In junior high school, everyone was required to take Home Economics class, which the oh-so-modernized school system referred to as Life Skills. In eighth grade, everyone took cooking class. I only vaguely remember learning how to make pancakes, but I remember Mike Duke, who sat behind me. He used to wear rock band T-shirts and [...]

In 2004, I voted for John Kerry. I was twenty and proud to be voting in my first presidential election but when I checked the boxes on the absentee ballot that my parents had mailed to my college dorm room, I knew little more about the candidates than their first and last names. I voted [...]

It’s no secret that men and women have, well, some differences. It’s no secret that our bodies don’t look the same and our minds don’t work the same. I had always known this, because, you know, there are some basic reasons that they teach you right off the bat.  
In college, I took a waitressing [...]

 
The first time I’d ever heard anyone refer to the “Walk of Shame” was, not surprisingly, my freshman year of college. I heard this term, which little to my knowledge would become ubiquitous over the next four years, sitting in my friend Jenna’s dorm room before class on a Friday morning. I listened as she [...]

When you think about it, blogging is a lot like high school. Sure, we’re a little older, a little wiser and we’ve been using Facebook longer than most of today’s actual high school students, but there are similarities.
We may not have lunch tables to sit at or cliques to linger with in the common area [...]

Last week, since I had ever-so-delicately sliced my finger open with the blade of a food processer, (and because, OK, you’ve got me, I didn’t actually sit down to write a post until 7:30 AM Friday and thought, I just can’t deal with this right now) my typing was impaired and you were treated to [...]

Even the most calm, cool and collected of us have idiosyncrasies. Even the most well-dressed, poised and polished person in the room likely has a bad habit, or two, or maybe a nagging anxiety that keeps him or her up at night.  Yet, when searching for a boyfriend, girlfriend or partner we often look for [...]

I’m going to get a little deep on you guys today, but I promise, next week we can make fun of eHarmony again.
The first time I asked a guy out I was wearing my black D.A.R.E t-shirt and Adidas wind pants. I made my friend Kara walk across the gymnasium during third period phys. ed [...]

Glamour does a series in their magazine every month about living your best life. In the column, there is a page listing things that women should not feel guilty about doing, because, hey, we all do them. Some examples are: “It’s OK if you eat a whole bag of doritos right before your period and then hide [...]

We all know and love Shania Twain (Correction: I know and love Shania Twain. Sadly, I can’t speak for the rest of you) but we’re not here to talk about pop country music.
When I was three and my younger brother was born, it became explicitly clear to me from the baby blankets that swaddled him and [...]

There are two types of people in the world. There are those who hate Valentine’s Day and choose to commemorate February 14 wearing a cheerful shade of green and proclaiming to anyone who will listen that “I’m ignoring Valentine’s Day this year!” with the fervent enthusiasm of a college freshman on the way to his [...]

So we all know that it can be hard to meet that Mr. or Mrs. Right. And it’s also no secret that all of us here love the good old internet. So really, it was only a matter of time before the two ideas merged and people began searching for their special someone on the [...]

There are some really awesome writers out there in the blogosphere. Alternatively, there are also some really lousy writers who saw one too many episodes of Carrie Bradshaw waxing eloquent about sex and her single girlfriends and thought “HEY I CAN DO THAT!” But we won’t get into that.
When I went to the annual BlogHer [...]

When I was in fourth grade my friends and I, intrigued by the lyrics of Sir Mix A Lot’s rendition of ”Baby Got Back,” asked our teacher for permission to choreograph a dance to the song for the class talent show.
Her first question: “Well what’s the worst word in the song?” Our answer “big butt!” She [...]

Most people grow more reflective in the beginning of the year. January 1 is the time for resolutions, for looking back and thinking ahead. I seldom make resolutions on New Year’s Eve, but instead reserve most of the deep thoughts and contemplation for January 10, which this year, happens to be my twenty-fifth birthday. Despite [...]