← PlanJam.comArchived blog, 2006–2008

Planning a Green Date

by Lori Dake

Since Earth Day has really gained in popularity within the last decade, to where people even mark their calendars for it, it's no surprise couples are now starting to plan a date around the most greenest of festivities. If you really want to go all out and leave a neutral carbon footprint for a single day, you might want to take in some of these suggestions!

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The Need To Feel Appreciated

by Lori Dake

So you slaved all day to surprise your guy with a fabulous meal. You made his absolute favorite food, and you even remembered to compliment it with a nice wine. But when he sat down to eat, he didn’t even seem to notice and just shoveled it in. Or perhaps you fought with every ticket broker in town to get the most primo seats for the concert of the year, and all she did was bitch about being ten minutes late for the opening act and about the escapades of that floozy in the row behind you two. And of course, there is always the classic of the forgotten anniversary or birthday – wow, that never seems to go out of style! In all of these situations, the one who went out of the way to do something nice for the other half has been left with feeling rather stung, and rightly so. But at the same time, you know he or she honestly didn’t mean anything by it, so you let it slide, hoping the next time you do something nice, and the extra effort will get noticed.

But will it really?

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Still Living with Mom and Dad

by Lori Dake

Since the 50s, Americans have grown accustomed to moving away from home once they finished school and found a decent job, usually before they hit their 21st birthdays. However, I’ve been noticing a trend over the last few years that more and more people are opting to hang out with mom and dad longer and longer for a myriad of reasons - be it the astronomical student loan repayments, car loans, the lack of those aforementioned decent jobs or simply to save up for a down payment on a house. In fact, it isn’t all that rare anymore to hear about people who are still living at their childhood home into their late 20s and even 30s, and with what happened with the housing market, many people are finding themselves having to move back into their childhood bedrooms just to keep from being homeless. With all this in mind, should the rest of us who have moved onward and upward and have kept our heads above water look down upon the folks who haven’t?

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Stepping Up To The Plate

by Lori Dake

One of the things I have always found silly is how women still feel as though they are expected to be passive when it comes to meeting men. This is the 21st century after all, so why is it that modern women are still allowing themselves to sit idly by, hoping the guys come to them? Let’s go over some of these fears and get over them!

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Time To Move On Up?

by Lori Dake

So you and your partner have been dating for a fair amount of time, to where you're nearly joined at the hip. Many nights become sleep overs, the plants at your place are getting watered less and less, the milk is always going south in the fridge, and you are starting to receive phone calls at the other's home. You might even have a dresser drawer reserved for your belongings, just because it's easier to keep your stuff separate. At this point, it seems almost silly to have two separate apartments, when you two could be pooling your resources together and helping each other out with the chores. But are you really ready to move in together?

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Emotional Affairs Are STILL Affairs

by Denise Shively

As a woman who has been cheated on, both physically and emotionally, I can assure you that emotional affairs can be potentially as devastating as physical cheating. Unfortunately, few people are aware of the damage emotional cheating can bring upon a relationship. While it’s perfectly acceptable for women and men to befriend one another in platonic fashion, when do you know you’ve crossed the boundary between mere friendship and emotional infidelity?

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Why Serial Dating Can Seriously Mess You Up

by Denise Shively

While the dating game can be fun, and can potentially allow you to find someone compatible for you in the long-term, many women (and men) can turn into a “serial dater.”

I know how dangerous serial dating can be, because I used to be one. After a boyfriend ended our relationship of four years, I was completely devastated. At first, I turned to binge-eating, sob fests, and writing tragic “poetry” in my journal in order to try and cope with the pain I was feeling. When I realized that it wasn’t working, I turned to serial dating to try and deal with my rejection. I dated man after man after man, never pausing to face the perilous slope I was heading down. I didn’t realize it then, but I was simply using each new man in my life to fill the void my long-term partner had left in my heart when he broke up with me.

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So What Can You Eat?

by Lori Dake

So your date says she's a vegetarian, and you're a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Just hearing that term has all these images of boring iceberg lettuce salads and weird chunks of tofu swimming through your head, like some kind of bad 50's horror movie. To make matters worse, you have already reserved at booth at the fanciest steak house in town! Oh no! What now? So, feeling rather sullen, you breathe a heavy sigh, and you blurt out the most obvious question that comes to mind:
"So what can you eat?"

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