Friends that don't create unnecessary drama in my life are the only friends I aim to maintain, and I work at making that reciprocal. There are very few, we don'

Friends that don't create unnecessary drama in my life are the only friends I aim to maintain, and I work at making that reciprocal. There are very few, we don't necessarily catch up often (and neither do we need to), but it's always natural, no pretense, when we get together. (I'm happy to hear about their life dramas, so long as they're not unnecessary - which cuts down the drama list by a good 90-95%) There are "work friends" who I may really enjoy the company of, and will probably miss when I or they leave the shared employer, but life gets in the way of keeping too large an entourage; if it's unmanageable then it won't be managed, aside from if they'd fit into the first category. There are "pity / polite friends" who, when we're sharing a location I'll happily talk to them because they're good people and don't deserve being ignored, but I do not and will not seek them out any other time. These "friends" usually exist in a different place on the bell curve than I do (both up and down). I don't (think I) make friends of utility, not even because it's wrong to use people, but because I just don't have the emotional stamina to pretend to be friends in order to get something out of it. I'd rather pay full price than owe a favour for a discount, especially if such favours are "time spent with" because of the emotional stamina thing. Funny thing I find about the "mutual interest friends" is that I don't have the depth of interest to discuss "thing" to the degree that these people do. I've actually found that entering a "mutual interest group", to me, ends up as a discouragement of pursuit of that interest, lest I end up as deeply embedded in the rabbit hole as they. I think I may be an arsehole (polite, but arsehole nonetheless). But I know enough compatible folks that I'm happy where I've landed. And unnecessary drama is a path to an early grave and an unsatisfying, unsatisfied life.