Who could pass up an evening of trying nice wines? And if you get a lovely woman reading lovely poetry at the same time, you’ve just about reached nirvana. Check this out from SWWAN founding member, Jacquee Thomas – Wine & Poetry. Get more details here.
Thursday, August 6th, 6 p.m. at
The House of Glunz in Chicago
Friday, August 7th, 6:30 p.m. at
WineStyles in Naperville
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill
Women of the World is a great organization that puts on cool events to benefit women. Check this one out and register TODAY:
“Fashion Face Forward” – featuring local Chicago designers & fashionistas:
Yana German…Lauren Lein…and Kathryn McKechnie
Special Guest: Dr. Sandy Goldberg NBC/5
A portion of the proceeds donated to A Silver Lining Foundation
Women of the World’s mission is to provide local & global opportunities to professional women through collaboration, education and networking. By sharing collective thought leadership, resources and passion, women can acquire the skills to forge strategic relationships across the world.
Date/Time: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Cost: $40 Includes Luncheon & Special Gifts
Register here
I am going out on a limb. I believe that the policy of abstinence-only isn't effective for preventing teens from having sex. But after seeing this new Trojan condom commercial, I'm thinking there may be a way to prevent teen (and adult) sex both from resulting in unwanted pregnancies and from transmitting venereal diseases.
Never mind that it's astounding to see a condom commercial in prime time. They've been showing "feminine protection (hygiene)" for years and lately, sex enhancement stuff like gels and creams. Okay. Can we fight this?
Anyway, this new Trojan commercial is sharp and cool. It shows a pair of white-gloved disembodied hands (think of a mime's hands) opening a spiffy gold package of a Trojan Ecstasy condom. It then proceeds to apply the item by unrolling an invisible material to fit an invisible, but definitely sizable, long shape, even tucking it snugly at the end of the movement. Then the screen flashes the copy–can't remember exactly, but something like "Yeah. That's what it's like–like you're wearing nothing."
While this commercial will probably never reach the young men who have not received (or understood) education about the dangers of unprotected sex, and it will have little or no effect on the men, young and old, who are drunk or high when they go to have sex with their partners or dates, it does take an intelligent approach to helping the regular good guys who can't resist, or whose girlfriends can't resist, be smart. Help them do the best they can to be responsible about their choices.
And the best part is the good guys would be willingly sharing the responsibility for "safe sex" instead of relying on the female to take all the responsibity.
We are so excited! Been planning for months already the celebration for Single Working Women’s Week this year. (Read about our first celebration here.)
We have an astounding lineup of talent doing presentations for our first annual 2009 SWWAN Women’s Empowerment Conference. Please save some time to attend one or more of the sessions–you will be enlightened, informed and inspired at each one of these mini-workshops. The schedule includes 2 sessions each day (3 pm and 7 pm CT) on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the week of August 2-8.
Check out the announcement of the 2009 SWWAN Women’s Empowerment Conference.
Saw a good post over at “Work It, Mom!” about a single mom having to “ask permission” to get the father to take responsibility so she can have some time to herself. Whereas the dad just calls up and says “I can’t make it this weekend, I’m going away” – even though it’s his scheduled time and the mom has plans she’s expected to drop.
Classic stuff. I can totally relate to this scenario of frustration. The worst part is it can feel like you’re still married to the person–which you went through the hell of divorce to get out of!–but without any of the partnership benefits (even if they were pathetically small at best).
The comments are interesting. Some claim it’s a man vs. woman thing rather than a single vs. married mom (‘cuz lots of married moms report the same thing). Others–including the lone single dad who responded–claim it’s a case of not handling the situation assertively and aggressively enough–that you’re a doormat if you let someone (male or female) get away with treating you like that.
They all have valid points. If I’m being a doormat because I don’t know how to assert myself, maybe a little training is all I need. If I’m a doormat because I don’t believe I’m worth it, a little therapy might be in order (or at least a bunch of positive affirmations).
But if your ex- (or spouse) is a pathological type who couldn’t care less about the kids and is more concerned with controlling/manipulating you–and unhappily, people like this are not uncommon–you can certainly try the assertive stuff, but you’d better take care how your kids are treated while they’re in that other’s company. And, of course, those of you who are in, or suspect you’re in, such a situation, probably already realize that issues around your children need to be handled with special care to protect them as much as possible.
Found a great post by a single mom about raising your child in a big city. Interesting points. And while you’re there, check out some of her cool posts about Chicago, in case you’re interested in visiting or living there!
I miss my dad. So do my two grown daughters and my 8 siblings. And I’m really sad he didn’t get to meet my little granddaughter. Dad retired to a little farm in Indiana after 38 years as a milk route salesman (he sold to small stores rather than individual homes). It was a job that provided fairly well for our big Catholic-birth-control-size family.
We never knew our dad while we grew up. He and my mom were a closed circuit pair. She spoke for him; he let her handle discipline and most everything else. He’d step in when she asked him to–to scare us or spank us or whatever.
But how we loved going to visit them on the farm. For twenty years, it was my family’s only vacation spot. As a single mom, I loved it as a haven of comfort. I’d arrive, have a drink with them, pat my kids on the head and sleep. Pretty much all weekend I’d sleep. I knew the kids were safe and had interesting things to do out in nature. No chores. No errands. No work. No phone calls. God, it was like heaven.
Then after my mom died, my dad found it hard at first to negotiate the world on his own. But he put his mind to it. And we all watched him teach himself how to listen more and how to communicate more effectively with us. We got to know him in a way we never could when both parents were a unit. It was a precious gift, and I am profoundly grateful to have had those years with him.
There is nothing in the world like having a good relationship with your dad. Hope yours with your dad brings you much joy. And if it doesn’t, I hope you’ve found peace with that.
Stress tends to cause men to hole up. It tends to push women to find other women to hang out with and spend time together. According to a recent report, this means the study of how to treat stress has been entirely one-sided–and completely inapplicable to a whole sex. Whew. Talk about blinders…
Both sexes release a substance called oxytocin under stress, but testosterone tends to reduce the amount of this substance, and estrogen tends to increase it. And that’s the substance that leads women to reach out to tend children and to reach out to other women for bonding and friendship. And as lots of studies have already shown, an active social life (friends) is strongly associated with living longer–and enjoying it more. No wonder women tend to live longer than men.
The popular television show Family Feud is about as light a piece of entertainment as you can get. Can come in handy during recuperative times or times of serious overload. Anyway, I just saw something that blew my SWWAN mind.
The show runs a bunch of test groups and asks certain test questions. Then when they invite folks on the show, the guests are supposed to try to guess the most popular answers the test groups gave. Today, contestants were struggling to fill in the answers to this question: What do Oprah’s fans most want to help/urge her to do?
Answers included, keep giving away prizes, keep donating to charity, lose weight, and a few others. But the #1 top answer–by a resoundingly more-than-double any other answer–was “get married.”
I was astonished. Certainly that can’t be because Oprah seems like someone who’s incomplete, right? I’m sure they don’t think she’s miserable or lonely. What could it be? But consider how Oprah is loved much as subjects love their royalty. I just watched a marvelous film (Mrs. Brown) in which Judi Dench played the imperious Queen Victoria in mourning after her beloved Alfred had died. Everyone wanted her to get married again (she never did and ruled another 20 years)). Queen Elizabeth I of England remained unmarried her entire 40-year reign and never ceased to have people actively petitioning and scheming for her marriage.
I imagine the subjects/fans want the queen/Oprah to experience the same joys and pleasures of marriage they themselves enjoy. It seems wrong to assume that people could be uncomfortable with or threatened by the independence of a happy single woman who repeatedly demonstrates her commitment to pursuing good causes around the world, generously sharing her wealth, and providing ongoing value and entertainment for her audiences.
