I remember being a teenager and feeling like I could talk to anyone anywhere about anything.
When someone insists that you watch a show that's already been on for a few seasons, they're basically saying, 'Hey, you're not doing anything for the next five weeks, are you? Because have I got a plan for you every single night! It's 'Weeds!''
Never marry because it seems like what you should do.
Cheating is very rarely about the actual act of being with another person.
Often, when cheating happens, we rush to place blame solely on one person - either the person who did the cheating, or more insidiously, if it happened to us, we blame ourselves for not being 'good enough' to keep them around. But putting it all on one person doesn't paint the entire picture.
If a show is wickedly, hugely popular, like 'Mad Men,' I assume that the masses, in their infinite inferiority to me, don't know what good TV is and that everyone is just brainwashed.
Being completely independent doesn't make you a strong woman - it's being strong enough to trust yourself in other people's hands that takes guts.
I have multiple tattoos.
The benefits of a healthy, thriving relationship may not be nearly as exciting as watching your career take off, but both aspects of your life are equally important.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but I imagine a lot of married and divorced people have insights to share about how they felt during their engagement.
I have a pretty intense work ethic. If something's not done, I cannot let go until I get it done.
Without knowing your own history, you are doomed to repeat it.
Marriage is not a magical potion that serves to amplify adoration, reduce deep-seated feelings of resentment, erase fears of commitment, or answer questions about whether or not this is the right move. Marriage is a ceremony that cements your current bond to another human being, and while that's a huge thing, that's all it does.
Don't expect yourself to immediately love your stepchildren. In fact, you may hate them for a bit.
I'm tired of hearing about 'Damages,' I don't care how life-changing 'The Wire' is, and I don't want to hear another word about 'Battlestar Galactica' or its super-awesome ending.
In my experience as a therapist and as a friend, it seems that the majority of the breakup resources available are for women and not men. Women, who tend to be more vocal about their emotional struggles, are the squeaky wheel that gets the grease from friends, from online communities, from books, and from therapeutic approaches.
Do remember to pick your battles when you start parenting your stepchildren.
Love is a good thing.
I grew up in a town where there were no Muslims whatsoever, and there was not a lot of exposure.
It's absolutely amazing to me that anyone allowed their children to watch 'The Ren & Stimpy Show' in the '90s; it's dark, gross, nihilistic, and absolutely bizarre.
Balanced, passionate, grounded people are the ones whose careers are ultimately the most successful.
Sacrificing your relationship for your career sounds noble and romantic from the outside, but the reality is that it can create a pattern of self-destruction that will ultimately burn you out on the career you've worked so hard to build. It's a trap and, for some, an easy way out of having to maintain relationships under stress.
If a show is a critical success but a ratings flop, I assume that people are just championing the show because it looks cool to root for an underdog.
Divorce is one of the most destructive, emotionally traumatic experiences a human being can go through, no matter if you're the instigator or the recipient. It's hard, and it hurts, and it takes a long time to feel normal again.
Women compete, compare, undermine, and undercut one another - at least, that is the prevailing notion of how we interact.
No matter how you handle alcohol at your wedding, you will most likely be upsetting someone.
A lot of new stepparents fall into the trap of letting children disobey household expectations in order to gain favor with them.
Holiday food is rich and indulgent. Going-home-to-see-family food is richer and even more indulgent.
Nothing makes a girl feel as unsexy as divorce.
In Hollywood, it seems that the people least successful at being married are the ones most eager to tie the knot over and over again.
I grew up in a very small town in North Carolina, weird and pudgy, without too many other kids to play with. I spent a lot of time watching TV. It was my reassurance that the outside world was bigger and more colorful than the one I lived in.
Dealing with wedding stuff is a bit of a double-edged sword - it seems that divorcees are expected to either burn it all on the front lawn, tears silently coursing down their faces, or keep the stuff, shrine-like, concealed somewhere in their homes.
As my marriage was slowly dissolving into silent meals and awkward nights of avoiding conversation, I started pondering an unmarried future and wondered if I'd ever be able to hack being single again.
Get married wherever you like, make accommodations for the people you love so they can attend, and forget about the people who can't.
Sometimes we put so much effort into things we're doing, like dating or wedding planning, that we don't stop to think about whether or not we even want the results of that effort.
Sometimes new spouses don't fully process the commitment they've made until after the deal is done, and then they panic.
Ghosts of Marriages Past can haunt many aspects of a new relationship - your expectations of what a man should do, how you behave in conflict, your ideas of how commitment should look - they can even make your new man look untrustworthy when he's really behaving normally.
I think it's lovely when people are more involved in local politics.
I thought of 'The Big Sick' as a placeholder title, to be completely honest. I've grown to love it.
That's part of what a relationship is: you don't experience things in the same way.
Marriage will not change your spouse. It will not make him or her more mature, more loyal to you, or better at housework.
Not deciding is a decision. People don't realize that not making a decision is a decision in itself.
Stays at the in-laws' aren't inherently sexy.
I'm a mental-health advocate big time, so I think it's great when depression is a thing that's discussed out in the open, because it's still way too stigmatized.
Everybody's got baggage, and not just the classic, 'Oh I have so much baggage,' but everyone comes with so much context, and you're not just dating a person: you're dating all their context, too. Part of relationships is negotiating each other's context.
People get married for a wide array of reasons and have all sorts of expectations of how marriage will change the relationship. And while it's true that turning the person you're dating into a legal partner does affect certain things, those who expect marriage to be a cure-all for all your relationship woes are sorely mistaken.
If you don't simply communicate with your spouse what household tasks you would like them to do, you are setting yourself up to be angry.
