do it that she can share it with.

I just feel like an uninteresting person sometimes, like I'm not capable of making someone want to hang out with me.

If this didn't make sense it's because I'm really tired as I type it, but I hope I at least got the idea across.

Feedback welcomed and appreciated.