The on-call friend.

It seems like most single gals have what I like to call the "daily girl friend." This is a friend who you talk to almost every day and you probably hang out a couple times a week. The "daily girl friend" may not even be your best friend, but often they're a close friend who lives nearby. Given the circumstances in your life you can have several "daily girl friends" over the course of your single life (such as a roommate). The "daily girl friend" provides a listening ear, a movie or shopping date, and someone you can share meals with. This arrangement can work great, until one of the women gets into new relationship mode. Suddenly the "daily girl friend" can get bumped to the "weekly girl friend" or even "monthly girl friend."

One of my good friends is in a new relationship. She met the guy last summer, and throughout the fall and early winter they had a very casual and gradually progressing relationship. In the past month or so, the relationship has become more serious and she now spends most of her free time with him. In this situation, I feel like I'm the "daily girl friend" who has now been bumped. I barely see or even talk to her anymore. She has cancelled plans with me more than once so that she can hang out with the boyfriend. She doesn't call me or text me anymore (unless she needs my help with something). When we are hanging out, she is constantly texting and/or talking on the phone with the boyfriend. I find this quite annoying (especially the part about how she has cancelled plans on me).

I was venting about it to my best friend, who kindly pointed out that what was happening was a phenomenon she likes to call the "on-call friend." This is when a friend is so sucked into a new relationship that spending time with their signifgant other is their top priority. They will keep their close girl friends on-call to hang out only when it is convenient for her and does not interfer with the boyfriend's free time. I thought that was a great way to describe it. That's me, the "on-call friend."