My confusion knows no bounds...

I don't understand boys. I may have lots of guy friends, but apparently this has done nothing to help me fathom the complex (or perhaps not so complex) brain of the human male.

Query: When you hang out and spend all your free time with a certain individual, doesn't that mean you thoroughly enjoy their company? And if you're enjoying their company exclusively, and you're sharing private things with each other about yourselves, doesn't that mean you enjoy being with them exclusively? And what if you like all the same things? If that's the case, and you've got all that in common, aren't you pretty much dating?

These are the questions that have been plaguing me, keeping me awake at night. In my mind - whether you're physically intimate or not, if you're spending all your time with someone and sharing your thoughts with them, and having a good time together pretty much exclusively - that is what dating is.

So why don't guys think the same way?!?! My guess is that for guys there has to be a physical attraction instantly or else they're completely uninterested. Apparently I've got the perfect personality to get along with most types of guys, so what is it that I'm doing that's not attracting them physically? I'm so thoroughly confused...

{Follow-up query: Is there any way to kindle an interest later on in a 'friend' relationship? How often do guys change their initial assessment of a friendship into a more romantic one? I need to know how to shift from the eternal paradigm of "Oh, you're so awesome to hang out with but I don't think of you that way" to getting a more appropriate response to my advances, like, "I can't get you off of my mind, I want to be around you all the time; please consider dating me so we can get married".}