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WWJS: What Would Joan Say?

September 8th, 2009

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 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? Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in Being yourself, It's on TV, Optimisms

Embrace Your Embarrassments!

September 4th, 2009

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!

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in Optimisms

Life’s Most Underrated Moment: The “Cusp”

September 3rd, 2009

The cusp deserves its day.

Like the sense of smell to taste, the cusp to a big moment is part of what makes the moment so big in the first place. That cusp—that point of intersection between the anticipation of something happening and it coming to fruition—is everything. What, after all, is a first kiss without the uncertain seconds just before your lips meet? Those are the ones charged with energy, nervousness, and hope. Those are the seconds that make a first kiss what it is.

We gasp before the trapeze artist grabs her bar... ("Trapeze Artist" by Gusto)

We gasp before the trapeze artist grabs her bar... ("Trapeze Artist" by Gusto)

There’s optimism in the cusp: You’re trusting that the moments will follow through and turn out well. And when they do, we collapse into it, even more grateful. What, after all, is the most prolific moment of a wedding? Not the part of exchanging rings, reciting vows, or even the first kiss as a married couple. No, the moment women seem to talk about most is walking down the aisle toward those big moments. The cusp is everything.

There’s the cusp of dessert, as your fork cuts into a piece of cake, your mouth opening in expectation. There’s the cusp of a bursting flower bud about to bloom, which can be as beautiful as the bloom itself. One chill-worthy moment in Julie & Julia (see: Julie & Julia: Your Optimism Gurus!) was when Julie Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in Eat your heart out!, In the big wild world, Optimisms

What Your Texts Say About Your Relationship

September 2nd, 2009

Gosh, I’ve suddenly become self conscious about what I text. And so might you—but maybe that’s a good thing. According to a study I just came across, the words you use in your texts and IMs to the person you like (or love) reveal gobloads about how solid your relationship is.

Right or Wrong Texting

The study, which was done by Richard Slatcher of UCLA, and published in the journal Personal Relationships eight months ago, said that women who use the word “I” more often in their instant messages actually report being more satisfied with their partners.

Specifically, says LiveScience, the women who used the word “I” a lot were 30 percent more likely to stay in their relationships.

Also, the more that women used what the researchers called “positive negations” like the term “not happy,” the Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in Being yourself, In the big wild world, Optimisms

Steal This Love Trick from Rachel Zoe!

September 1st, 2009

Oh, how I love The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo. (Duh.) But my love for the show about this ultimate fashion stylist is about so much more than watching her, Brad and Taylor dress stars for an awards show. The fact is, Rachel Zoe has a quality that would benefit each and every one of us in both life and love: The girl’s got passion!

She's dying. Die-ing. (from BravoTV.com)

She's dying. Die-ing. (from BravoTV.com)

I admit that when I first watched the show last season, I thought her passion for fashion went a bit too far—clothes being something that, when measured against the grand scheme of life and death and health, didn’t seem worthy of such gasping to me.

But I’ve since changed my tune about Rachel and her Project. Why? Because Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in It's on TV, Optimisms

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