Category Archives: Dating

Foxy Friday Date-Night

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Last Friday night, hubs and I dropped off one daughter at basketball practice and headed off to date night. We debated whether to see a movie or not. Threw around the idea of shooting pool at Dave and Busters. Maybe go on a yacht. Even considered driving into Manhattan just to walk around Time Square. In the end, exhaustion helped us to make our decision. We decided to stay local, check out an eatery we have been eyeing for years and walk along the water. 


As we drove a few miles from our house to Oyster Bay, the bowl of soup I downed an hour ago seemed to have disappeared. “I’m starving!” Continue reading →

Kiss and Tell

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Fun Shadow shot of Hubs & I kissing on a Hilton Head
Island beach after watching the sunrise. 
Something happens when two people kiss. I’m not referring to your usual goosebumps inviting, butterfly acrobatics in the tummy, endorphin release. That’s a given. If you’re kissing someone you’re attracted to. What I’m referring to is an invisible weaving of hearts that occurs while two sets of moist, charged lips touch. 

In most memorable love stories, whether read on seen on Hollywood screens, the moment I anxiously await is the culmination of that first kiss. So often it disappoints. But every once in awhile, the story nails it. Perfectly timed. Perfectly orchestrated. And perfectly executed. 

When I was young, and the hormones kicked in, I started wondering, hmmm? Who will be my first kiss? When will I kiss a boy? How long should I wait till I kiss the boy I’m dating? Will I have time to apply a little last second lip-gloss!?! 😉 Continue reading →

Friday Knight Movie-Tale

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Ventured out to the theater to see The Dark Knight Rises on Friday night, only hours after we heard of the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. My hubby is the rebellious type. He refuses to live by fear. 

We did a similar thing on the ten year anniversary of 9/11. We took the subway into Manhattan with our girls, had lunch, and played at a city park with New Yorkers. It made perfect sense to hubs. He wanted us to be close to those who were hurting, because we were hurting too. A decade later, and the memories of 9/11 still get me teared up. Hub’s story of where he stood when the second tower came down is a memory that surfaces yearly every September. Sigh. 

So he wanted to teach our girls to we continue to live. And if and when someone ever decides to attack NYC again, we’re not going to sit inside our homes behind locked doors in a basement bunker. That’s just not our style. Because if you live like that, you give fear power over you. Continue reading →

Upside-Down Kisses

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Photo Credit: Foodcore on Flickr
I’m sitting in Starbucks finishing up some writing when I get a text from hubby a few hours after the girls leave for a week long adventure with their cousins in Delaware.

“Be home by 8:30. It’s a date night! :)” 
The cafe latte in my tum-tum does a flip. Yup. This girl still gets giddy when her hubby asks her out. Nothing like being asked when least expected! Continue reading →

Sushi, Stomp, & Something Sweet

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Love walking around the City! Shake Shack,
we’ll come back for you next tme…fo sho! 

So we started out our NYC Operation Birthday Date by driving into the city, and during our hour plus commute from Locust Valley to Manhattan, we debrief and deflate, one of the gifts of marrying your best friend. I still remember my high school English teacher Mr. Quick referring to this human gift as a “sounding board,” surely a reference to some famous poem or literature. [Will look it up when my energy supply rises back to normal levels.]

Earlier in the day, I simply asked hubby to please cooperate with tonight’s plans. It was my “Follow the Leader” after all. And after a fashion crisis (yes, guys have those too,) changing from casual to less casual shirt, and then from his runners back to his dress shoes, we are on the road, in our Honda Accord with no a.c. Hubs tried to fix it, but there must be another leak since the freon only lasted a day or two. Nothing like natural cooling with the windows rolled down and the wind blowing through your hair and the scents of New York floating into your air space.  You know—that familiar combination—smog of taxi cabs, cigarette smoke of pedestrians, and ethnic food of all sorts.  Continue reading →

My Niagara-Sized Love Story… Page One

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Photo Credit: Phombo

I grew up in Canada. Windsor, Ontario to be exact. And when I moved to Michigan, senior year in high school and continued my education over in Evanston, IL, not to far from where I met my future hubby in Chicago, I never knew that my Canadian roots would play a part in my love story or my career path as a writer. 

Found out today that my little story on how hubby and I began our love story in the mist of Niagara Falls is published online at MaClean’s Magazine. Who-hoo! The link is below. Enjoy! And “Ohhh Canada! My Home and Native land…” Thanks for remembering me! 🙂


How about you? Have you ever visited Niagara Falls? Where do you call home away from home?

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A Chocolate-Covered Sunset

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Fortunately for you, the Anniversary date day isn’t over yet. So neither is the story. [Btw, Thanks for coming back!!]

Unfortunately, walking back to Battery Park Pier after visiting the 9/11 Memorial, lingering emotions settle like seeds blown from a dandelion. Never truly finding their home. Just accept that the memories of that day will always make me sad. Sigh.

Fortunately, we hold hands and walk briskly toward the water, excited about the rest of the evening.

As we get in line for the water taxi, hubby reevaluates our schedule. Is there still time for a spin around the Hudson River before dinner and the show? There will have to be. Because we’ve only hopped on and hopped off once and that is just not acceptable for the Hop on/Hop off Dealio we signed up for. Continue reading →

Operation Sabotage Spidey!…NYC Date Part 1

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FTR: I actually like Spiderman…The Movie Version!

On the way to NYC to celebrate our 14th anniversary with an all day date, Hubby practices his talk to the teens that he’ll be giving on Sunday. His topic is “How to Manage Fear.” He shares a lot of words for different phobias that are a mouthful and then talks about the difference between closing your eyes when you’re afraid and facing your fears with your eyes wide open. I listen and listen and listen. Then I interrupt.

“You’re spending too much time on defining and explaining the concepts of fear. When do we get the good part? How to handle fear? What to do with fear? And what makes sense to fear?”

“You’re right. [The heavens part open and I hear a hallelujah!…Not really, but that would have been fun.] I need to work on adding more of that.” Continue reading →

In Search of Waterfalls – Years 8 to 13

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Picking up from where we left off, Year Eight came along, and we ventured over to north Atlanta so we could leave the girls with my sister and her hubby for a few days. Then we drove north two hours till we hit the Blue Ridge Mountains to a cabin in the woods. On this trip, we decided to give white water rafting a whirl for the first time. Except that by the time we descended onto the Ocoee River in North Carolina, we were each paddling our own kayaks. Not the group ride I had anticipated but an amazing adventure I will never forget. At one point we got separated and to this day, I am so relieved I thought out loud and asked the guide if there was any way I could get lost. And he replied, “Nope. The river only goes in one direction, so even when it splits, it will reunite again.” 

In Search of Waterfalls…Years 1 to 7

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Since hubby and I began our relationship at Niagara Falls and my Sunshine proposed to me at a waterfall, early on, it seemed only natural to name the journey of our romance, “In Search of Waterfalls.”

This Thursday, our marriage turns 14 years old. Like most special days in our family, this calls for celebration. But I have to be honest, my wedding anniversary is perhaps the most exciting time in my year.

I am married to a man who just loves to plan a batta-bing batta-boom date night or trip to remind me why he proposed to me over a decade ago. Why he told me, “It seems kinda obvious that I like you,” beginning our dating journey. And why he called me almost every morning to say, “Good morning,” and every night to say, “Good night,” just cuz he loved to hear the sound of my laugh. This all the summer we first met and were just enjoying the friendship.

So to get us in the mood, I thought I’d take you on tour of our past anniversaries. So get yourself some candles, a bottle of bubbly, and snuggle up to a romance in progress… Continue reading →