friend-type things

I'm elbow-deep in work today, but need to take a moment to mull over some naggling thoughts concerning my social life...

I'm not particularly gifted at the whole friendship thing, so I need to take a poll, here. Ok, here's the question: how many times can you initiate an "activity" with a friend or acquaintance without receiving any reciprocal invites? In other words: should you continually keep initiating? Some of us are better than others with things like brainstorming and planning and whatnot, but still. Still!

If the "offender" is a good friend, the clearest path is simply to smack them (lovingly) on the head and say "hey, what's the deal?" But what if it's someone you're not entirely secure with? What if the friendship's still incubating? What if you're not sure the person wants to be your friend at all? Do you simply keep asking, figuring that they will say no if they don't like you?

Or do you pave the way with an open-ended thing, like "if you ever want to ______, just let me know" and figure if they never get back to you it was intentional? Or do you just let them float around in that "gray area" of your relationship corral forever, tormenting you on the odd occasion that they pop into the forefront of your social radar?

I'm finding this particularly troubling today because there are occasionally specific things I like to do that not many of my "good" friends enjoy. Now, I'll do plenty of things alone, if necessary. The beach. Church. Shopping. Moving heavy furniture. Movie theaters, even. But there are some things that just can't be enjoyed solo. So what's a girl to do? Keep nagging for company? I can do that. I'm a good nagger. But...

But it'd sure be nice for my company to be sought, every once in a while. What to do, what to do.