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.

It’s those same girls who spend their single lives compiling endless lists of traits they insist a man they date must possess (oh you know, the usual stuff, a close relationship with his family, dashing smile, impeccable style and a Black AmEx, of course) and it’s those same girls that are making the rest of us look bad.

As single girls we’re all so busy running around and preparing ourselves for a guy who doesn’t even exist yet and for what? To feel even worse when we finally realize that we’re still alone (and broke)?

Being single is like a free pass to be selfish. It’s amazing! Relationships are time consuming and exhausting and expensive, (hello, those Friday night date outfits don’t just magically appear in our closets!) so why not enjoy your singlehood and make your time yours again?

Go to the gym because you want to, not because you want to look skinny the next time you randomly run into your ex. Read the books you’ve been meaning to read because you want to, not because you want to impress your insanely sexy TA. Get a mani/pedi because you want to treat yourself, not because it’s one of the steps in your “Get-Dolled-Up-And-Get-A-Man” routine.

There’s no rule that says as single women, we’re obligated to be on a manhunt. So the next time you’re all “hair done, nails done, everything done, oh you fancy huh?” you might want to ask yourself if the time you spent getting fancy could’ve have been better spent doing something you actually enjoy (like hosting a Gossip Girl marathon for one in the privacy of your living room and your flannel pajamas).

What do you say? You with me…or are you too busy getting all gussied up? Sound off below, single girls!

What are the first 6 rules of the Single Girl Society? Find out right here.

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.

My parents sacrificed all of that, though, because they both had great jobs and were giving myself and my siblings a good upbringing. But once we were all out of the house, I can see how bleak Abilene must have been for them. How lonely. So when my mom called me last August telling me that she’d been laid off, it wasn’t really a surprise that she followed that statement with, “Your father and I are going to move back home.”

But while I’m really happy that my parents were finally able to go home, it’s sort of left me without one.

There are tons of weekends were my friends will go home and I get insanely jealous. I would do anything to be able to go home and have my mom cook me dinner whenever I wanted. Or to spend a day just hanging out with my parents. Or just get away from campus for a little while. Basically, I miss them. A lot.  I haven’t seen my family since last November, and I’m not going to see them again until January.

It’s especially hard because I can’t see them on Thanksgiving or Christmas anymore – I just don’t have the money to fly across the country. I miss making these cut-out cookies with my dad every year around Christmas. It’s my great grandmother’s recipe and became my favorite tradition of the year. Last year, however, was the first year I made them all by myself. I remember pulling the first batch out of the oven and I just started bawling.

In some ways it’s flattering that my parents think that I’m old enough to live completely on my own, but in other ways I still feel like a little kid who’s lost her parents. I may be 21 paying my own rent and car payments, but I still feel like I need them around. I don’t really like facing the fact that I’m an adult.

I know I have to grow up sometime – it’s just happening a little faster than I would’ve liked.

Any of you CollegeCandy readers ever deal with this? How do you go home when you don’t have a home anymore?

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?

Of course, I miss having friends close to me and I miss my family, but it’s so nice to rely on myself and my schedule to get things done. I know that some people hate being alone, but the way I look at it, it’s one of those things that everyone should experience. It may be uncomfortable to sit alone in a movie theater, but just because you are too afraid doesn’t mean you shouldn’t belly up to the bar and do it. And plus, I think it’s a lot easier to get lonely if you don’t do anything — even if it means doing something you love — alone.

Yes, it’s weird to spend so much time with myself, but right now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. In fact, I might as well be dating myself at this point in my life because while the rest of my world is changing, it’s giving me the ultimate getting-to-know you of the one person that will always be in my life: myself.

Cheesy as it sounds, I’m stuck with me for now until the day I die. So, why shouldn’t I hang out with myself from time to time like a best friend? Seeing as I’m sitting here typing this without any pants on (and loving it!), I see no reason not to.

[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).

Even though my ass is tired of driving (I will admit, it would have been nice to have someone split the time behind the wheel with me), I don’t think I would have planned this trip any other way. I picked the driving hours per day. I decided on the location to stop for the night. I am deciding when to make pit stops and where to eat. I am listening to what I want (every Backstreet Boys album in existence) and singing as loud as I want. I don’t have to worry about sharing a hotel room with anyone or becoming a Chatty Charlsie in the car (I am guilty of this, so it’s nice to just sit in my own silence for a change).  I am doing everything by myself, entirely, for the first time in a very long time. Isn’t this what my life should be like post-grad?

This is the first time since graduating college that I have actually had time for myself – to think, sit alone, and just be with me – the one person who I need to rely on most in the coming months. Who knew I was even capable of thinking after completing four years of studies? Not me, but now I have all the time in the world to think about what I want to do, where I want to go, and how I want to get there. Months prior to graduation, all I heard was that I should take time to think about all those things, but I didn’t have time to actually let anything sink in – I barely had time to get through all the motions of senior year. But when you’re driving through on a humid highway in Louisiana, there really isn’t much to think about except the things that lie ahead … such as my final destination: California and preparations for getting into law school.

Maybe people are too afraid to drive anywhere over an hour by themselves because of the silence they need to fill, but I know that this experience of road-trippin’ by myself truly has been an awakening experience that I can do things alone – something I think I forgot in college. Think about it. We all have friends, boyfriends, families, jobs, and a thousand little things to worry about – and the majority of the time, we have people around us. It’s rare to just sit in a car and drive for hours and hours to think and just do what you want. It’s kind of thrilling, even if it’s a little scary.

If I can take this trip and make it out okay (even after all the endless hours of thinking about the future and a little bit about the past) – I think I can make it out okay in California.

Or at least, I hope so.

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.

Watch TV
Find a good show or two, with characters you connect to, and start following their lives. Studies have actually shown that watching television can serve as a “social surrogate” and fill our need for social interaction. It may not be the best long term solution, but it can help for a little while. Don’t like any of the crap on TV today? Get a DVD box set of a good show you missed out on seeing in its hay-day (I like Freaks and Geeks, Dead Like Me, and The Sopranos).

Self-Improvement
I’m not suggesting you spend tons of money on one of the popular faux-psychology books of the moment. Instead, pick something you’ve always wanted to do and actually DO it. Learn a new language, start playing an instrument, or even just write in a diary every day. You’ll get to accomplish a goal you’ve always had, and you’ll be too busy to feel lonely.

Get Out!
Go out to places where you can be alone in a group. Go people-watch at a coffee shop or outdoor park. Go to a movie. Go to a bar. Just being around people will make you feel less lonely, even if you don’t interact with them. And who knows, maybe you will make a friend or two.

If All Else Fails…
Snuggle up with this “guy.”

The main point I’m trying to make is that it’s possible to enjoy time alone. If you can find ways to entertain yourself, you will never be hopelessly lonely. So get out there and start finding fun things to do, and let me know when you discover something I don’t have on my list!

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.

2. It won’t kill you to wear the same pair of jeans 2 or 3 times before washing them. Living at home, most of us don’t have to pay $1.90 for wash and $1.60 for dry, but being on your own means shoveling out the cash for clean clothes. Wearing the same outfit twice before washing it is not going to kill us (gasp, I know), and I hate to admit it, but no one else will probably notice. Plus, jeans are always more comfy after they’ve been worn-in for a day…or month (you know it’s true).

3. The novelty of unpacking wears off fast. Sure, I’ll admit, unpacking the first few boxes was reminiscent of Christmas morning. Forgetting the little trinkets from my room that I had packed away months ago gave me a bit of a thrill, but after doing this for 3 hours – it’s just not so much fun anymore. My solution is to tackle each room one at a time, starting with the most important. First the kitchen, then the bedroom, living room, bathroom, etc. This way, things get done efficiently, and by the time you’re sick of unpacking your 2,384th novelty mug, it’s time to put together your bed and re-fold your high school clothes.

4. Black bed sheets are a bad idea. All excited about getting to decorate a new room, I came up with a classy palate of purple and black. To go along with it, I bought a super cute purple duvet and some elegant black sheets. All was well (and looked awesome), until I reconnected with my ex (long story) and… well, let’s just say that having sex on black sheets means I have to spend the money I’ve been saving on washing my jeans to wash my sheets. Sure, they look great, but they aren’t very practical if you plan on getting freaky.

5. I really can do it on my own. Living with the parentals for the last 18 years of my life and having most things done for me had me seriously doubting my cleaning, cooking, and all-around independent living skills. But other than one almost-leaving-the-stove-on-all-night fiasco, things have been going smoothly. Sure, the water in my building was shut off for 8 hours the day after I moved in, but it was dealt with and all was well.

I was terrified leading up to the big move, but things worked out, as they almost always do. I feel like a grown up now and I’m excited to see what other challenges come my way once school starts next month.

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.

The upside of going alone is that there are a lot more seating choices when you’re only looking for one seat. The downside are the pity stares when people ask if there’s anyone using the seat on either of me and I say no. I began to spot other singles in the theater and I smiled at them like we shared a secret. I tried to communicate with my eyes that maybe we could start a solo movie viewee club and swap a pair of jeans that fit all of us to give us comfort whenever we sat alone in public places. No one returned my eye messages, so for now I’ll still continue wearing just my jeans to the movies.

The movie started and I started to get frustrated when I realized that I had no one to make comments to when something big happened. But I abandoned all social courtesy halfway through the movie and instead just started telling the person next to me all my commentary. As my commentary continued, so did his discomfort, and he slowly began turning away from me until his body was perpendicular to mine and he was watching the wall instead of the movie.

His loss.

The movie ended and I came to the conclusion that seeing a movie alone really isn’t the worse thing. However, the gentleman next to me might tell you that sitting next to a person seeing a movie alone is the worst thing. It’s certainly not something I’m going to do every weekend, but it’s nice to know that if no one will go see Ice Age 8 with me, I can go all by myself.

Next of my list of things to prove my maturity and independence is getting drunk alone, followed by AA meetings alone, followed closely by adopting a cat alone.

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.

I started to tell myself that it would be fun to spend the day alone. I don’t even own an American flag and hot dogs give me stomach problems. This holiday really isn’t for me, anyways. But then like an 11:59 new years eve kiss potential coming out of nowhere, a former camper called me and said she wanted to do something. Sure she’s 18 and sure I had to hand pick her up from the train because her mom said so, but now at least I could say I was doing something.

Unfortunately, once I made those plans no one even asked me my plans anymore. So I went to dinner with the former camper and we talked prom and summer and being so over high school friends (except I really am because hers still call her to do things). The whole night made me feel youthful again and wise with advice for her pre-college ears. And also hostile because tourists were heading for the fireworks 8 hours early and barreling their fold-up lawn chairs into everyone on the subway.

But I can’t complain, because at least I found someone who wanted to spend the holiday with me.

I guess I better start booking my Labor Day weekend ASAP. Step 1: make real friends in NYC.

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.

None of these things sound super weird when I write them down, and really, they’re not. Secret single behaviors aren’t necessarily freakish – that’s not the reason they’re secret. Adding another person into the mix changes what it is you inherently love about these mini-fetishes, whatever they are. They’re not only things you do by yourself, you do them FOR yourself; comforting little rituals or indulgences, just idiosyncratic enough to raise an eyebrow, but innocuous enough that they can’t really be explained.

So come on, spill it! Ladies with lovers, anything you miss from your swinging single days? Swinging singles, anything you’re determined to never give up? What is your secret single behavior?