This is not a joke, but I’ve just reached the magical 200 mark! After a few weeks of tweaking my profile and sending out add requests, I now have 200 friends on MySpace. (As you know, I never had 200 friends in high school, so that is an achievement I can definitely be proud of!) While most of my friends are concentrated in the greater Charlotte area, I’ve managed to put together a nice group. Most of my friends are either in college or graduates from the local institutions, and that includes Johnson & Wales University, Davidson College, Queens University, Johnson C. Smith, UNC-Charlotte, and, of course, Central Piedmont Community College! Some of them are attending school outside the area, but they’re still based in Charlotte. And, better yet, I am not through yet. I’m also asking more new friends to join, including the UNC Tar Heels, Kiss 95.1, Power 98, and the Charlotte Bobcats.

And, thanks to my friend Ricky, I’ve been inspired to add some of today’s hottest musicians to my profile. After viewing his circle of friends, which includes his favorite smooth jazz artists, I’ve decided to add some of my favorite Top-40 Pop and Urban/Hip-Hop artists to my profile. I think the reason he has all those jazz musicians in his circle of friends is because of the look of his profile. After all, as he’s told me many times before, Ricky’s favorite Smooth Jazz station is WNUA in Chicago, and I don’t blame him for wallpapering his profile with a cover of a Smooth Jazz CD Sampler from the station (Volume 13, I think). I figured, since he already has all the jazz artists locked up, I should look towards building my own musical circle of friends as well. Not only do I listen to Kiss 95.1 in my car, I also have the station’s bumper sticker on the back.

The more new friends I gain, the more I realize that I did the right thing by moving to Charlotte! And there’ll be more new friends to make down the road!