Anyone can fall in love. Falling in love is easy. Actually LOVING is the hard part. Fall in love is something that just happens to you, due to raging hormones. Loving is a verb--something you purposefully do, even when it may not always be easy to love the other person. Falling in love is usually and accident and the effects are temporary. Loving is a commitment to another person.

I love to watch my aunt and uncle. Married for 40+ years, they very clearly love one another. Anytime they're not working, they're together, holding hands, finishing each other's sentences, being respectful and gentle with each other. Just being around them fills me with a yearning for a commitment like that. They are beautiful together, and if you saw them, you'd be a believer in love.

A well stocked toy chest

A few sexy videos

Romantic decor

Scented candles

NO pictures of family or pets (they watch you!)

No clutter

Feng shui

First of all, you cry your eyes out. Then you suck it up and acknowledge that you deserve better. He lied to you and you don't need that kind of guy. It sounds like it was a very brief "affair" with a lying cheating jerk. Perhaps you fall too easily in love because you feel something is missing from your life. I would advise that you take time to learn to love you--solitarily. Respect yourself and treat yourself well. Don't go looking for someone, anyone, to fill some hole you have in your heart. Fill the hole yourself. It's only when you are whole that you can choose a better class of male and learn true love.

Build a privacy fence around your property. On the outside of the fence, post signs like "Beware of Dog" and "This property guarded by a fully loaded Smith and Wesson."

I was always a big tomboy and often wished I'd been a boy. Standing up to pee doesn't sound too bad.



I've talked with a lot of women who have had a hard time finding a doc that listens. Five minutes is about all you get with them. Damn, I wish I made $100 in 5 minutes!

Galendgirl, I'm glad your favorite doctor is accessible to you again. It's so much easier to talk openly with a doc you respect and feels is genuinely interested in helping you. It's really sad how hard it is to find a doctor with a healer's heart. I wonder what we can do to change that?

What a touching story! It brought some tears to my eyes.

Absolutely NOT. Separated is still married. I don't even want to date someone who is recently divorced. He needs time to reclaim his life and emotions. And I don't want to get involved in this journey which he needs to do alone. I don't like being the rebound girl.

I try not to curse most of the time. But the occasional four letter word slips out. I drove 2 hrs to spend the weekend landscaping my sister's yard. Sunday, before I loaded up to come home, she was thanking me for making her yard look so good. And I said, "Damn, I'm good, ain't I?" just to be funny. She had a fit and severely reprimanded me for "swearing on the Sabbath". Oh puhleeeeeeaze! This from a girl who picks and chooses which commandments she wants to follow!

A lady I knew once worked in a bank and a wealthy gentleman frequently came in to do transactions with the bank. Everytime he was there, he'd ask her out and she'd say no. He persisted for quite sometime, and I guess it wore her down. She finally said yes. He took her to a nice restaurant and they talked for hours, had a great time. When he kissed her goodnight that night, she said it just felt right; she knew instantly he was the one. Thirty years later, they're still happily married and he's given her his heart, devotion and every material thing she could ever want. So I guess it sometimes pays to be persistent.

On the other hand, I was stalked for a long time by a creepy, disgusting man 40 years older than me, way back before stalker laws. The police did nothing. Everyday I had to encounter this man watching every move I made. I ended up moving and changing jobs to get away from him. I would have loved to have had the scenario above.

Ah, Drew, you've done nothing to regret. We all have happy and sad memories, and sometimes it's just cathartic to remember them here with others. Honestly, we are going to remember these days with or without you. And sometimes we think we may be the only ones who experience these events. Knowing we aren't alone is somewhat a comfort, altho I empathize with everyone here.

Oh, I forgot to mention. His ultimate "ah-ha" moment was when I pulled out a collage of photos taken of the normal-size me, when I was an average size woman. I pointed to the collage and said, "This is ME! Here, and here, and here!" Then I pointed to myself and said, "THIS isn't me. The real me is in here somewhere." And that's when he looked at the nurse said, and together they said decisively, "Stein-Leventhal." Suddenly I felt validated. It was a very dramatic moment for me. Sounds silly, but after hearing all the nasty comments about my weight, finally I know it's not my fault.

Miss No So, you pretty much described this doc. His office is simple, not ornately decorated. And when I was there, I was the only one in the waiting room. He is one of the few internal med docs around, but he doesn't overschedule and have people piled up waiting for him. He never acted bored, never interrupted me, let me ramble as I wanted, and never seemed to be in a hurry.

In fact, he was training a nursing student, using me as a guinea pig--with my permission of course. So he was allowing her to assess my symptoms and giving her time to come up with a diagnosis and treatment. He would talk thru a diagnosis with her to show her why this one or that one didn't apply. It was actually fun to watch them debate different diseases and treatments.

I've seen docs like you describe, and like you, I can't get out fast enough. I pay my bill and they never see me again.

I also have no insurance. Some docs won't even see me. If I ask for a generic drug or something cheap, some docs roll their eyes at me. But this one said, "No problem." He also charged me half of what he'd normally charge. So clearly he's interested in helping me, not helping himself to what little money have.

To be honest, I haven't felt bad, or out of touch with reality. In fact, I went to this doc for the weight issue. I watch what I eat and walk 3.5 miles a day and still I don't lose weight, which is a primary symptom of this disease. The other symptoms were just nuisances but they didn't make me feel real bad. He said something about this disease interfering with insulin and cortisol levels, which causes excess fat to build up around the belly area, which is my main issue.

Since resolving some kidney issues a year ago, I've actually felt pretty good. I just couldn't get the weight off. I've felt almost "high" since recovering from the kidney problems. I've had lots of energy and just bounce off the walls. I just wanted to lose the weight, and he had helped a friend of mine lose 60 pounds. Little did I know that the weight and all the other annoyances were related. I'm just giddy with relief. Now maybe we can reverse it all. I'm way too active and energetic to carry around all this extra weight. And it's so nice to talk to a doc who doesn't preach, "Diet and exercise! You must be eating wrong and not getting any exercise!" People just assume when you're overweight that you're just lazy and overeating, but it's not true. And now I have a doc who agrees. I think I'm in love.

It's Stein Leventhal Syndrome (polycysistic ovarian disease). I'm almost afraid to tell you. When you research it and see the symptoms, you'll think I have cooties!

He actually prescribed a birth control pill to rectify some of the hormones. Apparently I'm producing too much male hormone and not enough female hormone. So gee, does that mean when everything is adjusted, I'll be submissive instead of dominant? Ya think?

But the disease also raises blood pressure, insulin levels, and cholesterol levels. So I may end up on more meds to regulate those until the disorder is under control. He said in two or three weeks, I should notice a big difference in how I feel.

I'm just amazed! In one hour, he had the answer!

I like well-written profiles that give some insight into the person's life. It's really the only way to find out if we have something in common. If he has no profile, I don't bother because I don't even know what to talk about.

I back out of any profile that begins with "No drama, no games" or the ones that state, "I'm happily married, just looking for some discreet fun." Excuse me but if you were truly happily married, you'd find some fun right there in your marriage.

If the guy is pictured on a Harley, BIIIIIIG turn-on!! BIIIIIIIIIIG!

If he's pictured with a warm-blooded animal, another BIIIIIG turn-on.

If he says, "My kids come first," I'm outta there. Sorry, but his kids should be grown and out of the house so I can come first...and last too.

I've been dealing with numerous health issues for a few years. Saw doc after doc and none were any help. They didn't take time to listen to all my "complaints". After all, they hear enough of that crap from their wives. So they never got to the root of my issues. It's been frustrating and I had begun to think this city is just full of quacks.

A friend recommended a doc in a neighboring city. She and her husband have been seeing him for a couple of years. He's an internal medicine doc. And, to hear them talk about him, you'd think he hung the moon.

Well, I'm now in agreement--he hung the moon! He spent almost an entire hour just listening to me ramble about my life, my habits, and these infernal, annoying symptoms. Some are just minor nuisances, not really significant, but I wanted some input on them.

Come to find out, every complaint I had was the symptom of one disorder! I had no idea! I figured a few were related, but all of them? The more I talked, the more the doc grinned and nodded his head and typed on the computer. He encouraged me to talk, asked a few questions here and there, and in the end, he made a diagnosis and prescribed a one-a-day pill to fix it.

I got home and researched the disorder and found that even some of the symptoms I hadn't mentioned to him are also part of the disorder. OMG, all these years of suffering, and all I needed was a tiny little pill! I'm so relieved!

He ran some other tests to check chemical levels because this disorder disrupts the endocrine system. If the chemicals are out of balance, I take a few more pills. But in time, it should all be righted with medication and I'll soon be "normal"... or as normal as I can get.

I'm just so excited to learn that I'm not just falling apart and I had to tell someone!

How long have you been in your own town with no luck? The thing is, you spread yourself out and eventually you get noticed somewhere, sometime. If you withdraw because, in two weeks, you got nothing, you haven't really given it a chance. It's free, so what's the harm in keeping your profile active, here and on other sites. You've got nothing to lose really.

It's TRUE. No one wants to hang out with a sourpuss. My brother is one of the happiest people I've ever met. He's had some of his friends for 30 or more years. Even his high school friends drop by occasionally to visit. Complete strangers are instantly drawn to him. A couple of days ago, he took his boat and went to the lake to fish. Another gentleman he'd never met before had pulled up to fish from the bank since he had no boat. And in no time, the two of them were in my brother's boat, in the middle of the lake, having a great time. My brother always has a smile on his face and sometimes you just have to wonder what's in his Wheaties?

I don't know about mints. I dated a man who smoked and dipped once. Very gross! But as he became more attached to me, I offered to let him kiss me everytime he craved a smoke or dip. Didn't take him long to quit. A year later, we split up, and shortly after that, he went back to his old habits. But just think of the minutes I added to his life. LOL

On my mother's birthday one year, I was attacked.

Four days before my 21st birthday, I gave birth to my son.

On Valentine's day one year, some bozo decided to switch lanes and hit my new truck and tried to blame ME! Of course his own friend admitted the truth.