Special Valentine’s contest

Again several suppliers approached me with some fabulous prizes. I only have to mention their offer and they’ll provide great prizes to give one of you — but you have to enter to win!

The contest is for your best example of “This Valentine’s Day: Do This, Not That.” For example, “Do feed her fancy. Don’t decide on delivery.” My example would be “Do take her to watch her favorite team play. Don’t give her just a cardboard cutout of one of the players.” Or “Do give her special white wine glasses as that’s all she drinks. Don’t give her red wine glasses because you want the proper glass when you drink your red wine at her house.” See other examples.

What can you win?

Are you easily offended when dating?

A friend invited me to lunch with her and her 62-year-old sister. “Sis” is dating, although she admitted to only having one date a year, so I use the term “dating” loosely.

Sis shared about her one 2009 date. She’d met the guy online, talked a few times by email and phone, and felt they had enough in common to meet for lunch. Their conversation began pleasantly, until about 20 minutes passed when he said, “I hope you don’t mind, but I don’t sleep with women on the first date.”

Are your early contact expectations out of whack?

In the early getting-to-know you stage of dating, it’s not unusual for there to be some miscommunication. However, how one handles these hiccups tells you a lot about the person’s thinking. This is a good thing, as if their thinking is 180-degrees off from yours, you learn early that you aren’t a match.

Today I received a call from a nice potential suitor, with whom I’d exchanged a few emails and had a good, lengthy first call last week. He is intelligent, a good conversationalist, articulate, and clear on what he’s looking for. At the end of that first conversation, he said he liked our conversation very much and wanted to meet me in the next few weeks when he visits some clients in my area, a 2-hour drive from him.

10 Tips for Successful Dating Over 40

Dear readers: I was asked to write an article for a publication about 10 tips on how to be successful in dating after 40, so thought I’d share it with you all, too.

You’ve been single for a while. You would like to have a special man in your life. But how?

Women reentering the dating scene after a long absence need to first examine if they are ready to date again. After all, not only is there the possibility of being swept off your feet by a romantic, loving man, there’s the chance of being swept over the cliff of heartbreak. Here are some tips on how to ensure you enjoy your adventure of dating after 40, not dread the next coffee date.

Butt envy

Junk in the trunk. Flat. Round. Taut. Soft. Sagging. Dimpled. Some have shelves on the top, others underneath. You could bounce a quarter off a few. So many sizes and shapes.

Songs have been written about buns. “Baby’s got back” is a high compliment in some circles.

People can be derrière devotees. Caboose connoisseurs. Ass aficionados.

Where are the men like us?

My 55-year-old successful gal pal was recounting her 5-year dating experience. She bemoaned her encounters with men who were not comparable economically or emotionally. It is a common lament for successful midlife women. The wail is, “Where are the men like us?”

Bridge trumps relationship

A gal pal recently asked me why I thought a man would go poof after expressing great interest in a woman. The obvious answers would be:

  • he was a player and said he was very interested in every woman
  • something happened for him to lose interest (e.g., she said/did something that was off-putting; he got more interested in someone else; he got busy with work).

However, I think there is another, less commonly discussed possibility: