If you live in a small town it's easy to accrue frenemies. People mix socially faute de mieux, even though they have little in common. Kind of like high school. You might think this would hold true of small communities as well -- like, say, American expats in a smallish island state.
Ouch, you hit a nerve with this one. Middle School was full of frenemies. Thankfully by high school I wittled the group down to a couple real friends. Maybe it is because my HS was big, so I could do that.
I've worked the same place 27 years so I've had plenty of time to fine tune my strategies. I'd say I have friends and colleagues instead of frenemies. That is there are people I dislike whom I must associate with but we don't have to pretend to be friends. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the feeling goes both ways. I'm sure there are people who dislike me as well but are willing to work with me in a cordial manner.
This is the great advantage of being an insensitive clod. If you can manage to just not pay attention to people, it's possible to entirely miss the existence of frenemies, thinking that they're merely somewhat peculiar acquaintances.
It was a dark moment in my life when I finally realized that work was just like high school. This was even more true at the ad agencies where I freelanced than in the design shop where I finally ended up. The difference is, you're less confused about who's really an asshole.
I think this is a phenomenon that occurs mostly with women. With guys, the rules are pretty well drawn. Our friendships are pretty simple: We just want to hang with people of like mind.
It's women that always seem to have friendships fraught with drama.
For years I thought frenemies were strictly something girls had in high school while guys just beat up the nerds in gym class, but looking back I realize I had nothing but frenemies. Is this another one of Dobson's signs of premature gaydom?