Tag: postaweek

A Power Shift?

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Illustration from Slate's "Sex is Cheap"

Two of my best friends are celebrating important milestones. One is just days away from giving birth to her first child. The other got engaged on Saturday. So, I started reading this Slate article through the eyes of someone who is currently surrounded by evidence of other people’s major life commitments. While reading Slate’s “Sex is Cheap,” I kept thinking about an NPR show I listened to about “emerging adulthood” this morning, and couldn’t help but think of them as somehow connected.

The Slate article says:

The terms of contemporary sexual relationships favor men and what they want in relationships, not just despite the fact that what they have to offer has diminished, but in part because of it. And it’s all thanks to supply and demand.

Anyone who has been dating recently knows that much of this is true. There is nothing more stunning than young men’s complete unwillingness to put any real effort into dating. Continue reading →

The Best of Both Worlds

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This “postaweek” thing has me sort of scrounging for things to post. So, I’ve been leaning pretty heavily on YouTube and videos. So, I was puttering around my house, putting groceries away, and listening to music when one of, if not the most depressing song I’ve heard in years came on. It’s a beautiful song, but it’s the kind of song you could see getting played over a Bridget Jones montage or something, where some poor single gal sits alone in her house sobbing.

But I figured if I was going to share something so sad, I should share something that has made me happy lately… something that literally makes me LOL every time I see it.  Continue reading →

Four Seasons

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By David (MK), Flickr Creative Commons

As I was slip-sliding my way from the car to my house the other day, I started thinking about how much I couldn’t wait to see green again. I don’t hate the winter like many people — despite the dry skin, shoveling, and general inconvenience — and I can not imagine living in a place that did not have four distinct seasons. As I was cursing the ice, I was thinking about my favorite flower: the tulip.

I associate the tulip with the beginning of Spring. Sure, the crocus comes up first but it’s so low to the ground it’s easy to miss. The tall, showy tulip is out of its element in Connecticut — that’s for sure — but for me, it screams SPRING IS HERE.  Continue reading →

Adventures in the Land of Fitness & Snow

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kevindooley, Flickr Creative Commons

I’ll let you in on a little secret. In 2006 I was in really good shape…at least for me. I belonged to a kickboxing gym and went to classes three or four times a week. Then I joined the gym’s demo team, and added a practice onto my normal gym schedule. After about nine months, I was pretty jacked. I could do a pull-up for the first time since I was in grade school. But then I moved.

When I left Connecticut and went to New York I wasn’t particularly concerned with staying in shape. I lived on the 7th floor of a building that, for all practical purposes, had no elevator. I went down those stairs, then walked about 10 blocks to the subway, got off the train and walked a few avenues over to my office, and then did the whole  thing in reverse at the end of the day. Add to that all the times I went up and down the stairs to get dinner or drinks, and I dropped about five pounds in a month without even trying. Continue reading →

A New Bed for a New Year

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Six months or so ago I discovered a small rip in my quilt. I started thinking about the pros and cons of getting new bedding. Six months may seem like a long time to mull over a new blanket, but as you may have read elsewhere on this blog I’ve been on a Stuff Boycott. I’ve been purging large amounts of my stuff, only occasionally replacing it. For every five pieces of clothing I’ve gotten rid of, I’ve probably bought one replacement. So new bedding posed some interesting questions.

First, did I really need a new quilt? One small tear hardly seemed like enough to warrant a whole bedding overhaul. Second, what kind of comforter did I want and how much money was I willing to spend? Did it need to be “green”? Third, was this something I could wait on and ask for for Christmas, or was I going to be picky about it?  Continue reading →