My friend who had been in the abusive relationship did end it, after she saw an unwillingness on the part of her abuser (as he shall henceforth be known) to respect her wishes to not see him until he could get help. Frankly, I don't think you can have any role in an abuser's life while he or she is trying to be rehabilitated--if he or she is indeed attempting to "get help." I know I'm a pessimist, but I've seen a man beat my mother and then, eventually, express some level of remorse. These people are always sorry until they get angry again...

Anyway, she called me and left me a message saying the relationship (which upon further questioning I discovered was way more screwed up than I even knew) was over, but not acknowledging that she stopped talking to me in the middle of an Instant Message session in which I told her it was foolish to try and stick this out.

Maybe she's embarrassed--but she's also trying to glom back onto my life, and I don't feel that I can participate in her "I'm a victim" mentality, which was already in place before that guy she dated even came along. The truth is that she is very "stuck," for lack of a better term. It's true that the company you keep affects you, and either elevates you or brings you down.

In other news, I am in the process of working through a misunderstanding with another friend of mine. I feel, on the one hand, that all will eventually be well... and yet, I am a little put out that I have to even deal with this. Maybe we need to get this out of the way so we can move on. We've got some stuff that has probably been lingering around since we were 14 years old.

This is one downside to having had so much time alone recently. I don't have the patience for snags in the fabric, and I am tempted to just say "forget it." I like the peace of not getting into snits with people, and snits are unavoidable when you interact with others. Eventually, someone misunderstands someone else, and voila! Snit.