*Quiz: Are You Way Too Obsessed With Your Ex?  Some guys (or girls) are hard to forget, but nobody wants to be stalkerish. See how you are doing with this quiz.

*Quiz: Are You Good-Girl Hot or Bad-Girl Hot? The quote with this game is “Are you so bad, you make the Rock of Love girls look good?”  Are those girls hot?  I always thought they looked more sad than hot.

*Quiz: Can You Keep A Guy Intrigued?  I think that depends on the guy, but you can test your intrigue-ability with this quiz.

*Quiz: Are You A Closet Commitment-Phobe? Are you a single-girl through and through?

This one is about your relationship with female friends. Is your friend your friend or your “frenemy.”  Isn’t it sad that there’s a word that describes that sort of person?  If you’ve got a “frenemy,” move on. Nobody needs people like that in their life. 

*Quiz: Is Your BFF Really On Your Side?
Image credit: Michelle Smith

Post from: Blisstree

Quizzes: Sex, Intrigue, Frenemies

Once you get in the real world it is definitely much harder to meet girlfriends.  In college you have roommates and classes, but in the working world it’s much more awkward to make a connection with a new female.  I’ve heard from a lot of friends who move to a new city that the most difficult challenge is making girlfriends.  You can’t just go to a bar and pick one up….or can you?

Here are some tips for making girlfriends in a new place:

• Be friendly with people who have similar interests. Talk to the owner of your favorite boutique, the hostess at your favorite restaurant, or the woman who walks her dog at the same time as you every night.  Start a conversation and maybe you will start talking more often…

• Put aside judgments and pickiness.  You are not going to find someone exactly like your lifelong best friend right away…or maybe ever!  You might not think that the new girl you’ve been hanging out with has any potential for long-term friendship, but be open-minded and figure out how to enjoy each other’s company even if she’s not like your other friends.  Give her a chance!

• Ask for contact information of friends of friends.  Tell your friends where you’ve moved and maybe they will know someone who already lives in the area.  Ask them for their email or facebook information and contact them to get together for coffee.  The easiest way to make lots of friends is to get hooked into someone’s network!  It might seem awkward, but it’s a great way to meet someone.

• Take the lead on planning social events.  Maybe you don’t know anyone at your new office, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t send out an email to plan an after-work happy hour.  It’s a great way to introduce yourself and let everyone know that you’re interested in being social.

• Ask someone on a friend date!  There might be someone who you’ve met that you can see potential for real friendship, but you just haven’t crossed the boundaries into hanging out and calling/texting each other.  Just like dating, feel confident and make the first move!  Ask her if she wants to go shopping or invite her to an event that you’ve been wanting to go to.  You can even mention the awkwardness of asking someone on a “friend date” so she will understand where you are coming from.

Image: sxc.hu

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I’m Having Trouble Making New Girl Friends

Remember when you were a kid, how easy it was to make friends?  You were offered up a new selection every Fall when you returned to school or you could hang with the kids in your neighborhood. Either way, there were so many options and the rules were pretty simple – play outside until Mom called you in for dinner.

Then, there was high school and it was pretty much the same, only you had more kids to chose from. Need a best friend in high school, grab the one who dresses like you. Easier to pick out boys back then, too.

As an adult, it’s harder. You work, you run errands, you clean your house, whatever. Life is busy and friend-shopping is no longer easy. For a long time, I made acquataince-friends with neighbors and that worked out okay, we’d chat some, but they were usually married or in some way living a very different type of life than the one that I lead.

I found a couple of old friends on MySpace – Leah and Jackie – and suddenly I had real-world  girlfriends again. Oh joy! And that’s not sarcastic, I love those girls, time with them is pure joy.

Do you have good girlfriends?  If you do, where did you find them? Do you keep in touch with old friends? 

Image credit: Michelle Smith

Post from: Blisstree

Adult Friendships

I have a situation that I am at a total loss of what to do about.

Several years ago, I became acquainted with a friend through several other mutual ones. She’s one of those awesomely strong women – she moved cross-country on her own straight out of college, is brilliant, and when she tragically lost her husband before even hitting their 30th birthdays, she soldiered on, moving again, on her own, and setting up stakes in a new state in a new house, just her and her dogs and her bunny.

We bonded pretty quickly, and because we lived in different states, would only see each other every few months and would predominantly have frequent marathon IM sessions about everything from sex to mutual friends to work. We talked all the time, and gave each other tons of advice – tough talk and otherwise.

Several years have gone by, and this weekend, I visited her home and stayed with her for the weekend. We had an awesome time – she took me out for a belated birthday dinner, we shopped, we talked. When I mentioned having worrisome problems with my computer, and not being able to afford a new one right now, she GAVE me her old one – a laptop she used to use but had sat forgotten for the past two years since upgrading to a newer model.

The end up of this story is that today I came home, and as starting up this new computer, I noticed a folder on the desktop “aly therapy”…filled with ichat transcripts of every single conversation we had had up until the point she stopped using this computer. These transcripts were, weirdly, also saved in text and internet explorer format, as well as in a giant zip file.

I am in shock. Saving it like that makes me wonder…why? And what she really thought of me. But…this is something that happened two years ago, and since then, she’s been an awesome friend. I would have never known she did this if she hadn’t made this really generous gesture now. Should she be punished for it? Should I not say anything at all?

I don’t know what to do! Help me, fair Blisstree readers!

Image: Sxc.hu

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True Colors Shining Through?

Kendra Wilkinson, newly engaged to Philadelphia Eagle, Hank Baskett recently spoke  to USWeekly spilling the beans about her relationship with Hefner and insisting that she no longer finds his playboy lifestyle – 3 girlfriends at a time – acceptable.  That cracks me up, because I always thought of Kendra as the first one to flash her boobs or to talk about something sexual while Hugh Hefner just seemed like a nice old guy walking around in his pajamas.  My point being flashing is something done in public, while the intimacy she admits to sharing with Hefner was done in the privacy of their home.

I said before that the Girls Next Door seemed strangely un-sexy.  Three beautiful ladies, frequently dressed in very little, but the show seemed to have more of a focus on the girl’s relationships with each other or the other girls who came through the mansion. It had a sleepover – without men – feel.  Of course, I’m a girl, not a guy and that may be why I feel that way.

Hefner appeared to be more of a friend to Bridgette Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson, while he and Holly Madison looked to share a more intimate bond.  Kendra admits that was the case……….. 

Wilkinson, who was “intimate” with 82-year-old Hefner said she thought of him more as a best friend with a whole lot of money rather than a lover. But he still made her “feel beautiful,” she said.

While she holds no hard feelings for the Playboy founder, she is happy to be out of the mansion and done with the ‘Girls Next Door.’

Do you ever watch The Girls Next Door?  Would you ever be able to be one of 3 girlfriends if it meant that you were allowed to live a life of luxury in a fabulous mansion?  Would you be able to be the girlfriend of an 80+ year old man if it meant you could live a life of luxury in a fabulous mansion?

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Girlfriend Kendra Wilkinson Spills the Beans On Hef

Robin, my sister, and her husband, Matt, have been married for 15 years. They dated and lived together for a few years before that, so basically they’ve been together for close to 20 years. In that time their relationship, like any relationship that lasts for a length of time, has had it’s ups and downs. They’ve been able to ride out the rough parts and I admire and respect that.

I believe that real love is when people stick it out and don’t give up when things get ugly. Before I started writing for Dating Dames, I read a number of back entries. One covered whether a person was “Involved” or “Committed.” So many times when things aren’t exactly the way I want them to be with S, I get stressed and question if we have a future. He doesn’t do this. Sometimes he gets overwhelmed and I don’t hear from him for a bit, but when he’s back, he’s back. I applied the two of us to the chart and I realized that I was involved and he was committed. It was a big eye opener.

I asked Matt and Robin if they had any words of advice for me to share with you readers. Matt said that patience was imperative. He said it with a look at Robin and she made a joke about needing space. I got the impression that they were teasing each other, but what they said, both patience and space are important in a healthy relationship. They are both generous with allowing each other to have time apart – Matt and his buddy enjoy the races and going to movies, while Robin and her girlfriends like to take day trips to nearby wineries.

They work together to make their marriage work and they patiently wait out the rough stuff because they trust that each partner is fully committed to their relationship.

Post from: Blisstree

Matt and Robin’s Words of Wisdom

However, it takes a backseat as the relationship progresses. Partners, now, busy themselves with all the practicality of their individual lives and will eventually prioritise romance less. Sad but true.

Relationships aren’t always practical and logical. You do have to feed it some romance, so as not to risk it to fall into a monotonous endeavour. Women are, by nature, emotional. They will enjoy getting asked out on a date occasionally. And when I say ask, I mean, the guy asks the “will you go out with me” kind of question.

I have to admit that there are exceptions, though. There are men who still value romance in their respective relationships. Women who share the same value will appreciate men who fall under this category.

I’m one of those women. I haven’t been asked out this much and it’s been a real treat so far. I enjoy the days and hours before the date and to actually doll myself up for a boyfriend is actually exciting — a bit silly at times but still sweet, nonetheless. I still get to hear the “thank you for going out with me” at the end of the date and that, among other things, certainly made me feel valued and appreciated. It’s really sweet.

What about you guys? Do you still ask your girlfriends out?

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Do you still ask her out?

I, now, have a new blog-addiction. Reading the utter craziness written by this Noisy, Noisy Man! Hahaha. I really had to laugh out loud! He’s friggin’ funny! Mind-numbingly C-R-A-Z-Y! [All meant in a good way, ok?!]

Since I did a feature for the women on how to care for their new boyfriends, I thought I’d extend the same courtesy to men who have — uh, not necessarily new — girlfriends.

Of course, in my readings, I stumbled onto these posts from his series, Troubleshooting your Girl: [Provided some excerpts, too.]

Troubleshooting your Girl: PMS

“You can also say ‘Honey, my wallet is upstairs. Help yourself.’ But I won’t advise it, lest you’ll have different variants of chocolate for dinner for the next three months. And your woman’s closet will be unexplainably filled to the very last inch with fur coats, shoes, handbags, and other girly stuff we men don’t even want to touch.”

[What is it about men and PMS? Honestly.]

Troubleshooting Your Girl: Your Wallet Beckons

“Rob a bank – This is probably the simplest solution to your problem. Borrow some of your girlfriend’s stockings, put it over your head, get one of those cheap Chinese-made Swiss Army Knives that you’ve been collecting (you can finally use ‘em!) go to the bank, and scream ‘This is a stickup! I want your money!’”

[You've got to check out the Pros and Cons. Heehee.]

Troubleshooting Your Girl: Read Her Mind!

“The Pickup Line. No, women would not appreciate it if you state outright that you just want to get into their pants.”

[Note: I got the male and female images from this post. Great way to illustrate a point, I must say. Hahaha.]

I’m sure it’s not meant to offend us, females. It’s done in good — un-clean(?) — fun. I do suggest you head on over there, read them posts and get to know this Noisy, Noisy Man. His blog is crazy fun!

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Tips On How To Troubleshoot Your Girl