Celebration For A Counterfeit Farm Girl

Monday night, I hobbled down to my neighbor Celia’s abode for a launch party celebrating Susan McCorkindale’s new memoir, “Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl.”

A Sparkling Debut: Author Susan McCorkindale celebrates her new memoir (photo by Tiffany Wollin)

A witty collection of tales about her move from city living to life on a 500-acre cattle farm in Virginia, Susan’s literary debut struck a chord with me -- I had considered penning a book on my own transition to small town America (tentative title: “Big Fish, Little Pond”) a few years back, when I spent a year in Southern Illinois as a local TV news reporter.

Celia served up a beautiful spread of drinks and hot and cold hors d’oeuvres as I mingled with some of the fabulous women in attendance.

Celia’s friend Sandy filled me in on their upcoming Parisian getaway with six other galpals for Celia’s 50th birthday. I bonded with twenty-something ladies Shannon and Katie about the perils of online dating and navigating singlehood in NYC. And I learned of my good friend Tiffany’s new adventures in partner dancing.

Before doing a fantastically energetic reading, Susan shared the story of how her city-turned-country girl evolution became a book. It’s the kind of tale that aspiring authors everywhere (myself included) dream about.

Captive Audience: All of us were engrossed by Susan's tales of 'life on the funny farm' (photo by Tiffany Wollin)

After moving to Virginia, Susan began emailing her friends about small town life. Her hilarious weekly accounts were soon being forwarded to 200 people, eventually becoming the basis for a blog (http://www.confessionsofacounterfeitfarmgirl.blogspot.com/). Impressed by Susan’s writing and the blog’s following, the agent who represents bestselling author Nicholas Sparks contacted her and so, a book deal was born.

While Susan was signing my book, I confided my literary aspirations to her. I smiled upon reading what she wrote --

“Keep writing and soon I’ll be at your book signing!”

I’m looking forward to making that prediction come true.

Jetsetting To A New Life

This week, my PR colleague Kim, digital media maven and fashionista (http://www.kimhongunplugged.com/), will be leaving Quinn & Co. for an exciting new gig -- life as a London resident.

Kim is moving to England’s capital for both career and love (her beau is British). Her imminent departure got me to thinking about my own experience of picking up and moving to another continent.

Living Abroad: I fell so in love with Sydney that I moved there for five months in 2002

Five years ago, my first trip to Australia left me so smitten that I decided to spend five months as a Sydney resident. At the time, my beloved late father expressed concern that the move would interrupt my professional progress.

I wasn’t surprised he was opposed to it -- the idea of inhabiting far-off destinations for an extended period isn’t as common here in the U.S. as it is in other countries (so common, in fact, that it’s called a gap year because that’s usually how long people spend traveling).

While I settled into life as a happily employed Sydneysider, it didn’t take long for me to re-discover what I did during my junior year in London, and again when I moved to Southern Illinois -- that trying on a new hometown for size is always an adventure worth having. Even if the ultimate result is simply to bring you right back to where you started, you’re so much richer for having had the excursion.

I’m going to miss picking Kim’s brain about how to navigate the information superhighway and, of course, seeing her fabulous wardrobe every day. The upside of her departure -- it gives me another reason to visit my (other) favorite city.

A Diva-rrific Manicure

Last week, I enjoyed my first visit to the flagship NYC location of my favorite nail spa, Dashing Diva.

With a sleek, white interior, Dashing Diva’s East Village venue delivers pampering in style -- Jennifer Hudson chose it as the setting for a recent online video (http://music.yahoo.com/promo-42778155-263-20081013-autoplay).

Nail Pampering with Panache: Dashing Diva's East Village location in NYC

Feeling adventurous, I opted to experience a few more firsts, including my first Divaroma manicure ($15). If there’s such a thing as heaven for hands, this is it. In addition to first-class attention for nails and cuticles, the Divaroma experience includes aromatherapy products (I chose Soothing Eucalyptus), and a full hand and arm massage with exfoliating scrub.

After removing my hands from the dryer, I smiled at the new hue adorning them. Bypassing pale pink for a change, I opted for something bolder -- the richly purple Royal Romanov. I’m looking forward to broadening my nail palette even more in December, when Dashing Diva rolls out more than 300 new colors.

As if free cosmos on Thursday and Friday nights aren't enough incentive for me to keep coming back, Dashing Diva has just launched the Passionate about Pink Sweepstakes. Celebrating the 2009 release of Pink’s new album "Funhouse," the contest gives customers the chance to win a special ‘Day of Rock star Beauty,’ and 2 tickets to Pink’s Summer 2009 Tour.

The sweepstakes will be highlighted at all Dashing Diva nail spas and you can also enter online at www.pinkspage.com/passionateaboutpink.

Coming up…an intimate book launch party for a New Yorker braving small town life and Chris “Mr. Big” Noth takes to the (off) Broadway stage.

The Relationship Deadline Dilemma

Not too long ago, a newly-30 friend of mine, A, told me about the impass at which she’s arrived with her twenty-something boyfriend of one year. He’s gearing up for grad school out of state, uncertain if he’s ready to settle down. She’s wondering how long to hold out for the promise of a long-term commitment.

When she said they’ve decided to see what happens in six months, I couldn’t help thinking about my own experience with make or break dating deadlines.

Having spent most of my twenties lingering in relationships well past their expiration date, I was anxious to break that bad habit as the big 3-0 loomed closer. Though I’ve had plenty of practice at saying goodbye -- having initiated 6 of the 7 major breakups I’ve been through -- I needed a better exit strategy. I latched onto one suggested to me seven years ago by my then-boyfriend.

St. Louis' Lambert International Airport: It was here back in 2001 that a new long-distance love told me his make or break theory about relationships

During an airport goodbye, he shared his simple rule about the trajectory that a relationship should follow. At six months, he said, a relationship either gets serious or it doesn’t, i.e., you end it. It seemed like the perfect one size fits all answer to the inevitable dating conundrum, should I stay or should I go?

The six-month make or break theory helped liberate me from a stifling entanglement with a clingy British guy. I said sayonara after five months. It had a much more complicated impact on my relationship with S, a canine-obsessed New Yorker I met on Match.com.

Panicking as irreconcilable differences emerged between us, I opted not to tell S my fears. I abruptly broke up with him exactly six months after we started seeing each other. Though my doubts about S ultimately proved to be well-founded, I regret bolting the way that I did. We reconciled, but our relationship was so damaged that it was never the same.

That experience made me realize how make or break deadlines, while necessary at times, can take on a life of their own. When you’re in your thirties and still single, it becomes more difficult to find that happy medium between being comfortable and drawing a line in the sand about where a relationship is heading.

As my friend A is currently asking herself, how do you know when to have that conversation and when to move on if happily ever after isn’t in the cards? It turns out there is no one size fits all answer to that question.

What I’ve learned is to pay more attention to what’s happening in a relationship now instead of fixating on an arbitrary deadline. Because it’s a lot easier to figure out what your future is when you’re fully inhabiting the journey it takes to get there.