How to make friends and succeed in self-promotion

Shameless media whore that I am, when I heard that Redbook was looking for women who had made some of their best friends as an adult, I immediately pitched the writer my story. I explained that when I moved to New York after college, almost all of my friends moved with me; it wasn't until I moved to LA that I had to actively seek out new relationships.

Anyone who has had to make new friends as an adult can appreciate how hard it can be. It's kind of like dating - easy enough to find someone to share dinner or drinks with, but no one you necessarily want to share your life with. I've written before that I experienced some of that when I moved here. I was lucky to have always had enough plans to fill my social calendar, but it took a while before I built a circle strong enough to feed my soul. The catalyst, it turns out, was this blog and the people I came to meet through it.

As most articles are, this one was edited down to include only the most basic, and compelling, information. While I explained that I did, in fact, have one good friend here when I moved, that wouldn't have created as climactic of a story arc. Also, I don't think I've ever gone out for coffee - the writer almost certainly changed that from "drinks" to better relate to the magazine's mature readership. She loved the wine glass/emergency room angle, as it dramatized my lack of local closeness, which, I guess in hindsight, it did. And while I relayed that I had a met a number of wonderful women though the website, she wanted to focus on the one that had the most significant impact, which all of my regular readers would recognize as Nicole.

Aside from having adjacent birthdays and the same astrological sign, Nicole and I found that we had a lot in common and almost immediately hit it off. Anyone who knows her can attest to her warmth, and I did very much feel like I had found a big sister. While I still laugh at the idea of finding friends through the internet - like, hello, the D&D chat room is that way - it just reiterates once again that creating this silly little blog was one of the best things I ever did.

Oh, I'm sorry, did you want to read the article? Here it is, from the April issue.

Here's also the wine glass story, which, to this day, still scares me from ever doing the dishes.