Things that make you go "Urrrghff???"

A friend I've known since I was 17 has been part-sized at work: Downgraded from full-blown engineer to lab flunkie. (It was either that or unemployment--it subsidizes the search for the new job, if nothing else...) He's taken it well enough, for a museum-quality Type A raised with a 1950s American Dream work ethic. Better than I would have thought, truth be told.

But I'm starting to feel like an informal therapist--a cross between a counselor and the local bartender. Which is really wierding me out, because I've never had the impression that he's looked to me for anything practical, ever. In our twenties, he mistook me for a representative sample of females our age--thereby to peek into the collective head of my gender. But for many years I've had the impression of being somewhat looked down upon by him. Had it not been for the fact that he's been one of Dearest's friends--for even longer than I've known him--I would have discouraged the relationship years and years ago. In all fairness, the sense of deprecation has more or less evaporated in recent times: These days I'm usually not interrupted when I talk, for instance.

But on an almost subliminal level, I'm feeling ever-so-slightly used by this counselor/cheerleader role. As far as I know, Dearest doesn't get the blow-by-blow accounts of the job search and the sharper edges that corporate life holds for non-management. Not that I'll stop commiserating or encouraging or anything--I do actually like the guy. But I can't help but wonder how things will change after he's back where he thinks he deserves to be in the corporate world.