Casual Friendships

Friendship (noun)
1: The state of being friends.
2: The quality or state of being friendly.
3: Obsolete; Aid

I've had a lot of time to think while Randy was out of town. A little under a week of being on my own in our home made me realize some things. Mainly one topic. Friends. What is a friend? By Webster's dictionary, a friend is...
1: One attached to another by affection or esteem; Acquaintance.
2: One that is not hostile; One that is of the same nation, party, or group.
3: One that favors or promotes something, (as a charity).
4: A favored companion.

Then I started thinking, relationships between lovers have levels. You have long term relations, casual relations, and so on. As I was thinking, and maybe I'm slow on this, friendships carry the same levels. People have friends, best friends, and so forth. I started thinking about my friends a lot during this period of alone time. Which is exactly why I thought about them. I was alone, lonely, and I realized I didn't have anyone to come keep me company. I use to always be able to go to a friend's house or have a friend over. I thought about my friends. All of them. I excuse the ones that are out of state, or even just too far away for visiting, but not all of my friends are unable to visit. Yet no one does. Then I started thinking. None of them have even been really talking to me. I just the occasional facebook, myspace, text, etc. but the majority of the time it out of pure boredom. No ever checks in with me, sees how I am, and when I attempt to go to them, they act like I'm a chore. It's like a "Here we go again." feeling from them. Since when is being friends a chore? No one forces anyone to be friends with anyone, so I don't understand why people claim to be my friend, but absolutely does nothing to show it. I care about all my friends. Example: I was recently in the hospital. I was, and still am, in alot of pain. It's gallstones and not the most threatening thing, but it's still something. I only heard from two friends along the lines of making sure I was okay. Otherwise I either got the shrug off or no contact at all. I don't understand this. If any of my friends went into hospital, big or small, I would care. I would make sure they were okay. More of my mother's friends compared to my own were concerned. That's sad. I don't want pity, but some... Tiny speck of caring would be nice. I honestly don't what changed between now and then, but back in the day my friends use to care more about me. I know I'm flawed, but that's part of being friends. You still stick it out with your friends despite flaws.

I have a few good friends and a lot of casual friends. Casual friendships like casual sex. I'm just here as a last resort to them. I just don't understand why my friends, again not all but a large amount, claim to be friends with me if they don't care about me.