Thank you for your posts Lost_in_the_woods. I'm not sure what category I fit into with my (former) friend. The dynamic of our friendship was that she was/is the overbearing, controlling personality whereas I'm more go-with-the-flow and her doormat. Were we besties? No. But we were good friends. Or so I thought.

Then just yesterday she changed her Facebook online chat status to "off" so despite the fact that she's still Facebook friends with me, I now can't see when she's online anymore. Very telling. Either she found this forum and my post and knows I wrote it about her, or she somehow realized after our brief messaging exchange on Facebook, that I saw through her "too busy to call you ever" story and decided to turn off her Facebook chat. Pfft. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop -- for her to just delete me from Facebook (I'm waiting to see what she does).

And then ironically, my cousin whom I mentioned in this thread did the same thing as my (former) friend with his Facebook chat (turned it off, so he can't be seen when he's online). Like, just rip off the band-aid already and end this friendship that has ceased to exist except for the occasional Facebook conversation until recently.

I started this thread because "busy" is a real pet peeve of mine, and it plays into the passive, codependent part of my personality that I've been trying to change to be more assertive with better interpersonal boundaries (saying "no," speaking up for myself, deserving to have my emotional needs met too, not just the other person).

If I can prioritize my time to show people I care about respect, then why can't other people do the same for me? Esp. people who claim to be my friend?

No one is busy in this world. It's all about priorities. When you prioritize something, you make time for it.