Optimisms
Cheering each other on
11 Ways Being Single Beats Being In a Relationship!
When I was single, I spent a lot of time comparing how much better my life would be when I had someone in it: that I’d have someone to cuddle on the couch with, to kiss on New Year’s, to travel and eat and talk with. But, guess what? Being single has a heck of a lot of perks, too! Like the “tastes great, less filling” beer debate, there is no right answer, and if you’re looking at what’s in your glass right now, you may realize it’s fuller than you thought.
If you're single, you have plenty to leap about!
If you want a relationship, I’m all for it, and I think you should focus on the one you want in order to bring it into your life. I just don’t think you should get so caught up in hoping for the future that you forget to enjoy the fantab life you have now! After all, when you’re single… (more…)
Letters to Your Future Husband (or Wife)
When you write beautiful things, you’ve got me hooked. Melissa Blake falls into that category. She writes a blog called “So about what I said…” And every week or so, she posts what she calls “Letters To My Future Husband.” By last count, she was up to Letters to My Future Huband #36.
In them, she tells her husband-to-be what she’s dreaming out, what she’s looking forward to, and what she wants him to know. No, she hasn’t met him yet, but that’s the point.
Dive Through It
This past weekend may have been the last on the beach for some of us. But it taught me something about how to handle big, crashing things—in the water, in life.
The bigger the wave, the bigger the challenge. (Image: AS)
I was having fun jumping up and over some waves, but every now and then a big one would come smashing onto me. And one time, instead of ducking under it or diving through it, I turned around and tried to retreat. Um, bad idea! I got pummeled by it even harder.
It reminded me of a lesson I already know: Never go backwards in life.
Instead, do this: Dive forward, through it. Regression isn’t good for your soul. More forward and challenge yourself to be more.
When life throws some problems crashing your way, it’s tempting to want to turn around and run the other way the way you would a big wave, but you’ll only get pummeled by the problem, or your own guilt, or your lack of trying. When loneliness hits, it’s tempting to hole up, retreat and wallow in it. Don’t. Dive through it over dinner with your very best friends. Come up through the rough part on the other side, smiling, and let it crash behind you. When you’re looking at who to date, use your ex-perience so you don’t date your “ex” all over again—figuratively or otherwise.
Don’t go backwards in life. Dive forward through the tough parts to the sunny clear part on the other side.
Big love,
WWJS: What Would Joan Say?
I promise, you don’t have to watch Mad Men to appreciate the clothes, the characters and the wisdom it doles out between the dull parts. This week, my favorite nugget came from Peggy’s attempt at writing her own “Roommate Wanted” ad.
Peggy needed a branding lesson (Image: Carin Baer, AMC.com)
Peggy, a mostly straight-laced, hardworking advertising copywriter was trying to paint a plainly honest portrait of herself in an ad requesting a roommate in Manhattan. But it took Joan Holloway, the smartest secretary in the office, to point out, really, who gets excited about a plainly honest anything? (more…)
Embrace Your Embarrassments!
Last week, I got a Thai massage at a new place in town and had an embarrassing episode trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with the pink sheet the woman handed me before disappearing behind a curtain. The sheet turned out to be pants…big enough for an elephant leg…which I ripped trying to cinch up. I finally just bunched up the pants around my waist and laid down, feeling foolish for the first five minutes of the massage. But that’s when I realized: These moments—the hilariously uncomfortable ones—are what life is all about. And they happen to all of us.
Blush like a peach more often!
You know, when you’re stuck in a stall with no toilet paper. The bathroom door doesn’t lock. The bathroom locks so well you get stuck inside and and have to knock from the inside for help. The restaurant’s front door won’t open when you pull it, and all the patrons on the other side of the glass get to watch you struggle with it. Inside the restaurant, you don’t know whether to wash your fingers in the bowl of water or drink it. Or your date (like mine once did), mistakes the wasabi for a split-pea hummus and eats a tablespoon of it in one nasal-burning gulp.
I will never forget the day I got trapped in a dress inside a dressing room stall. (more…)
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