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“I want you to open this with me… in private,” my boyfriend of one year told me on Hanukkah a few years ago, winking as he handed me a box wrapped in amNY newspaper as we sat with his family in their living room. I was so eager to give him the 2012 Winter Classic Henrik Lundqvist jersey I had spent weeks searching for, consulting with his friends and every hockey lover I knew to make sure I had gotten the right one. I couldn’t wait to see what he had gotten me and wondered why he wanted me to open it alone with him later.  That night, after everyone had gone to bed, we took my gift up to the guest bedroom, and I began tearing away at the endearingly haphazard wrap job as he eagerly watched. I finally opened the box to find…  A pair of athletic socks […]

“Run, Newman, run!!!” I yelled at the TV, an enormous slice of pizza hanging out of my mouth. Even though I knew the Dilophosaurus would eventually (*SPOILER ALERT!*) devour Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight, who will always be Newman to me) in his car in Jurassic Park, my flannel pajama-ed tuches was on the edge of my sofa, my dog on my lap. I suddenly jolted as my phone rang, causing a pile of grated parmesan and crushed red pepper to spill onto my Ninja Turtle tank. I picked it up to hear my parents shriek, “HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and Jonah*! Hope you two are having fun tonight!” (*Totally not his real name, but a solid Jewish boy name, nonetheless.) Oops! Sorry, Ryan Seacrest, my ATL homeboy – looks like I missed the ball drop. While I may have missed the countdown, I sure didn’t miss my boyfriend Jonah, who my […]

It was Thursday, a date night. Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”, my favorite song of all time, was blaring in the background. My extra dirty Tito’s martini threatened to spill as I attempted to twerk in sky-high stilettos. Despite a sore hammy from too many TRX pistol squats that day at Kayley Stevens’s class at The PE Club, I could still get down pretty loooow. The night was already off to a good start… and I hadn’t even left my bathroom yet. I look forward to getting ready to go out almost as much as actually going out, but it wasn’t always that way. Balancing work and play can be super hard these days. We’re all so busy and in a hurry that there’s often a blurring of the lines between the two, and it can take a toll on our personal lives. Giving ourselves some much-needed transition time, particularly when it […]

On April 17, 1996, I was stuck after school at Barnwell Elementary waiting for my bus. Alex, a fellow fifth grader I had been crushing on for months, offered to have me come wait with him in the art room, where his mom also taught, while he waited for her to finish up a staff meeting. I joined him, and we both started doodling on a sheet of paper to pass the time. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he looked up and asked if I had ever kissed anyone. Clad in Umbro shorts and red Converse high-tops, my untamable Jew-fro shellacked into a low bun, I froze. Sure, I was always the first girl picked for teams in P.E., but I never thought I’d be asked about kissing, let alone by one of the cutest, funniest boys in the fifth grade! “No,” I said, my heart beating out of the Target-brand […]