I went to my friend Char's house last night and ate pizza and chatted up an endless stream of mindlessly delicious fare. She's the kind of friend you can say things to like, "Brad Pitt is hot" and still feel like an integrated human being with depth and everything. Topics ranged from how lavender and lime-green will eventually be dated colors for the interiors, to how well Jennifer Aniston is aging. I came away feeling like my soul had been oxygenated and that my mindless, chatty media-bludgeoned self had been seen and fully accepted.

That's what real friends are for.

Just for today, I have real friends.