Dear Yenta, I have a friend that I used to work with and see almost everyday, now we work in different places. I really miss her. I've tried to get together but it doesn't seem to work out. The more that time goes by, and I don't see her, the less connected I feel we are. She's gone through a lot this year and I understand why we haven't connected but I feel like I want and wanted so much to be there when she was going through all her shit, and I still want to be apart of her life, but I'm not sure what to do. Can you advise me? signed Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I feel your pain; welcome to life in the new world order of companies closing because their "management" ran them into the ground, or sold them to pocket a quick buck, or decided that moving offices to gulags or suburban wastelands would not keep people from finding other jobs in more desirable locations, or decided laying people off would result in decreased expenses to cover for the failure of management to increase revenues which is why there is management in the first place, but doesn't matter, all that matters is their 40% bonuses and the "bottom line" financially engineered by overpaid and over-egoed masters of the fucking universe, oh yes, yes Anonymous, your pain is just another casualty. Friends get sweeped up by the big broom of disaster, work is eventually a disaster for everyone who works, somehow, when you think about it, there's always a big asshole with his or her finger on the button to blow up your cozy little comfort in the corporate crotch of existence for the poor slobs who do the work and not the powerpoints. Just be glad you had human contact Anonymous! Just be happy you were PERMITTED to socially interact with someone who isn't hard wired to rat you out for even thinking you had such a right! And when all is said and done, you pick up the phone or drop an email and eventually you can re-establish contact. Since life flies by when you're old, a few weeks is but a drop in the bucket. So is a few years, now that you mention it. Friends don't change, nobody changes, really. That's a yenta truism that you can take to the bank that isn't failing because of bad mortgages. The Yenta