Some friendships and relationships, much like employees, should just be fired. Believe me, I've felt that proverbial knife wedged deep into my back way too many times to have not learned my lesson. And I've seen others just blatantly sabotage a friendship, test its bonds or flatly rape it of every shred of value. So I have to ask, why can't some of us just learn to close that door and move on?

When I was in high school, back-stabbing bimbos were running rampant in my school. Somehow, the stupid epidemic spread like wildfire and my classmates and some so-called friends decided that just one day, I wasn't good enough anymore. Lord only knows why this determination came about and I dare not speculate as to its causes, but I will tell you that way, way back then, it seems that only my boyfriend and my cat were my friends.  If you'd ask me at that time, surely it bothered me. It bothered me when I had to eat lunch in the bathroom. It bothered me when no one spoke a word to me in the hallways, when I'd get laughed at for wearing certain shoes or a certain dress. It sure as hell bothered me when it came time to work in groups and I was always a group of one. While all these popular, mean girls were filling up their social calendars and destroying their prospects of success with each stupid decision, I had no other choice but to embrace my solitude and inner nerd, bury my head in a book and study on. This inadvertent end result not only worked out for me, but taught me to stop pining for what could be, to stop hoping or forcing a friendship that just checked out a long time ago. Now, when I see a pattern of behavior giving me more than just pause, I check out. There's no need to prolong the inevitable. And, more people ought to embrace this philosophy.

Cutting off friendships is costly but necessary.  I have little to no doubt that people like Michael Jackson and Anna Nicole Smith would both be alive today had they learned to sever off certain relationships. Some people though, thankfully find the eject button sooner. Take Lisa VanderPump from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Watching the entire season, I never really liked her dear friend and permanent houseguest, Cedric Martinez. He plainly looked and sounded like a snake. Further,  his tear-jerker story about being an orphan son of a prostitute sounded much too much like a Les Miserables re-make than his real history. It appeared that Cedric was a lazy bastard who found a gullible couple and preyed on their heart strings and pocket books. When Lisa finally told Cedric to move out, he showed his true colors and flatly snapped. So much for this loving friendship. Cedric fell into a violent rage and even told Lisa's husband, Ken that, "The last time I was this angry, I stabbed my father." Not surprisingly, Ken filed a police report after that incident. Further compounding his insanity and the need to sever dying friendships expeditiously, Cedric is apparently writing a tell-all book and is shopping his "inside" story around to the highest bidder. What a winner, eh?

Surely, there's no measuring stick for when it's time to cut the cord and each situation is different. I do firmly believe though that if there is enough evidence that your friendship or relationship is not what it used to be, that you spend more time being worried about how this so-called friend may or may not harm you, or whether you even entertain such thoughts, it's time to just let go. There's just no sense in trying to milk a bull.