“I just want to fall in love,” he said. “Nothing beats holiday romance.” Charlie blasted ‘Baby it’s cold outside’ from his new Amazon Echo while sipping mulled wine. “I just hope love happens to me so I can Fa la la la with someone.” It was November 24th and Charlie...
Relationships
How to Survive a Red-Blue Thanksgiving
This election isn’t just dividing the nation into red and blue color maps-it’s fracturing families along party lines, just in time for the holidays. Many of my friends in San Francisco are dreading Thanksgiving, usually a time of family merriment and togetherness....
The One Thing to Save Your Relationship
What is the one thing to save your relationship ? Communication. It is the most critical ingredient of any type of relationship. Yet today’s world has so much noise that we have all forgotten how to listen. “Yep, yep. Got it. Great. Yep. Yep,” he said. I was telling...
Why You Can’t Make Your Relationship Last
“Stop writing about finding a relationship,” he told me. “That’s the easy part. Write about how to keep one.” My friend John was a 40-year-old serial monogamist. He couldn’t make a relationship last even though he aspired to find a woman he could “have passionate sex...
My Family’s Gay Indian Montana Wedding
“In my wildest dreams, I never thought I’d be going to a gay wedding,” said my uncle. “I didn’t even know what gay meant as a kid,” said my dad. “In college the term gay just meant being happy. We’d say we had a gay ol’ time.” My uncle chuckled. “Well, guess we’re...
When Lying is Better Than Truth
Last week, I lied to all of you. Ok, I didn’t lie. But I certainly didn’t share the whole truth, which is almost the same thing. An old friend pointed this out to me while we were catching up downtown. “Heidi, what the hell was going on in your last post?” Like any...
Open Up, Close More Deals
“Don’t cry at work. If you are upset, go home and cry in the shower.” This was the advice I once gave a female colleague when she was going through a hard time, leaking tears all over our Excel spreadsheets. It was 2006 and we were climbing the management consulting...
Why You Cannot Find “The One”
“Write about the search,” he said. “That’s what’s fucking killing everyone.” “The search?” Did he mean finding a new rent controlled apartment that wasn’t possessed by fruit flies? Or perhaps a new startup job that boasted an extra one-zillionth percent of equity? In...
4 Unconventional Ways to Celebrate V-Day, Solo
It’s February. Your city has transformed into a giant lace doily. Subpar chocolates are veiled in red tinfoil and instantly marked up to a 90% margin. Restaurants create prix fixe menus with courses named like a drugstore romance novel. “Cupid’s Cutlet” and...
When ‘The One’ isn’t The One (and Marries Someone Else)
Do you remember…when you thought you found ”The One?” The One you wrote poems about at 3am because the butterflies kept you from sleeping. And eating. And all other human functions that disappear when infatuation invades your body. You didn’t even poop for three...
How to Fall in Love in 5 Minutes
“Have you ever been in love?” I asked a Frenchman with a mustache the size of a baguette. I was technically in Paris for work, but couldn't resist badgering strangers, researching the prospect of “easy love.” The Frenchman looked at me like I was crazy. “Mais oui,...
A Love Letter to my Liver
February 14, 2014 Dear Liver, It was always you. Other lovers, organs and parts have come and gone (oh, poor tonsils) but it is only you that have remained stoically in love and support of me throughout my trying life. Our journey together has been magical and this...
Marry A Man Who Doesn’t Read
In the spirit of Date an Illiterate girl and to show two sides of a Sliding Doors moment, I've painted a picture of a few possible outcomes for the choices we make in love. Marry a Man Who Doesn’t Read (and Has a Nice Watch) Marry a man who doesn’t read literature. Or...
Things Not Posted on Facebook
A college friend came to visit recently and remarked, “Wow, you’ve really made it in San Francisco. I can tell from your posts on Facebook.” Er. That was right after another friend called me out for ‘humble brag’ on a recent post about a secret admirer. I realized...
A Love Poem for Us All
“Write about love,” she asked. Three weeks before her wedding, one of my closest friends asked me to create a poem to follow the exchange of vows. The world stopped at her request. My limbs stretched and my arms grasped for adjectives to describe this mysterious...