Hello, Fluffsters!

So. Yesterday I mentioned a few ways of trying to stop missing friends by keeping in touch with them.

Staying in touch with people isn’t always the best way to deal with missing friends, though. For example, if you’re between sending letters or emails, and your friends are unable to talk real time, it doesn’t necessarily make sense to write another letter.

So here are some ways to try to stop missing friends that are generally solitary activities, anyways.

1) Write. This works especially well if you’ve got stories you want to tell.

2) Research. Learn something new! And then, you’ll be able to share something with your friends.  Possibly. At the very least, you’ll have learned something. And that’s worthwhile.

3) Read a good book. This is one of my personal favorite options. Especially if it’s a favorite book you haven’t read for a while. Then it’s like visiting an old friend again. And it’s also something you wouldn’t want to do if your friends were around. So savor it! You’ve got opportunities to do fun things on your own!

4) Take a nap. This of course is only a temporary fix. But it does sometimes help- especially if you’re missing people because you’re tired.

5) Play a computer game / video game / something you can do on your own. I don’t have as much experience with this, except for online flash games. But even so, once again that’s something you probably wouldn’t have done with your friends as much, so it’s something you can do on your own, and not feel guilty about doing.

So there you go. I hope that helps!

Hi, fluffsters!

As some of you know, I’m in time of transition in my life. One of the biggest transitions is that a number of my friends are in a very different place from me. (VERY different. For instance, they’re going to get LOTS of snow and rain. I’m not. I’m jealous…)

Anywho. So, I miss my friends not infrequently. And it’s really hard. But I’ve found some ways of dealing with that. This part will focus on ways of getting in touch with your friends.

1) Write letters to your friends. This works primarily if you know their address. One of the advantages of letters is that you don’t know if your friends have even received the letter, so if you haven’t heard from them for a while in response to your letter, it’s possible that one or the other of the letters got lost in the mail. It’s also really fun and exciting to get a letter in the mail- wouldn’t you want your friend(s) to get a surprise note?

2) Call/skype/real-time-contact them. Advantages: You (might) talk with the friend you’re missing, in real time. That’s a major plus. Disadvantages: You can’t always do that, especially if there are timezones involved and you especially miss your friends at a time when they’re not awake. Also, there’s the risk that they wouldn’t actually want to talk with you, and then things get awkward. (Missed calls. Bleh.)

3) Email them. This has the advantage of being faster, and less expensive, than letter writing. It does not, however, have the built in excuse of “they just didn’t get my note/email/whatever” if they your friend doesn’t reply. But it does have archive abilities, which letter writing does not (unless you take pictures of or photocopy everything you send.)

So there you go! Three ways of contacting friends. I hope that helps!