How do you know if your "friends" are really FRIENDS???

This stuff has been floating through my head lately and I've decided to write it out and see if it makes any more sense on "paper" or not.

When I was a kid, I had the typical neighborhood friends.  You know the ones who are around after dinner and you could play outside until the street lights came on?  Ahh.. the good old days.. anyways... I had a few of them..a few lived up the street from me, and a few others came around when they were visiting their grandparents. 

Then there was school friends.  The ones you thought you would be friends "forever" and you wrote in each others yearbooks ( BFF with some phone number or Have a GREAT summer, see you next year..) In my case, they were just nice to me.  No one really wanted to be my friend for whatever reason, reasons I couldn't figure out at the time.  

Then there are the friends you "get" when you get married/dating whatever...When you get married you get the spouses' friends (or do you??) and once you have children WATCH OUT!!  There are the "friends" you make because your kids are friends and so on. 

Here I am, almost 40 years old and I've finally realized who my REAL FRIENDS are.  And it's not the so-called best friend I had grade school all the way through high school.  She was just "friends" because she felt sorry for me,  I don't need people like that in my life.  I hate hate hate pity parties...  

REAL friends are those who give you much needed advice, have a shoulder (or a bunch) to cry on when you need it, help you when you ask (or don't) and make your day a lot brighter by calling to say "HI". Those are the friends I need in my life..

Kelly