|
Table Of Contents
Introduction xv
C H A P T E R 1: Health and Body Image 1
REAL WOMEN GET PAP SMEARS, EAT BREAD AND NEGOTIATE CEASE-FIRES WITH THEIR FULL-LENGTH MIRRORS
An Exercise Regimen You Can Stick With • Why Everyone’s Nuts About Yoga • The Gym: Home Away From Home or Vile Torture Dungeon? • Secrets to Cheap Gym Membership • Stress: The Root of Most Evil • Rock Bottom, Thy Name Is Insomnia • Eat This Up: A Healthy Diet That’s a Cinch • Centrum, Flax Seed and B Complexes, Oh My! • Bowel Movements: They Really Should Move You • How to Lose Weight Intelligently • Shelve the Cosmo: Living Inside a Real Body • Who Decides You’re“ Too Thin” or “Too Fat”? • Why You Really Must Quit Smoking Today • Chablis Is Not a Breakfast Drink • From Dermo to Gyno: How to Find the Right Doctor • Four Ways of Looking at Menstrual Cramps • Things Suck and They’re Not Getting Better: When to Call in the Professionals • One-Way Ticket to the Valley of the Dolls? The Medication Question • HMOs, Point of Service and That Viper COBRA—All in Plain English
C H A P T E R 2: Careers and Work 63
HOW TO GET, KEEP, QUIT, CHANGE, IMPROVE, EXPLAIN OR SURVIVE ANY JOB
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? • Résumés and Cover Letters • Looking for a Job • How to Ace Every Interview Every Time • Limp Handshake, Limp Personality • Graduate School: Now or Never? • Networking: Wiring Your Connections • Mentors and Role Models • Being an Assistant Before You Are the Boss • Accelerate Your Career Advancement • Temping Without Contempt • Talking to the Boss • Taking Criticism Without Bursting into Tears • Your Job Is Not a Sorority • The Art of Talking Up • Suicide by E-mail • When Good Jobs Go Dreadfully Awry • Leaving a Job and Keeping Your Identity • Being Excellent at What You Do
C H A P T E R 3: Money and Finance 111
SAVING UP, CREDIT SURFING, DEBT DEMOLISHING, RETIREMENT PLANS AND SCADS OF OTHER FINANCIAL STUFF NO ONE W ANTS TO TALK A BOUT
Financial Hardship Is for the Birds: What Variety Are You? • How to Put Yourself on a Budget • The Id and Superego of Spending • Girl Walks into a Bank • What’s a 401K and Who Could Ever Run That Far? • IRA: He’s Not Your Uncle but When He Gets Old, You Get Rich • Avoiding Debtor’s Prison • Credit Cards: The Gateway Drug? • Which Will Die First: Me or My Credit Rating? • The Big Student Loan Payoff: Heaven Can Wait • Stocks, Bonds, Splits: The S&M of Investing • You’re Special, But on April 15, We’re All Equal • The White Knight Fantasy • Two Gargantuan Purchases: Car and Home • The Rent vs. Buy Debate
C H A P T E R 4: Etiquette: It’s Not About the Fork 175
HOW TO TAKE A COMPLIMENT, SOFA-CRASH ELEGANTLY, SELECT A WEDDING GIFT AND OTHER PAINLESS BUT NECESSARY ESSENTIALS OF GOOD BREEDING
The Dos and Don’ts of Conversation • The Spinach-on-the-Tooth Rule • No Throwing Food: Restaurants and Bars Done Classy • The Tipping Point: A Crib Sheet • The 13 Essentials of Table Etiquette • A Good Host Never Insists on Pictionary • Only Connect: Making Introductions • Don’t Poop on the Party: What Makes a Good Guest • A Word on E-vites • Weddings: The Stuff They Forgot to Tell You • How Many Gifts Must a Good Guest Give? • Communication in an Increasingly Barbaric World • Long Live the Longhand Letter • Giving Good Phone • Avoiding Cell Phone Boorishness • Crackberry Crackdown • Offering Condolences
C H A P T E R 5: The Company You Keep 209
MAKE NEW FRIENDS, KEEP THE OLD AND STILL RESPECT YOURSELF IN THE MORNING
Being There: How to Be a Good Friend When . . . • Multiple Choice: Your Ever-Changing Friend Lineup • A-List, B-List, No-See List • So Do I Just Introduce Myself? • Long Distance or Long Lost? • Splitting the Bill: Pals in Different Income Brackets • Two Girls on a Trip: Five Steps to Success • Living with Roommates • Who Are These People? Letting Friends Change • Catfight Club • When Saving the Friendship Is More Important Than Being Right • How to Say You’re Sorry with Aplomb • Spread the Love: Balancing Friendship and Courtship • Being a Girls’ Girl vs. Being a Boys’Girl • Friendship Sandbars • Defriending: A Delicate Enterprise • The Chosen Family
C H A P T E R 6: Dating, Sex and Romance 243
THE PAIN AND PLEASURE OF DATING, TALKS ABOUT US, NON-GOAL-ORIENTED SEX AND OTHER CONCERNS OF THE ROMANTICALLY INCLINED
Loving Yourself First (It’s Not a Bunch of Crap) • First Dates: Nervous Breakdown or Touchdown? • Beware the Overshare • How to Find a Date • Identifying the Smart, Dateable Few from the Psychotic Masses • The Big Electronic Boyfriend Warehouse: Online Dating • Bad Judgment Call: The Drunken Hookup • Shut Up and Look Pretty: Bad Advice You Shouldn’t Follow • The Woman’s Sexual Bill of Rights • The Orgasm, Revisited • Maybe Baby? Maybe Not • Didn’t Get It From the Toilet Seat • Flings, Tricks, One-Night Stands and Part-Time Lovers • In It for the Long Term • The Truth about Nice Guys • Moving In Together • How to Have a Love Affair • The Talk About Us: A Primer • Dumping vs. Being Dumped • A Little Encouragement for the Ladies Who Love Ladies
C H A P T E R 7: Getting Along with Your Family 295
WHILE FIGURING OUT WHO YOU ARE
Seeing Your Parents as Real People • Making Your Siblings Your Allies • Home for the Holidays: It’s All Eggnog and Good Cheer, Right? • Recasting Call: Changing Your Family Role • The Black Sheep Grows the Prettiest Wool • Boy Meets Family, Boy Oh Boy • Should Your Parents Be Your Best Friends? • Can You Fire Your Mother? • Moving Back Home Doesn’t Mean You’re a Loser • Purse Strings and Apron Strings: Accepting Money from Your Parents • The Good Daughter • Little Talk, Big Talk
CHAPTER 8: Spirituality 319
LYING ON YOUR BED AND STARING AT THE CEILING AND OTHER PATHS TO ENLIGHTENMENT
What Is Spirituality? • That New-Time Religion • Life After Sunday School •“There Are Hundreds of Ways to Kneel and Kiss the Ground” • Spirituality and Ethics: Hopeless in Love or Vicious Smackdown? • Instant Karma • The Importance of Not Lying • Oops, I Was Totally Inauthentic Again • On Judging and Feeling Judged • Ethics in Action: Your Social Conscience • Does Giving Money Help Anyone But Me • Mere Anarchy:When Things Fall Apart
CHAPTER 9: Home Ec for Modern Times 343
OR EVERYTHING YOUR MOTHER DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO TEACH YOU
Gimme Shelter: How to Find a Place to Live • Slobs and Neat Freaks Unite: How to Keep House • The Mystery of the Household Stench • Housekeeping with Housemates • Hassle-Free Laundry • Out, Out, Damn Spot • The Dirty Truth about Dry Cleaning • On the Mend • Cooking for One: It Doesn’t Have to Be Depressing • Life After the Easy-Bake Oven: Outfitting the Kitchen • Freeze Everything • Going Organic: The Cost/Benefit Analysis • Six Simple Recipes Even a Non-Cook Can Make • The Meal that Keeps on Giving • If You Had a Hammer: Handywoman Special • Lights Out, Make Out: Saving Energy and Cash•Alien Invasion: Creepy, Crawly Roommates that Don’t Pay Rent
CHAPTER 10: Fashion Sense for Any Era 393
THE PITFALLS OF PANTYHOSE, FLIP-FLOP FELONIES AND THE GREAT BIKINI WAX DEBATE
Building a Wardrobe: Foundation Items • On Being a “Type” • Cost Per Wear • How to Get Dressed in 15 Minutes or Less • Eight Ways of Working the Same Black Dress • Figuring Out What Looks Best on You • Think Architecture: It’s All About Balance • Designer Names for Less: A Cautionary Tale • Secondhand Rose, Firsthand Woes • What to Wear Everywhere • Accessorize, Don’t Excessivize • The Closet Overhaul • How to Have a Healthy Shoe Fetish • The Girl in the Wrong Bra • A Short Paean to the Brief • The Crotch and Beyond: Hair You Wish Wasn’t There • How to Get a Haircut You Don’t Hate • After a Fashion: Some Parting Words
|
