Kate Middleton is annoying some millionaires.

Cynthia Nixon has gone bald for a role.

Steven Tyler flirted with an American Idol contestant. Shocking.

Beat the single blues this winter.

“The Artist”… will it win an Oscar?

Have you seen the Jason Wu for Target commercial?

How to introduce your dude to toys

Have a talk without a fight

Don’t be afraid to be alone.

In the last year, it seems as though being single has been my specialty. While flings and hookups have come and gone (pun intended) and dates have left me with some less than desirable memories, my current single status has remained loyally by my side. I’ve learned a lot in the past year and I’ve discovered that single girls around the world are all in the same fabulous pair of shoes.

So if you’re sick of sitting at a table for one, eating a meal portioned for two, I cordially invite you to join The Single Girl Society, where being single is more than status, it’s a lifestyle. Of course, with everything in life, the single girl lifestyle comes with rules and I’ve picked up quite a few along the way. So kick back, grab a drink and let the lessons I’ve learned serve as your very own roadmap to transitioning to and enduring the single life.

Lesson 7: Being Single Doesn’t Mean Being On The Prowl 24/7

Look ladies, we’re single, we’re not in heat! Somehow single girls picked up this stereotype of being blood-thirsty, man-chasing robots and I, for one, think it’s about time we rid ourselves of this awful (but mostly just vomit-inducing) image.

Half the fun of being is single is knowing that your time is 100 percent yours – you decide how you spend it and who you spend it with. Why commit all of your time to finding someone else when you’ve already got yourself?

Lately I’ve encountered girls who feel the need to guilt and reprimand themselves for forgoing makeup during a daytime lunch for fear that, gasp, a man would look over! Before I can even verbally assault them, the girls pull out their compact mirrors to swipe on gloss, fluff up their hair and put on their best pouty face. (What’s that lipstick shade called again? Oh yeah, Desperation.) I’ve never seen such beautiful girls in such an ugly light. Read More »

I really hate it when people ask me where I’m from. For me, it’s not so simple.

I was born in Quincy, Illinois. I moved to Abilene, Texas when I was eight years old when my mom was offered a huge promotion from the company she worked for. I moved to Austin, Texas for college when I was eighteen, which is where I am now. And then a year ago, the company my mom had worked for for 21 years laid her off (damn recession). My parents were born and raised in Wisconsin, and since I was the youngest of three kids and we were all out of the house, they decided to move back to there.

I can’t really blame my parents for wanting to move back; my mom was especially miserable here in Texas. She HATES hot weather so you can imagine how much she complained during, well, 80% of the year out here. And neither of my parents really had friends in Abilene. The one close friend my mom had relocated for her own job and then there was really no one left. Back in Illinois, I remember my parents having a bunch of friends over for their birthdays. But in Abilene there were no parties; just the family having a quiet dinner with cake. Read More »

The majority of my post-grad journey has been spent alone. Some days this bothers me, making me homesick or nostalgic for a bustling college campus. But most days, well … I love it. I know the song goes “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do,” but I beg to differ – it’s one of the most liberating things that you’ll ever do.

I rarely had alone time in college. If I wasn’t spending time on campus, I was hanging out with my boyfriend. When I wasn’t in class with the same people semester after semester, I was sitting with those same people in the dining hall. After four years of residential dorm room living, I couldn’t even shower and sh*t alone without someone else being in the bathroom brushing their teeth or shaving their legs.

Do you know how nice it is to be alone? It feels amazing, especially when I can get lost in a crowd and do what I want, on my own time. I can go to the grocery store and run errands at Target, and instead of driving a gaggle of other people and working around their class schedules, I can just go by myself when I want! Oh and my favorite: going to the movies alone. I can see what I want, sit where I want, get some candy from the concession stand and not have to share it (sorry, I like to keep my Snowcaps to myself), and I don’t have to deal with the picking and choosing of what to see amongst other people. Also, maybe Jake Gyllenhaal and I want some time to ourselves, ya know? Read More »

[We're following one post-grad as she grabs that diploma, packs up her college life and heads on out to the big, bad world. There's a lot of change comin' her way and with a cross-country drive, she's got a lot of time to think about it....]

If you told me three months ago that I would drive across the United States to California, I would have never believed you – especially if you told me I would do it alone. Yes, I am making the journey from Georgia to Southern California alone, just me and my packed up Toyota Camry.  As I write this, I’m on day 2 of my four day trek – currently camped out in a hotel room in the middle of Texas.

“You can’t drive alone!”, “It’s not safe to drive across the country by yourself!”, and “Why would you want to drive two thousand miles alone?” were the usual responses upon telling anyone my plans.  My parents were even freaked out about me doing it. Even my dad offered to fly out to Atlanta and drive with me – and he does just about everything to avoid getting on an airplane. But to me it’s not such a big deal. This is really no different than living in New York City for the summer by myself as an intern or traveling around Europe last summer.

I’m 22, why can’t I do it by myself? Is it because I’m a woman that people are freaked out about this? Or is it because of the distance, which seems like nothing when it’s split up into nine or ten hours in a car per day? I don’t know what it is, but I’m glad to be proving everyone wrong. I’m doing it – and so far, I’m doing just fine (this is where I knock on wood). Read More »

I have never been good at being alone. For me, loneliness = boredom = depression. I like to be surrounded by people, whether they’re friends, family, or my boyfriend. But right now, my boyfriend lives on the other side of the country, my friends are all home for the summer, and my family is hours away. And I’m starting to realize that being alone doesn’t mean you have to be lonely.

If you’re finding yourself alone a lot lately (maybe you moved to a new city for school/work, just went through a break up, fought with your friends, whatever) here are some tips to fight off the loneliness.

Read
Get lost in a good book. My favorites this summer have been The Time Traveler’s Wife, God-Shaped Hole, and Never Let Me Go. Books can be expensive, so find a library, put in a long list of holds, and make it a goal to read each book before the next one becomes available. Read More »

I will admit it, I know nothing about moving, especially to a city. I’ve lived the last 18 years of my life in a small town in Northern Ontario, where my parents took care of my every need.  I was happy, I was comfortable, and best of all, I knew my way around. The only time I had ever moved was when I was 2 years old, when we moved across the street (really), and I’m pretty sure I slept through most of it.

I grew up in the kind of town where you can’t walk down the street without seeing someone you know, and, of course, everyone knows your business. But as great as that all sounds, the time had come for me to spread my hard-partying, college-going, moving-to-the-city wings.

After being accepted to college just outside of Toronto, I thought “why should I wait until September to move?” So I packed up my things and began my life as an adult. I found a gorgeous 2 bedroom apartment right beside my future school to share with a couple friends – the only catch was that the lease started in July, my friends weren’t moving until September, and I would be on my own for two months. I moved in last week, and not only have I learned the joys of being able to walk around naked, I’ve also learned a thing or two about living on your own for the first time.

1. Save yourself the hassle – pack smartly. I got to my new place and decided to unpack dishes and the things I would need for my kitchen first. While this is a great idea, having zero labels on any boxes has left me completely forkless. Spoons? Knives? The cool egg timer I bought for the “once-in-a-blue-moon” occasions I want hard boiled eggs? Yes. But forks? No clue where they went! And it will take me days to dig through every last box in this mess of an apartment to find them. It may be annoying to organize and label your stuff when you pack, but it is not nearly as annoying as attempting to eat spaghetti with a spoon. Read More »

This past Saturday I did what every 20-something girl does on the weekend: I took myself to see Harry Potter. Alone. I was dying to see the movie and no one would go with me so I took my first step on my path to becoming a cat lady and went to see it by myself.

I spent ten minutes debating whether getting food would make me look like a liberated woman without a care in the world or a pathetic loser who not only sees movies alone but also dines alone. In the end I went with no food because I really can’t justify a ten dollar popcorn, even if it does come with free Raisinets (there’s a reason they have to give these away for free). Also, if I got a drink there would be no one to save my seat while I went to the bathroom. Read More »

There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned American holiday to make you realize how alone you are in this world. Everything’s been going pretty well (according to my new post-college standards of pretty well) and I thought that for the most part I was building up quite the little social network of friends who would make me not feel quite so isolated. We would Gchat at work, grab Pinkberry here and there, perhaps even attend the occasional happy hour.

But apparently that social network of friends was a pure figment of my imagination.

July 4th came out of nowhere and everyone (people I’ve never spoken to) kept asking me what I was planning on doing. On the outside I remained calm and collected and responded with dignity; I’ll figure it out. But on the inside I was panicking like it was Halloween eve and my only available costume was sexy bunny. I would casually bring it up to my “friends” and they all would respond with excitement about boat trips with friends, annual family BBQ’s, and lake houses in states I thought were made-up. Then they would ask me what I was doing and I would mumble something about fireworks and hot dogs and anti-terrorism laws. Read More »

Perusing College Candy’s fancy new cyber-digs this morning, I stumbled on this article, that I somehow missed the first time around. This article and its attendant comments cracked me up, and got me thinking about, of all things, a certain TV show you may have heard of. Ever seen the Sex and the City episode where Carrie admits that when she’s alone, she likes to stand at the kitchen counter eating crackers with jelly on them and reading Vogue, or something like that? And labeled it “secret single behavior’?

I am no devotee of SATC, but I thought that phrase was pretty genius, and started to think about the things I do when I’m totally, gloriously alone.

Now that we’re in the phase of life where living with roommates and/or significant others is par for the course, I find myself missing the weirdest things from time to time. Singing is a big one for me. Singing along to entire musical soundtracks or pop albums or whatever suits my fancy – and I mean headphones-in, top-of-my-lungs singing – while I re-organize my closet for the zillionth time and leave the rest of my room a mess.

Oooooh, or eating a plateful of random, unrelated finger/snack foods for dinner, like cheese with crackers and olives and slices of avocado and frozen spring rolls and Oreo cookies and probably an enormous bottle of coke zero (or wine, depending on the day). Eaten while sitting on the floor and watching Veronica Mars on DVD.  The list goes on. Read More »