wanna hang out? in my browsings through craigslist i've come upon ads looking for housemates. not roommates but housemates. under the jobs section, there are ads asking for someone who will hang out at the house every day from say, 10pm until 7am. many times, the compensation includes not only a salary, but free rent.

my first thought was, "i can get paid to be someone's friend? awesome." then i was thinking, wait, what kind of person needs to pay other people to be their friends? plus in my world, having money automatically begets friends. anyway, i was wondering why anyone would need such a deal. if they're lonely, aren't dogs cheaper? televisions more versatile? hasn't the internet eliminated the need for real live friends anyway?

i pondered whether or not i could sacrifice my night time hours to hang out with someone whom i might not necessarily have hang out with normally. the answer was a definitive no. i value my night time hours too much, and without an extravagant sum, i couldn't give up hanging out with my free friends. that extravagant sum is certainly flexible and negotiable though.

and what happens when you reach the point when the money has run out but they still want you to hang out? if the money stops, and then you stop being their friend, doesn't that kind of shatter their dream that even though you started off as an employee friend, you grew to become an actual friend? i mean, that's what i would secretly hope if i was paying someone to hang out with me. that at some point, my friendship would be worth more than the money that it's printed on. and that the other party would want to hang out outside the terms of our contract.

some friendships, i find, are similar to this kind of craiglist offer. "i'll hang out with you if..." friendships -- or "compartmentalized friendships." the compensation is usually not (directly) monetary, but we all have friendship contracts with each other. like "i'll hang out with them if they boost my self esteem." or "i'll hang out with them for this activity but nothing else." what's the difference between these sorts of unspoken contracts and the craiglist postings? maybe not all that much.