Friends Across the Nation

I was looking my Facebook filter that I call "Close Friends".  It currently has 14 people in it (with one person twice, so 15 names).  I find it interesting that my close friends are spread across the country.  They live in states that I currently live, states that I used to live in, states that I've only visited, and one state that I've never visited or lived in!  Here's the breakdown:

California:  5
Washington: 4
Texas: 3
Nebraska: 1
North Carolina (I think; she's moved a lot!): 1

This is cool, and makes me proud of these friendships that we can survive well enough at this distance that I still consider them my good friends.  We must put effort into our friendship, be good communicators, and be understanding and flexible with each other to have that kind of friendship.  On the other hand, there are only 5 in my immediate vicinity.  And I might take one or two out of this filtered group; we're not really close and never have been, but I wish that we were. 

Even though 14 might seem like a pretty decent social network, there are some major impracticalities to having such close friends at a distance.  First is the fact that I can't just call and say "come over!"  Really, with the geography and traffic of where I live, I can only do that with one or two people as it is. 
Second, time zones kill me!  So often when I have time and want to talk, it's already super-late for my close friends.  Living on the west coast, it's always later for my friends.  And they all know better than to try to call me too early in the morning!  Seriously, one of them needs to move to Hawaii.  ;)

I guess a good next step is to cultivate my local friendship, and get that one or two to at least three or four!