Amy Z. Quinn - My New Friend

"Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!" Amanda Bradley

You know that thrill you get when you meet someone and just click? I'm not talkin' sex here, people, although feel free to indulge your fantasies. I'm referring to kindred spirits, instant identification, karmic bonds, the sure knowledge you've found a great new friend.

Like Amy. We've become buds over time online. Today we met IRL, aka In Real Life. And may I just say, Bingo.

You can never have enough friends. At least I can't. Though I have to admit I'm choosy about my friends. They've got to be smart, funny, empathetic, brave, earthy, loyal, loving, forgiving, creative, passionate, engaged in life and in the world around them.

Just like Amy.

My friends cuss like sailors. And I don't care if they drink like sailors, just not around me. (I'm not anti-drink, I'm anti-drunk.) Some of them smoke a variety of things, just not in my bedroom. Sometimes if I'm in the mood, I'll join them for a butt on my front stoop or back patio.

They're all politically active. We might not agree on who should be the next president, but we definitely share a raging antipathy for Bush and Cheney and the rest of the crooks and liars who've driven America off the road and into a big stinking ditch.

My friends care about their families, schools, cities, states, country. If they're parents, they're good parents, involved and aware. If not, they're great aunts and uncles and kindhearted children to their own parents.

All of the above, just like Amy.

My good friends have a deep capacity for outrage at injustice. The desire to change at least some part of the world. And the ability to party like it's 1964 (whatever that means, I never have known).

They should also be --and this is a deal breaker-- sassy, sexy, self-confident smart-asses.

In other words, a lot like me.

And just exactly like my new friend, Amy Z Quinn.