My friend and I went to the beach this morning and baked ourselves into a skin cancer frenzy and talked about everything under the sun (no pun intended). On the list of topics was boys (Really? How odd? Hetereosexual women talking about relations with the opposite sex...?).

The reason why Sex in the City is so popular (LOVE THAT SHOW!) is because after the age of 30 women have a biologically encoded need to talk to each other. Kind of like the way, say, horses need to run or cats need to lick themselves, it's not endemic to our survival, but it's built into our DNA because it makes life easier (and more fun). For instance, my genetic code is programmed with a biological trigger (not sure what else to call it...ok, so I wasn't a science major) that will cause me to go out and seek friends who will say things to me like, "If there ain't no ring, there ain't no thing!" Without such structures in place I might permanently remain in my 7th grade mode of making out with cute 7th graders in the garden at the latest dance party. Except now (just to set the record straight) they wouldn't be in the 7th grade and there'd be no dance party (note to self: have a dance party)...they'd be in the parking lot of a church after some form of support group meeting telling me about their emotionally distant father...

The point is grown women need each other to protect themselves from themselves.

Just for today, I can talk to friends on the beach.