Even though we at CC love a good sexy series, the mother of all sexy series, Sex and the City, is not the sort of show we’d want our 12-year-old sister watching. I mean, sipping a Cosmo and watching Samantha bed guy after guy is fun, but we’re in our 20‘s; we understand that sort of thing is a fantasy (well, most of us do). We get the idea that SATC is a fun escape, but in no way represents real single women living in real New York City.

But our 12-year-old sister might not understand that materialistic banter and wildly frequent sex is the making of entertainment. Our 12-year-old sister might think those are really things to aspire to. And we wouldn’t want that.

So why, may I ask, has HarperCollins asked Candace Bushnell to pen a new seires of Young Adult novels? Are The Carrie Diaries, reportedly about Carrie’s high school years, just an attempt to get a new, younger audience into SATC? Are tweens really ready for couture and an obsession with relationships that boarders on psychotic? I mean, maybe Bushnell will break the mold and write about something other than New York City, designer labels, and women chasing after men…but forgive us if we have our doubts on that one.

What do you think? If The Carrie Diaires come out, would you want the little girls you love to read it?

I mean, Instant Messenger has been around forever. Remember those days in high school, when you would tell your parents “you just don’t understand!” and then stomp up to your room and begin to IM 20 friends at once, bitching about how your parents just didn’t understand?

Or how about Freshman year in college when you somehow managed to get your crush’s AIM name, and then proceeded to sit over the keyboard for hours, sweating about if IMing him and “just saying hi” would somehow make you a creepy stalker?

If you’re in my generation, you grew up with AIM, just like you grew up with boy bands and obesity. Growing up with AIM means that we’re all too familiar with the “Away Message”, a strange societal habit of TMI. Even though Away Messages tend to vacillate, there are a few that pop up time and time again. Below, we’ve captured the top 5 familiar few. Read More »

There are famous scenes from movies depicting it. There are Facebook bumper stickers dedicated to it. There are songs that shout the praises of it. There are how to articles and, hell, it even has search results on Wikipedia. Yet for the entirety of my life, the closest I’d come to Sex on the Beach was double fisting them on Friday nights. This had to change.

With the advent of summer upon us, I decided it was high time I was no longer a sex on the beach virgin. I grabbed my manfriend (chuckle chuckle, Carrie Bradshaw) and headed to the shore.

It was a perfect night for just being at the beach, let alone hooking up. Full moon, light breeze and crashing waves. Very romance novel. So boyfriend and I wandered along the beach until we found a secluded(ish) spot.

When we got there, however, I found that I could have done with some good advice before embarking on this adventure. So for all you beach bunny virgins out there contemplating some sea-side action, here is what I wish my experienced girlfriends had told me:

Bring a Flashlight: Luckily for us, the moon was enormous and lit our way pretty well. I happen to be completely blind in the smallest amount of darkness, though, and was petrified of stepping on baby sea turtles. If it’s even semi-cloudy out, a small light should help you navigate. Read More »

In 1993, Lisa Simpson assessed the female role models of her time, and came up with a grim prognosis.

“Millions of girls will grow up thinking that this is the right way to act,” she said, “that they can never be more than vacuous ninnies whose only goal is to look pretty, land a rich husband, and spend all day on the phone with their equally vacuous friends talking about how damn terrific it is to look pretty and have a rich husband.”

In 1998, “Sex & the City” aired for the first time, and Lisa Simpson’s fears came to life.

“Sex & the City” was (does anyone not know this?) a TV series that followed the lives of four women as they navigated the perilously sexful world of life in New York City. These women were meant to stand in for their entire gender, in spite of the fact that they were uniformly white, straight, and rich enough that they could have afforded to feed third-world villages with the money that they spent on shoes. They spent their (apparently endless) free time engaging in all life’s most vital pursuits: boys, gossip, clothes, and parties.

In spite of its patently unrealistic set-up, its exaggerated characters and neatly ridiculous plotting, many viewers were convinced that “Sex & the City” was a masterpiece of realism. People moved to New York because of the show. If they lived here, they tried to live like its characters; if they didn’t live here, they imagined our lives on its terms. These people, mostly women, who Gawker aptly christened Scary Sadshaws, elevated “Sex & the City” out of its proper place in the universe – light entertainment, with sex and terrifying costumes – and treated it as a lifestyle guide. Read More »

So 2007 was ruled by your sex-crazed alter-ego. Somehow she coerced you to collect most of those notches on your bed post.

Maybe it was a new-found freedom or maybe it was your secret desire to experience the “Samantha Jones” lifestyle that spawned the behavior. Either way, you’re ready to put her to rest this year and turn over a new leaf.

Letting go of those sexual patterns won’t be easy; after all, the “Sam” in you is likely to put up a fight.

Regain control by first promising yourself that you’ll lay off the guys for a full month. Make your nights out all about the girls; not finding a hot frat boy to go home with. Worried that you’ll slip up? Tell your friends to keep an eye on you. Above all, give them permission to remind you of your resolution or take you home on account of bad behavior. Read More »

It has been a few months since breaking up with the ex and while he is out telling the world that I am still calling, I have been out on the town looking for a new man to bunk up with. Being that I am not living in some big city that allows for a Carrie-Bradshaw-Revolving-Door-Of-Men type situation, I have been resorting to some new ways of scouting out the men.

Namely, internet dating.

Ah! Say it ain’t so! I must be crazy, right? But seeing as I spend my days sharing my life stories via the internet, it only makes sense that I create some of those stories that way as well. Well, that and the fact that my brother met his wife online and they had a bomb ass wedding.

So far, so good. Actually, great.

I have come to realize that there are so many benefits to online dating. For one, I can do it from the comfort of my couch. In the comfort of my underwear. While enjoying a heaping bowl of Mac and Cheese (the ultimate comfort food!). All that comfort – paired with the fact that I can hide behind the glow of my computer screen – makes the whole getting to know you period a whole lot more…well, comfortable. Read More »

I Love New York.

No, I am not talking about the VH1 show, or the person (really, who is named New York?), but rather, I love New York City. The diversity, the nightlife, the arts, the shopping- NYC is the ideal city… if you’re crapping out money, that is.

A cozy apartment, dinners at the trendiest restaurants and of course, as many Manolo’s and Jimmy Choo’s that will fit into my apartment. If that was life as a journalist for Carrie Bradshaw, then surely, my life couldn’t be much different. My biggest challenge would obviously be learning how to run down 5th avenue in heels or pull off that black bra/white shirt combo that she made look so effortlessly cool.

Just when I was about to boycott Sarah Jessica Parker for giving me false hopes, Urban Hostess looks like it can make my dream a reality. Read More »

VS Invisible Lace Push-up, $34-37                    VS Eyelet Trim Chemise, $19

Apparently, the “milk and cookies” look (black bra under your white tee) is out. But to the New York local news station who dubbed this a fashion don’t, I say screw you. If the full page spread in today’s WWD isn’t a reassurance that I’m not a total fashion don’t, it’s another reminder that the black under white trend has spread from the streets and into the bedroom. Read More »

I am a college graduate. Ew, even after 4 days of being able to say that, I still don’t like the sound of it. But I have sort of, kinda, come to grips with beginning this new phase of life.

In my ploy to stay uber busy while at home in the Midwest to avoid boredom or a meltdown during this limbo post-graduation phase, I have been on a cleansing mission. I feel that some things just need to go once you are not a college co-ed anymore.

Example A: Abercrombie and Fitch clothes. Yesterday, I sifted through my whole wardrobe and exiled all clothes with the logo splashed across the front or any items that blatantly looked like they came from a scene in the catalog. Yes, this was hard, but I felt it was time. Read More »

As I was browsing the internet on a snowy Sunday, I came across something that really made me wonder if AIM usage has reached a new level. Each Sunday newspapers such as The New York Times and The New York Post publish a section on weddings and highlight different couples. And I’ll admit it, I’m a devout reader of the NY Times wedding section. Not because I plan on getting married ANYtime soon, but because it’s more of a fantasy aspect in college to read about couples that found each other while both working on PhD’s at Ivy League schools or met while searching for a cure to cancer, yada yada yada. I mean, a girl can dream right?

Carrie Bradshaw once said the wedding announcements in the Times are “the straight woman’s sports pages,” and I would have to agree.

But, the Post has also started a wedding section that features more, ahem, “normal people.” The couple highlighted this week met on the internet (okay, thats fine and becoming more acceptable recently). So, for some reason, the husband thought it would be okay to propose over the internet! On AIM! Read More »