It’s a crazy thought, but what if you did? What if we all did? — “Thank you. I love you.” Oh my God! Did Andrew say, “I love you?” It sounded like it right before we hung up the phone. How weird is that? This was the first time he and I had talked. I don’t even know if his name was “Andrew.” He was…

If you want to put an end to your suffering, here’s why you should leave the squirrel alone. The chicken runs in my backyard support a thriving metropolis of furry and feathery creatures. Rats, mice, sparrows, robins, and, ugh, squirrels. It is impossible to keep out the rats and mice…

How the ogre’s life motto — just four words — can set us free from disconnection and emotional suffering. I met Shrek yesterday. The sunburned man in his twenties had an on-the-edge edginess about him so you’re on alert that he could likely yell and lunge at you after walking…

Here’s how a woman is betrayed and betrays in the working world. It took a painful lesson to do the right thing. — Act I: Stripes There was, of course, the babysitting. That was back in the day when desperate for their night of escape from their domestic daily grind, moms would toss their newborn to you, a kid yourself at nine years old, with barely a minute of instruction about bottles or bedtime before they…

This was going to be the Great Re-Entry. After a frightening road trip, I saw it’s not re-entering. It’s readjusting to a new abnormal. — I always thought I would know, for sure, because, you know, it’s the apocalypse and the smoky ash world will be drained of all color and Mad Max guys are roaring around on their motorcycles and there’s nobody else on the planet but the zombies that wander around pounding on…

None of my relationships had worked out. So she said it was time to be with someone I didn’t even like. — Six years ago, when my life was falling apart, I never would have imagined this is how it would turn out. But my therapist Laura did. “People who have affairs often wind up without their spouse or the person they had the affair with,” she said. Who needs a psychic…

And if he’s the passenger, I don’t want to admit what I’m thinking. — “Why does the man always drive when a woman and a man are in the car together?” My teenage daughter and I are walking down the street and I say out loud what I’m thinking, which I’ve been thinking about more lately. Maybe because I’m separated now, and I seem…

6 unusual beauty secrets that have helped me look younger. — The exquisite women who work at my fancy San Francisco skin clinic look like fish. Very beautiful pufferfish. Their puffed-up lips are frozen into supermodel pouts. They have identical puffed-out cheekbones and the same smooth brows. I look at them longingly from my side of the counter. I wish I…

Woo-woo magic? Maybe. But this works for me all the time. — When our cat Caledonia went missing years ago, we were bereft. My husband was especially so since Caledonia had chosen him as her person. We did all the things you are supposed to do when your cat disappears: Flyer the neighborhood. Contact Animal Care & Control. Walk around for hours…