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Donna and David Sloat love to travel. When they got a postcard that claimed they could get 50 percent off the price of cruises and 75 percent off condo vacations, they were intrigued.
It slams into you like a kick in the head. You're browsing through some snapshots, you see a shot of some old lady's hands, then suddenly -- wham! --you realize those hands are yours.
Pamela Rainey Lawler and Denis Lawler of Philadelphia have handled the travails of being married 38 years without seeing eye to eye on a lot of things. The upcoming presidential election is no different. Pamela, a 58-year-old self-described "left-left" Democrat, will be voting for Barack Obama. Denis, a 60-year-old longtime Republican, plans to vote for John McCain.
Time can be on your side -- if you re-shape your schedule. With the help of a dozen psychologists, researchers, and coaches, we came up with a three-part plan to reseize the day.
Lord knows that there are a lot of wacky people running out there, and for some annoying reason women get slammed (unfairly, if you ask me) with the crazy card more often than men.
As the mother of a toddler, Stephanie Delger has learned how to pick her battles.
Gas stations across the country are increasingly offering discounts for fuel purchases made with cash as high oil prices eat into their profits.
QUESTION: When I use my debit card to buy gas at the pump, I've noticed that a hold gets put on funds in my account for a few days -- sometimes for more than what I purchased. What gives? Is there any way to avoid this?
If someone brutally murdered someone you love, would you have the courage to confront them? Would you even want to? For some victims of violent crimes, these meetings are vital to the healing process.
After a long stint of online dating, Gemma Halliday had finally found the needle in the haystack she'd been looking for: an attractive, gainfully employed guy with "nothing weird or scary about him" -- or so she thought.
Donna and David Sloat love to travel. When they got a postcard that claimed they could get 50 percent off the price of cruises and 75 percent off condo vacations, they were intrigued.
It slams into you like a kick in the head. You're browsing through some snapshots, you see a shot of some old lady's hands, then suddenly -- wham! --you realize those hands are yours.
Pamela Rainey Lawler and Denis Lawler of Philadelphia have handled the travails of being married 38 years without seeing eye to eye on a lot of things. The upcoming presidential election is no different. Pamela, a 58-year-old self-described "left-left" Democrat, will be voting for Barack Obama. Denis, a 60-year-old longtime Republican, plans to vote for John McCain.
Time can be on your side -- if you re-shape your schedule. With the help of a dozen psychologists, researchers, and coaches, we came up with a three-part plan to reseize the day.
Lord knows that there are a lot of wacky people running out there, and for some annoying reason women get slammed (unfairly, if you ask me) with the crazy card more often than men.
As the mother of a toddler, Stephanie Delger has learned how to pick her battles.
Gas stations across the country are increasingly offering discounts for fuel purchases made with cash as high oil prices eat into their profits.
QUESTION: When I use my debit card to buy gas at the pump, I've noticed that a hold gets put on funds in my account for a few days -- sometimes for more than what I purchased. What gives? Is there any way to avoid this?
If someone brutally murdered someone you love, would you have the courage to confront them? Would you even want to? For some victims of violent crimes, these meetings are vital to the healing process.
After a long stint of online dating, Gemma Halliday had finally found the needle in the haystack she'd been looking for: an attractive, gainfully employed guy with "nothing weird or scary about him" -- or so she thought.
What's it like to be a 30-something woman in America today? From religious choices to parental pressures, a successful single woman in Washington, D.C. and a devoted mother of four open up.
Individual U.S. investors aren't happy with the current bear market, but they're not panicking, and most are sticking with their investment strategies, according to a sampling of financial planners across the country.
Since ancient times, humans have created personal care products with very strange ingredients, like crocodile excrement and arsenic.
Locking lips. Making out. Smooching. Kissing. It sounds so pleasant and easy, yet do a little research and you'll soon discover that while everyone may be doing it, few are doing it well.
How well do you and your siblings deal with conflict? Brenda Bredahl, 47, says that after her mother died in 1999 she and two of her siblings had to rely on the legal system to help negotiate with a brother over their mother's estate.
When it comes to women, says Mark Tardif, 44, sometimes it's hard to tell what they're thinking. Last year, the college administrator from Waterville, Maine, met an attractive woman at a conference and was having a great conversation over a glass of wine.
Americans are raiding their already fragile retirement piggy banks to weather financial hardships such as unemployment, medical emergencies and buying a home.
The whispers and pointing started as soon as Sara Price reached her assigned table at her friend's wedding reception in Houston last January. Did she have raccoon eyes from crying during the ceremony? Mismatched shoes? A giant stain on her blouse?
Every gym has its share of grunters, groaners, heavy sweaters and hygiene queens. And then there are the aerobics assailants.
The unholy trinity of Photoshop, spell check and the Internet mean that even the most illiterate, personality-deficient, hideous troll can land a first date, much to a lady's disappointment.
Mortgage crisis. Failing economy. Debt. The buzz words that have been circulating lately are more than just an issue for the upcoming election -- they can also affect your personal pocketbook. So what should you do with your money in this kind of market?
You could fill entire football stadiums with all the things that I don't know. I don't know how to make paella. I don't know how to do algebra or iron pleats or ski. I don't know how to sing on key, accept a compliment, interact at a party consisting of more than eight people or kill a lobster ... which brings us back to my paella issues.
Teenagers and preteens endure significant levels of different types of abuse in dating relationships -- particularly among those who become sexually active at a young age -- and most parents are unaware of what is going on in those relationships, a survey released Tuesday said.
A chance remark. An offhand cruelty. A well-intended suggestion that went wrong. If you think what parents say about their children's appearances doesn't leave a mark, think again. Four attractive, engaging, intelligent, vibrant women remember the worst (and the best) of it.
As any savvy online dater knows, you can spend hours crafting the perfect combination of wit, sophistication, and charm, but all your pretty words won't mean squat if your photo reeks.
Gas prices have been surging to record highs. But it's not just the gas bill that drivers are getting socked with. The costs of car insurance, tires, licensing and registration are on the rise, too. But there are some strategies you can use to cut the cost of owning your car.
She's tried nightclubs and online dating sites, but now a 42-year-old single mother is looking for love where everyone else's heart is breaking: the real estate market.
Just outside his sealed bedroom window, beyond the chain-link fence that surrounds his next-door neighbor's yard, sit the reasons David Adams says he can't sleep: two bushy-tailed dogs that bark and howl all night.
Crunching the numbers on college costs has been a particularly grim task for parents of incoming freshmen this year.
David Bohl is no stranger to apologies -- the good, the bad and the insincere.
Recent research suggests an optimistic state comes from a series of active inner processes, psychological somersaults. That's good news because it means that optimism -- like other skills such as putting on eyeliner or hitting a tennis ball -- is something we can improve with practice.
Deadlines are everywhere. But if you miss one of these, it can bite you in the wallet.
Visit a bathroom in a home in the Netherlands and you might find a good idea staring you in the face: a list of birthdays important to your host posted opposite the toilet. Why in that spot? To assure that it's viewed regularly.
Well before her wedding, Lauren Abraham decided she would take her husband's last name, Mahoney.
Michelle Cottle, 38, of Westchester, New York, always dreamed of an elegant wedding.
I swear on the "Thelma & Louise" video we watched into a scratchy oblivion: I didn't mean to be the worst friend ever. When Lisa -- my roommate and boon companion of three years --stepped into our apartment, sank to the floor, and clutched our cocker spaniel, I asked, "What's wrong?" with sympathy.
You can sign up today to receive free credit monitoring services from the credit bureau TransUnion due to a settlement the company reached on a class-action lawsuit.
Jen Simmons loves to watch her husband Danny tend to their two little boys, mop the floor or hang a picture. She also finds it sexy.
We've always associated the glorious, intoxicatingly warm and languorous days of summer with getting gorgeous. That's when we can let down our hair (or casually pin it up, exposing a glimpse of neck or shoulder and maybe, too, exuding a light, luscious burst of scent), strip off the layers of cotton or wool, and go barelegged and sometimes barefoot, savoring the delicious freedom of naked skin against the soft air.
Jennifer Bilotta thought she and her husband Michael had the perfect present for his cousin's wedding. The gift in question -- a fused-glass plate decorated with a "tacky scene of a bride and groom," she recalls -- had been given to Bilotta at her own wedding a few years earlier.
If you heard there was a weapon proven to prevent most crimes before they happen, would you run out and buy it? World-renowned security expert Gavin de Becker says this weapon exists, but you already have it. He calls it "the gift of fear."
The stress from deepening debt is becoming a major pain in the neck -- and the back and the head and the stomach -- for millions of Americans.
Like other couples, D-D Flannery and her husband have an assortment of buzzing hand-held devices in the bedroom to help keep things lively. The problem is, these devices don't improve their love life -- just their work flow.
It's a few minutes to showtime. The guests are all seated, the musicians are warming up.
In 1977, my friend Brenda and I went for dinner at a little Chinese restaurant called Empress Garden. She had the lemon chicken, I had the shrimp har kow, and we each had an egg roll because in 1977 you could eat sugar and fat and deep-fried everything without its signifying that the apocalypse is at hand.
Poignant, tragic, funny, outrageous --most of us have at least one story we tell (and retell) to explain our emotional bruises. But there's a big difference between understanding the past and being stuck in it.
If there's one universal truth in becoming a parent -- and there may be only one universal truth in becoming a parent -- it's that life instantly becomes more complex. And stays that way.
When kids stump you with one of these six questions, you can rely on these answers.
How bad is it if you bribe your child with treats or let him watch TV all day? Here, experts assess your actions so in four scenarios you can make the right choice.
I remember a recent weekend when we had what seemed like two blissful days ahead of us. No plans whatsoever. No soccer games, no Brownie outings, no frantic trips to the mall in search of a certain type of dancing shoe. Just my husband, Tony, my kids, and me, doing nothing in particular.
For the first few months of their lives, twins Maggie and Kate Fox ate and slept at different times. Their mother, Wendy, hardly had time to think.
As Walter Christensen, a 53-year-old physics professor from Pomona, California, discovered, when it comes to cuddling, women know what they want. When he and his lover spend the night together, he's usually awoken around 3 a.m. with a familiar request.
Every day, unthinkable tragedies shatter the lives of many families. For Lisa and David, July 2, 2005, began as a perfect wedding day. More than 200 close friends and relatives gathered on the beach. Lisa's fondest memory of the day was of her nieces, 5-year-old Grace and 7-year-old Katie, dressed like princesses, throwing rocks into the Long Island Sound.
Was it coincidence or magic? Alice Gorman wrote 100 things she wanted in a man and buried the list in a closet. And then, oddly enough, a man who matched the list almost exactly strolled into her life.
When Susan Harris divorced her husband of five and a half years last December, she got the apartment, extra closet space and the covers all to herself.
Most of my clients don't realize that the way they look and the way they think about their looks are two separate issues. Most strive for physical beauty without directly addressing the second concept, assuming that once they "fix" themselves, they'll be filled with peace and self-esteem.
Raechelle Romero was always running from something, starting at 15: from tough relationships with her dad and stepmother, foster homes, abusive boyfriends.
Introductions were a hasty formality when Christopher Wiggins and his family arrived, tousled and tired, at a Greyhound station in Florida in March. Wiggins' wife and three of their kids weren't merely meeting his aunt and uncle; they would be living with them indefinitely.
Shoppers have been lugging ever-larger products to their ever-bigger cars for years. Now, more of them are feeling so pinched by the sagging economy that they are embracing a new behavior: buying a little at a time.
When Holly Kearl was researching her master's thesis on street harassment last winter, she was pleasantly surprised that lewd remarks were few and far between. Then spring rolled around.
Q. The price of milk, rice and other food basics is soaring. How can I reduce my grocery bill while still providing my family with nutritious food?
Forced to pay for once-free sandwich toppings and twice as much for some steak cuts, shoppers are wondering whether higher grocery bills and restaurant tabs truly reflect the trickle down of a global rise in food prices.
Unfortunately, motherhood is so difficult that virtually no one does it perfectly. Maybe your mother was flawless, but it's more likely she made mistakes. Whatever her errors, you inherited a legacy of sorrow.
Newsflash for rock stars and teenagers: It turns out everything doesn't go downhill as we age -- the golden years really are golden.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of TLC's "Shalom in the Home" says we can't just blame kids for acting bratty or spoiled. Kids today, he says, are exhibiting a lot of anger because they feel neglected by parents who may put careers ahead of family.
When a 24-year-old woman who called herself "90DayJane" launched a blog in February announcing she would write about her life and feelings for three months and then commit suicide, 150,000 readers flocked to the site. Some came to offer help, some to delight in the drama. Others speculated it was all a hoax.
On any given day here at "O, The Oprah Magazine," there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 69 very talented, extremely detail oriented, high-energy, hardworking women and men all doing their jobs and doing them well. I love a few of them, I like a lot of them, I despise one of them. She is the Magneto to my Wolverine, the Saruman to my Frodo, the Dr. Octopus to my Spiderman. I call her The Tinkler.
When Vicki and Brian Meldrum bought their first home four years ago in Cleveland, they made a pact: She could decorate and furnish the rest of the 1,110-square-foot house however she wanted, but the 15-by-10-foot finished basement was his.
In 1989, Nancy Tiemann was 36 and living in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Tom. "We were both desperately in need of a getaway," says the one-time banking officer. When Tom suggested they join a boat trip to Belize chartered by a group of nudists, Nancy was horrified.
You know yourself: Do you need a push to be more outgoing -- or to be alone without going crazy? O's life coach says you'll be better off -- more balanced, less prone to loneliness -- if you try to go against the grain now and then. And she's got a few exercises to get you there.
The for-sale listings on the online hub Craigslist come with plaintive notices, like the one from the teenager in Georgia who said her mother lost her job and pleaded, "Please buy anything you can to help out."
Kristen Rounds, 26, admits that she's a little gaga over her man. "I'm like his mommy," the Monterey Park, California, resident says with a laugh about her fiancé, a first-year medical student.
What's the best way to hang on to what you learn? New memory research has answers.
Before the crying, diaper changes and sleepless nights set in, a growing number of moms-to-be are spending their pregnancies in the lap of luxury. From belly "facials" to in-home massage therapy and private yoga sessions, women are indulging like it might be their last chance.
Teaching her young son about death has been an ongoing task for Vanessa Abron ever since his uncle, who lived with them in Queens, New York, died of cirrhosis in February.
Parents have a lot to worry about in these difficult economic times. It costs more for everything from food to gas to clothes. It's hard for them to be a good example for their kids when it comes to being prudent with money.
At times in my life, I have been utterly lonely. At other times, I've had disgusting infectious diseases. Try admitting these things in our culture, and you'll find they evoke identical responses: Listeners cringe with a mixture of pity, revulsion, and alarm.
When it was time for Sabiha Ansari to get married, her parents flew her to India. She met her husband-to-be for less than 20 minutes, with family, then was asked whether she liked him.
You know how good it feels when you fish a $10 bill out of your jeans pocket right before it hits the wash. Imagine coming into hundreds of dollars from a savings bond or a bank account you forgot about.
Every day I remind myself to return to the spirit of feasting. This is part of a program I call the Joy Diet, a regimen designed not for the body, but for the inner self (the word diet originally didn't mean an eating program; it was a way of living).
Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages.
Relationships are tricky enough with just two people involved so imagine how delicate the balancing act becomes when your ex is still in the mix.
The tax system collects its due, even from a class of workers with little likelihood of claiming a refund and no hope of drawing a Social Security check.
For gay couples, the April 15 tax filing deadline can be a reminder of the disparities they face, even in a nation that is becoming more accepting of same-sex couples.
It's five o'clock in the morning. I've been awake for about 23 hours, having struggled vainly to fit in writing between yesterday's tasks: getting the car fixed, taking the dog to the vet, answering e-mail, going grocery shopping, driving my kids to music lessons, seeing clients, picking up deli sandwiches for dinner and cuddling a 12-year-old through some of the horrors of puberty.
When Susie Toth's boyfriend told her a few months after she moved in that they "needed to talk," she was crestfallen.
Terri Lovin and her husband, Harold, may have had the world's most expensive pizza ... at $117 a pie. No, it's not gourmet dining. A cashier charged the couple twice for the $22.50 pizza.
One of the first fights my wife and I ever had, some months into our marriage, was about how to wash lettuce. It was a small thing that flared into a big thing, and it sent me running to my therapist for help in putting out the fire.
When I lived in the country one summer an ad for a local dating service would come on the radio every time I drove around.
As he travels through Iraq, Army Sgt. Jon Fleenor carries a scorched and blackened teddy bear. After surviving a roadside bomb attack with the stuffed animal beside him, Fleenor doesn't like to part from it.
Ashley Shinn didn't know she was in a relationship until asked to confirm it in a message from Facebook.
Maybe men had it right all along: It doesn't take long to satisfy a woman in bed.
Can a piece of paper save a marriage? One suburban Boston couple figured it was worth trying so they entered into a legal agreement to manage a major source of tension in their relationship - money.
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