Jeans should fit. Gloves should fit. #Love should fit. What your job is and your passion, in a perfect world, should fit. Shit in life should fit. We leave something behind when we are fitting into everything though. Friends.

Wait.

I’m not talking about your soccer friends you grew up with since you were six.

I’m not talking about your crew from college.

I’m talking about the people you meet, that motivate and energize the HECK out of you. Like stupid-crazy energize you. The people that you come across and you’re just like %&# &*!% #^%^ #LOUDNOISES #$^& %#&@ !%$&.

I’m all about timing. Damn, so much in life is defined by it. Here’s the rad thing about timing though: not all of it is out of your control. I’m not even going to argue what the percentage split is on uncontrolled vs. controlled — that isn’t the point. So relax, no need to get puffy-chest syndrome. 

Well I met one of my #LOUDNOISES friends early last week. And by “met” I obviously mean came across online and immediately became enamored with. Her name is Jen Friel aka @JenFriel. She’s the founder of a blog called Talk Nerdy To Me Lover. 

Let’s digest that for a second.

Seriously? How flippin’ rad is that URL? I thought my buddy Joel’s website MakingLoveToYourEarVagina.com was a badass URL. Then I found Jen’s. 

I read the first post that brought me to her site, a story about 103 #OkCupid dates in 9 months. It wasn’t a new post or anything, someone I followed on the Twitter reposted it for some reason. I clicked to read it because I was fascinated by the title of said post. 

Fast forward an hour, and I haven’t stopped reading. Post after post I was consuming stories and was more entertained than my favorite episode of my favorite show. This chic was beyond cool. The why? Because she plain and simply didn’t give a flip. She went after everything her heart told her to. Fear wasn’t a word she allowed herself to hear, emotion she let her body feel, or thought she let her mind have.

I instantly became angry.

(Angry you say Ryan?)

Yea angry.

I had always considered myself a fearless go-getter. And my new “friend” had just proven to me over the last hour, that beyond a shadow of a doubt, I wasn’t.

So I immediately felt challenged and accepted the challenge. (We still have yet to even tweet communicate and Jen had energized me to the point that I went and ran a quick mile just to get my thoughts in order)

And damn did I feel good. There was some kind of new motivation I was feeling inside that wasn’t there hours prior. 

How can that be? Someone I didn’t even know of a couple hours ago, who I’ve still yet to actually communicate with, and who WAS NOT Steve Jobs — had literally woken up a side of me that I didn’t know had been laying dormant. 

And then it hit me: Jen was a friend fit for me. Whether she ever felt the same or not, it was #Fact. She was someone that motivated, energized and otherwise challenged me to be a better me. And there wasn’t anything that was ever going to change that. The damage had been done.

Had I mentioned yet that she was gorgeous?

(No you hadn’t)

Okay well, she is. And I’m sure that had something to do with my attraction to her as a person, but it was one of those scenarios where that was just an added bonus — because her killer instinct to life was one of those awesome feelings you never want to lose. 

Whether its business or pleasure, people that make you feel like this are worth their weight in diamonds. If it was something we could bottle and sell, it’d cost more than your Macbook per ounce. It can’t be manufactured, wished or stolen — it can just be felt.

So operation #befriendjen went into motion, and to my surprise, she only impressed me more. We quickly hit it off, and even made public pledges to visit each other in 2012. And play Duck Hunt. Why you ask? Because #nerdsunite … that’s why. #done

Everything in life should fit. From your jeans, to your friends. People that make you want to totally kick ass and be a better you — those are the people to get close to. Your life is going to be so much better when you do. And when those people show you that they really care? Like, the “why is this person so nice for no other reason than to be nice” care … it makes you want to be the exact same way. There are a kagillion different types of #Love. And they all win.

So thank you Jen. Thank you for being so damn you and so damn invigorating that it made me want to tackle impossible, and give it a noogie.  

In the end…everything in life should fit. #nerding 

Hey Jen…Psst: