Relationship Help

Relationship Articles and Help from Michael Web

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Calling All Friends, Families & Celebrities

On May 27th 1997, Athena and I celebrated our 7th yearly wedding anniversary. I wanted to make it even more special than our average yearly extravaganza so I came up with an idea to make it very memorable. I wanted to have friends, families and celebrities to send greetings to Athena to congratulate her on this special occasion.

First, about one month before our anniversary, I went on the Internet and found several sites where celebrity mailing addresses were listed. I wrote down about 25 celebrities around the world that Athena has admired for things they had accomplished or talents they have. I didn’t write to anyone simply because they were good-looking or famous. I did my best to hunt down a few more addresses of notables that I knew Athena was particularly fond of. I wrote each person a short letter explaining what I was doing.

Along with the letter I included a card and envelope that was pre-addressed and stamped so all they would have to do is to write a short note, sign it, seal it and post it. About two weeks before our anniversary, the card from Woody Allen came. In proper fashion, Martha Stewart’s came just a few days before our anniversary. The day of our anniversary came greetings from Brooke Shields, Andre Aggasi and Harry Connick Jr. Within the next few weeks came cards from Bill Cosby, Robin Williams, Emma Thompson and the cast of Friends.

The second tier of this plan had to do with friends and family who have e-mail. I sent messages to about 40 people who have e-mail and asked them to send a message to my wife at her office. The day of our anniversary (she had to work, unfortunately), she was flooded with dozens of messages over the computer. The reason I didn’t ask our friends to send a card is that it would have been expensive for me to send out an additional 40 and it would have been slightly rude to ask for them to go out and buy a card for us.

I did make Athena something special in celebration of our 7th anniversary. Keep reading and you will find out what it was.

 


 
The 12 Days of a Romantic Christmas

With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays the children, friends and relatives often get all the attention and the spouses are left out in the cold. Celebrate this Christmas with 12 days of romance.

On the first day of Christmas... Buy your mate one box of their favorite cereal and lace it with lots of “prizes.” Throw in some golf tees, Hershey kisses, toy cars or whatever would bring out the child in them.

On the second day of Christmas... Take out your two engraved toasting glasses from the china cabinet and use them. Reminisce the day you first sipped from them. If you never had any engrave your own by buying some stencils and etching paste at a craft store.

On the third day of Christmas... Have three meals together. You could go all out with breakfast in bed, a picnic lunch and a candlelit dinner. Better yet, spend less time preparing the meal and more time sharing it together.

On the fourth day of Christmas... Put the pedal to the metal and four on the floor. Take a peaceful drive for the day. Go to county, sight see in the city or cruise around looking at Christmas lights.

On the fifth day of Christmas... Fax or deliver a photocopy of your five fingers (plus the rest of your hand) to your love at work. Tell them you can’t wait to be together to hold the real thing.

On the six day of Christmas... Give her a half dozen of her favorite flower – one at a time. Leave one on the pillow, one on her car seat, one at her office, etc.

On the seventh day of Christmas... Count your lucky stars by gazing into the 7th heaven. If the night is overcast, arrange glow-in-the-dark ones on the bedroom ceiling.

On the eighth day of Christmas... Buy an 8 pack of crayons and together design and color a personalized coloring book of happy memories you have shared.

On the ninth day of Christmas... Dress to the nines and head out to a swanky restaurant. If a full meal would be too much on the budget, simply go for cocktails or dessert.

On the tenth day of Christmas... Massage your sweetheart’s aching shoulders for ten minutes. Throw in a back scratch, a foot massage and a hair brushing if you are feeling extra generous.

On the eleventh day of Christmas... Bake him eleven of his favorite cookies (since most recipes make one dozen, these will be bigger than usual – he won’t complain). Stick a wooden skewer through the side of each cookie and then wrap the cookie in a colored plastic wrap. Place them in a box or vase as you would a dozen roses.

On the twelfth day of Christmas... Present your sweetheart with a custom made twelve month calendar for the new year. Use personal photographs or your own drawings to make it unique. Highlight special days for the new year.

 

Once Upon a Time

Occasionally my wife will have insomnia and has a little difficulty getting to sleep. If I am not exhausted, I will sometimes tell her a fairy tale to help pass the time until she becomes a little drowsy.

You can read a fairy tale from children’s books lying around the house. Personally, I like to make up my own. Of course she is the main character and I am usually her knight in shining armor who comes to save the day. Not only do the fairy tales help her fall asleep, they are wonderful ways for me to improve my creativity, story telling and extemporaneous speaking skills. I have to do a lot of thinking on my feet when reporters call me out of the blue and want to interview me live on radio.

Please don’t make the fairy tale too gruesome, otherwise she might fall asleep and then have disturbing dreams. A good fairy tale will have villains (her mean boss or rude neighbor), heroes and heroines, interesting locations and perhaps a good moral to the story. Sometimes I incorporate riddles into the stories to keep them interesting and clever. Jokes and puns liven up the fairy tale as well.

If you don’t make up your own story, just put some interesting twists on the classics: Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, etc.

And they lived happily ever after.

 

 

Don't Do Dull Dinner Dates

In my observations of the dating scene (both singles and married couples) the most common date is the dinner date. It’s a natural fit as we all need to eat and no one really enjoys eating alone. Also, going out for dinner takes much less effort than cooking at home.

If you are getting a little bored with the typical dinner date, there are some ways of livening things up. In most medium to large cities there are places where you can go for dinner and enjoy entertainment at the same time.

An example of a unique dining experience is a Mystery Dinner. Some restaurants invite local actors to perform a murder mystery play in the midst of diners who are supposed to guess “who done it” by the time dessert is served.

Cigar/wine dinners are becoming a booming industry. Some of the finer restaurants are having several course pre-planned dinners with different exotic cigars/wines served throughout the evening. You will have to lay out a bit more cash than the average dinner but they make for a wonderful special occasion.

How about eating a meal while laughing hysterically? If this sounds like fun to you then you might want to look for a comedy club nearby that serves meals. I would recommend knowing a little about the comedian before you make reservations. Some can be extremely crude, which might not be the type of humor you or your date would enjoy.

Dinner and a movie seem to go hand in hand so dinner theaters are a natural fit. These movie houses usually show second-run films while you are enjoying your meal. The price of admission is usually much lower than what you would pay to see a newly released film so it is even less expensive than your average “dinner and a movie” date.



It's a Wrap

Once you have bought a gift for your sweetheart, the biggest dilemma is yet ahead: how to wrap it? I am the first to admit that I don’t relish having to wrap gifts. Whenever my wife and I buy presents for friends and family, I ask her to do the wrapping honors. This is not a step-by-step guide on how to wrap a gift - you wouldn’t want directions from me anyway - I am simply giving you some suggestions of unique materials to use to do the wrapping. A creative choice of paper makes up for a sloppy wrapping job.

  • A large piece from a brown paper bag (instead of taping it closed use the sealing wax and sealer that you bought her for her writing box)
  • Pages from the Victoria’s Secret catalog (good for wrapping lingerie)
  • Old wall calendar (for watches/clocks)
  • Travel posters (ask a travel agent)
  • The Sunday Comics
  • A personalized picture or artwork created on your computer
  • White butcher paper personally decorated with crayons
  • Colored plastic wrap
  • Greatly enlarged photocopy of a photograph
  • Pages of your children’s artwork
  • Vintage movie posters