Happy birthday, Laura!

Today is my friend Laura's 30th birthday. I think she's handling it slightly better than I did, but that's fairly typical, as she is one of the most positive, optimistic people I know.

I've only known Laura for a little over a year, but I consider her one of my closest friends. I also consider her my first "official" L.A. friend - that is, someone I met and befriended out here and not from my previous life in New York. A mutual friend introduced us, and while so many times the two people being introduced never find any common ground greater than the person making the introduction (George to Elaine: So, uh, I guess I'll talk to you through Jerry, then...) Laura and I pretty much hit it off right away.

It was maybe only the second or third time we met that she picked me up to go to the beach. I was comiserating over a guy and had reprogrammed his name in my phone to a word that is unprintable here, and had been extremely proud of my ingenuity. I had told another friend earlier, and she didn't get it, saying if I had to reprogram his name to something that rhymed with "mindsucker", then I shouldn't be dating him at all. Oh, boo, I said, you are missing the point. But when I showed my phone to Laura, she burst out laughing and did the same thing to hers, to the guy whose name now rhymed with "casserole."

I immediately knew that we would get along.