Ashley, welcome to Shadowrun.
There are various ways to find fellow players (in addition to your friends). Social networking sites might have a Shadowrun group that you could use to find local players. In my area, a lot of people use Meetup. But LiveJournal or Facebook or MySpace might have a group too.
I know Twitter has a couple of Shadowrun hashtag group lists which someone in your area might be watching. (I watch the #Shadowrun tag myself). And, as previously suggested, your local comic book / gaming store might have a board on which you can post requests or other people post requests.
Don't forget conventions. There are a lot of comic / gaming / sci-fi / fantasy cons that have gaming rooms in them. You might be able to connect to local gamers that way.
As far as sticking your toe in the water, I agree that Food Fight and the Quick Start Rules (I think FastJack linked to it) are probably the best way to start. It gives you a feel for Shadowrun Combat (probably the most difficult part of role-playing) without having to go whole-hog on the sourcebooks. Used bookstores, EBay, and Alibris are probably the best bet for finding second-hand sourcebooks if you want to go buy a few, though.
