SingleWomenRule.com will be giving away tickets to each event so check back daily for your chance to win. Check out last year’s interview with the event’s founder, Sherri Langburt.

HurryDate and Single Edition Invite You to “Live the Life You Love!”

Join a panel of experts in the fields of career, personal finance, dating and “sensuous living” for three nights where you’ll get answers to life’s big questions in a forum for single, professional women. In addition to having a great time hanging out with some fun and friendly single women, you’ll enjoy it all at the very cool Samsung Experience Store, on the 3rd floor of the Time Warner Shopping Center!

Your Hosts: Sherri Langburt and Adele Testani

Tuesday, September 21st

Lisa Steadman: “If Your Business Was Your Boyfriend, How Happy Are You?”

Yolanda Shoshana: “Sensual Adventures for the Single Girl”

Jeffrey Asher: “What Women Don’t Know About Estate Planning, but Should.”

Tuesday, October 12th

Carolyn Kelly North: “Dump the Slumps! Ways to Boost Your Mood when ‘Dating Fatigue’ Sets In”

Galia Gichon: “The Single Gal’s Guide to Money”

Kathryn Kaycoff-Manos

and Lauri de Brito: “Fertility 101: Essential Tips for the Single Woman”

Tuesday, November 2nd

Tamsen Fadal: “How Guys Really Think and How to Get the Right One Interested in You”

Jonathan Sack: “Protecting Yourself from Singlism in the Workplace”

Jacqueline Wales: “Scared of Commitment: How to Handle Rejection in Relationships”

We’ll have The Samsung Store all to ourselves, so after the discussion, all attendees can stick around to mix, mingle and make connections!

When: September 21st, October 12th and November 2nd, 2010

6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Where: The Samsung Experience Store

Time Warner Center

10 Columbus Circle, 3rd Floor

New York, NY 10019

Price: Online = $25 per event

$65 for all three events

At Door = $35 per event

Not the look I want to know better, but those who disagree can get it at Sears.

Over the past few days, we’ve enjoyed sunny 70-degree temperatures in the waterlogged Northeastern United States, and I couldn’t be happier. Oh, to leave the house in just a light jacket! Or, no jacket at all.

I wore a new sleeveless dress to Easter Mass yesterday (yes, I caved, despite my objection to the near impossibility of being able to buy a dress with a sleeve these days). And, crossing the parking lot, the sun felt grand on my freckled shoulders.

Unfortunately, the warmer weather has also brought out in droves the garment I dread most of all. I refer to the capri, that unlovely pant that travels down the length of a woman’s leg and halts in the most unflattering spot, bringing to mind a clydesdale in flip-flops (capris, I notice, are often paired with flip-flops for a particularly stubby look).

Now, I refuse to wear capris, but the pressure is relentless. I went into the Gap one spring looking for ankle-length pants, but the saleswoman was having none of it.  “Everybody wants these,” she said, steering me toward the stubbies. “Are you sure you want to wear long pants in the heat?”

(Which brings me to another point: Exactly how much cooler are capris than regular pants? Does that six-inch expanse of leg they expose really make that much of a difference?)

Last summer, I went to a barbecue where all women wore the offending garments, to ill effect. Even if you’re tall and thin, capris give the impression you’ve spent the better part of the afternoon clamming. Despite this, an older female relative demanded of me, “Why wouldn’t you wear capri pants like the rest of the ladies?”

Because — precisely because — all the other women wore them. Oh, and because they’re ugly. And because jeans keep the mosquitoes off my ankles.

Given a choice between shorts and capris, I’ll take the shorts. Given a choice between a sundress and capris, I’ll take the dress. And (forgive me, Tim Gunn) given a choice between leggings and capris, I’ll take the leggings. At least they follow the shape of your leg, making very most of it, instead of chopping it off like a tree stump.

The capri is about as attractive as halitosis. Stay far, far away.

Image by Getty

Last week, talking heads discussed whether or not Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe would have to lose weight to ever get a decent part again. Now TMZ reports that a weight loss company has offered the effervescent and appealing actress an endorsement deal, provided she drops pounds using their product.

TMZ reports:

“The CEO wrote a letter to Sidibe, urging her, ‘The only way you can reach your goal of someday winning that Oscar is by being active, fit, and most of all, healthy!’”

Really? Because Hattie McDaniel wasn’t exactly slim when she bagged her Oscar.

And it’s interesting that we don’t have pundits arguing about whether or not a certain celebrity should, for example, give up smoking. Or drinking. Neither behavior is great for your health, but few people object to them the way they object to fat people.

I have to say, I just love Gabourey. I liked the way she responded to an interviewer who told her she looked good. “It’s the genes,” she deadpanned. She thrilled me when she spotted Gerard Butler and told Billy Bush, “I’d hit that.”

And then told Butler to his face, “I’d hit that.”

Gabourey is such a refreshing change from the pin-thin, surgically-altered specimens who dot the red carpet. She doesn’t have to lose weight to keep my attention. And, as a visit to Disney World will prove, the world is full of humans who look a helluva lot more like her than they do the average celebrity. So why would she be shut out of playing characters with whom everyday people can identify?

Does Gabourey need to lose weight? I say only if she wants to.

What do you think? We want know.

Kiss me, you helpless fool!

I went to the mailbox yesterday to find four catalogs, all jammed with Christmas excitement, waiting for me.

One of them came from a clothing store I like. The dresses, coats, and shoes are chic and reasonably-priced, and it’s usually the one catalog I don’t immediately toss on the recycling pile. But this time something about it turned me off: The copy.

I turned to a photo of a trendy one-shouldered dress I definitely wouldn’t buy, but the headline tried to change my mind. It read:

 “The ‘Look at Me’ Little Black Dress, Only $39!”

And I thought, “The ‘Look at Me’ dress? Oh, give me a break.”

Do these people really think I want everybody to look at me?  Like Cinderella descending the staircase at the ball? Listen, I’m a grown woman. I stopped watching Disney movies a long time ago.

The next page in the catalog showed another dress. The headline proclaimed:

 ”Meet Me Under the Mistletoe; Bewitching Jewel Tones to Capture the Eye…and All the Attention.”

Who writes this stuff? I know advertising copy is supposed to create a fantasy, but why assume I want to bewitch every soul in my path? That I want all men — even the undesirable ones — to desire me? That I want the very vision of me to suck the air out of every lung in the room?

Sure, I want to be considered attractive (who doesn’t?). I want to look my best. But advertising written based on the philosophy that life for women is one big beauty pageant is insulting, not to mention stupid.

The thing is, I’d probably wear a good number of the garments in this catalog, but the copy turned me off just enough to yield to my reluctance to pay for shipping.

I’m off to T.J. Maxx.

Sherri Langburt, founder of www.singleedition.com

Don’t take for granted your friendships and definitely don’t put your life on hold for anyone. That’s the message entrepreneur Sherri Langburt shares through her company Single Edition and on Tuesday, November 3, Single Edition and Spark Networks (which produces a number of online dating sites including: JDate.com, BlackSingles.com, and ChristianMingle.com) is bringing that message to single women with the third installment of the Live the Life You Love event series at 6:30 p.m. in Saks Fifth Avenue, 611 Fifth Ave. in New York City. Tickets are $25 online, and $35 at the door.

Tuesday’s event features four expert panelists who will speak and answer questions: author of The 21st Century Guide to Bachelorhood, Brad Berkowitz; human resources consultant and career coach Alyson D’Anna; Karine Bakhoum, a frequent judge on the Food Networks hit “Iron Chef America, and entrepreneur Beth Schoenfeldt, founder of Collective-E, a “unique hybrid of an Entrepreneur Agency with a community twist”.

Respectively, their topics include: how and where to meet Mr. Right, including how to stand up for yourself early in the relationship so you get treated well; self-promotion and marketing tactics for single women in Corporate America and business; cooking for one – how to enjoy the process and make your kitchen environment cook friendly; and how to start out as a solo entrepreneur in slump economy. After the panels, attendees can enjoy after-hours shopping at Saks with exclusive discounts, personal shoppers, and free make-up consultations.

Like Single Edition (which is marketed to men and women), the event is an opportunity for women to discover new resources, an opportunity Langburt didn’t have in 1996 when she moved to New York.

Originally from Montreal, Langburt grew up in a “conservative, old fashioned” home with Polish and Russian parents that would have preferred she marry and have kids in her early twenties. “Something in me kind of said, I can’t do this, there is more in this world and I started building my life and realized that single women can do things on their own,” said Langburt.

But it wasn’t easy.

“When I first got here, and being a Canadian transplant, I was really left to my own devices,” said Langburt. “Getting across the borders with working papers was a nightmare. Getting a bank card was a nightmare. There were really no resources; there was nothing that supported single people.”

“One point I was robbed of everything I owned,” said Langburt. “I was moving from one apartment to another and they stole the truck. I was told that as a single woman from Canada, no board was ever going to approve you [to buy an apartment].”

The void in resources prompted Langburt to develop the concept for Single Edition, which ten years later became the “premier lifestyle destination for singles: women and men of all ages who have never been married as well as those who are divorced, solo parents or suddenly single.”

“I had the idea, [but I knew] I wasn’t going to be able to support myself. For ten years, I was like this is my dream – to launch this business,” said Langburt, whose now been featured on numerous media outlets including the Gayle King Radio Show, Good Morning Australia, and in the New York Times. 

She didn’t take money from investors when she started Single Edition, and consulted part-time to avoid spending her savings. “To me [with] investors, you are giving a part of your dream and if you can’t make a business float they will just take it away.”

Langburt, now married for almost two years, met her husband online while she was building the site. “He opposed,” she said, but she persevered, as she’d done and continued to do after arriving in New York. Her perseverance and patience landed her jobs and connections that enabled her to fulfill her dream.

“I didn’t listen to the voices at home, I just didn’t listen,” said Langburt. “I was fearless, if someone said no. I was applying for every job under the sun; I didn’t say no to any interview, I always took a ‘no’ as a yes.”

Langburt, who still lives in New York City, recognizes it presents unique challenges for people, especially single women.

“The best part about the city is the anonymity; that you could do anything and be anyone and everyday on every corner there is hope,” said Langburt. “The hardest part of the city is the isolation. There is a perception that everyone has a social life, but it’s hard to build a circle of friends here.”

Live the Life You Love is a chance for single women to overcome the isolation.

“It’s a change to meet connect and have smart conversations and learn. It is a unique event that has never been done before, you need to celebrate and empower yourself,” said Langburt. “Men come and go, but women [friendships] don’t. Women kind of take their friendships for granted when men are in the picture. It’s really about not putting your life on hold. That is the major message. “

By Sarah Maria, Author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently.

How many times have you waited for something to change so that you could finally start feeling beautiful?

If you are like most women, the answer is “all the time.”

Here is the problem: most of us tend to live with the delusional belief that we somehow need to change in order to be beautiful. It usually sounds something like:

When I lose this extra weight, then I will be attractive.

If I can just get my abs a little more toned, then I can wear that bikini I love.

I feel so much better after I put on my make-up in the morning.

I looked much sexier before I had these wrinkles.

My hair looks drab and lifeless until I get it colored.

Unfortunately, we think these stories, these lies, that we have been taught are true. We believe that we somehow need to change who we are, how we look, and what we do in order to finally be sexy, attractive, and drop-dead gorgeous.

This is a lie — an erroneous, ubiquitous, and often painful lie. The truth of the matter is that you are inherently, unconditionally, and absolutely beautiful and lovable right now, without changing a single thing.

Fortunately, very fortunately, you can expose these lies and choose to no longer live under their spell. 

Ready to get started? Here are 6 simple and sure-fire ways to help you feel beautiful today:

1. Become Aware of What You Are Thinking

Simply become aware of the stories you are telling yourself so that you are no longer reacting on auto-pilot. Through awareness alone, you can begin to transmute your reality and transform lies into truth. Actively acknowledge that there is no inherent truth in the belief that you need to change something about yourself in order to be attractive. Consider that you can start feeling beautiful immediately, in this moment, without changing a single thing.

2. Set an Intention to See Beauty

Setting an intention is simple: intend to create a different reality for yourself. Here are some examples:

I intend to experience my inherent beauty. Or: I intend to see my beauty and perfection at all times. Or: I intend to know I am inherently beautiful, lovable, and worthwhile.

Do you ever see your reflection in the mirror and grimace at your wrinkles, vowing to purchase the latest anti-wrinkle cream?
Set an intention to find beauty in your reflection.

Or when you undress, do you ever suck in your stomach, berating yourself for not yet losing those 5 extra pounds?
Set an intention to appreciate the body that you have right now.

Do you ever go shopping for clothes and wish you were a size (or more) smaller?
Set an intention to unconditionally accept your body.

Hopefully you get the idea; set an intention to see yourself through the eyes of beauty.

3. Take a “Meditation Moment”

Meditation is the mental equivalent of brushing your teeth. This means that it is an essential and indispensable daily activity designed to help rest and rejuvenate your body, cleanse your psyche, awaken your spirit, and help you live a life that you love.

Nourish yourself with instant meditation moments throughout the day.

Are you waiting at the bus stop on your way to work? Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, allowing yourself to connect within.

Are you making dinner for the family? Take 30 seconds and focus on the sounds, smells, and sensations in your environment, letting them nourish your senses.

Are you in the shower, getting ready to start your day?

Turn your attention to the feeling of warm water cascading against you, gently caressing your body, and allow yourself to relax.

These meditation moments can happen anywhere, anytime — 30 to 60 seconds of closing your eyes and connecting within can make all the difference in the world.

4. Your Body is Your Best Friend

Your human body is your truest ally. Befriend it and it will serve you tirelessly.

Treat it as you would a dear friend:

Feed your body with healthy food, taking the time to give it proper nourishment.

Remember to exercise, and make it enjoyable. If the gym makes you cringe, opt for yoga, Pilates, dance, or good old walking. Anything to get your body moving will do wonders.

Relaxation is key. In our harried and hurried world, it is essential that you remember to relax and rejuvenate.

Instead of critiquing your body for not being enough of this and for being too much of that, offer it gratitude and appreciation for its unwavering support and devotion.

5. Create Meaningful Moments

Every day is filled with countless tasks and errands: going to work, talking with friends, picking up the kids, supporting your significant other, washing dishes, going to the gym, visiting the supermarket, shopping — on and one it goes. Remember that you can imbue each moment with meaning. It can be as simple as smiling at everyone you meet, reacting with compassion and love instead of anger, or making sure to tell your friends and loved ones how much you care about them.

6. You’re Smoking Hot, Inside Out

Remember, you were born beautiful. Believing that you are unattractive is a learned habit. You can unlearn it and discover the Joy, Peace, and Love that are your natural state and birthright!

So that is it — 6 Simple Steps. 6 simple steps to start feeling beautiful, right now, in this moment. You don’t have to go anywhere or do anything to experience the Beauty that you already are. In fact, there is nothing you can do, say, or buy that will make you any more perfect, any more beautiful, or any more desirable than you are in this very moment. Simply know this, and you will revel in your true beauty.

©2009 Sarah Maria, author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently

Author Bio
Sarah Maria is the author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life. The book outlines her 5-step process for helping you feel great in and about your body and yourself. (Her work embraces the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, so that true and lasting healing can occur.) Click here to purchase your copy and begin to love your body today. To learn more about Sarah Maria and her work, you can visit her website at www.sarahmaria.com andwww.breakfreebeauty.com.

But I always wondered what happens if a woman attracts the attention of some tall, dark, handsome man while sporting an artificially tight abdomen. One thing leads to another. Eventually, he discovers that the flat-abbed goddess is actually squishy and wobbly-stomached.

Salon editor Sarah Hepola found out exactly what happens when a fellow encounters the magic pantaloons. Read the whole story here.

Single Edition Launches Three-Part Event Series To Address Lifestyle Topics From A Single Woman’s Perspective

When will he call? Do you think he’s into me? Single Edition Media thinks single women have more important things to think about than trivial dating questions such as these.

A lifestyle company that delivers programming, content and tools exclusively for singles, Single Edition Media has partnered with Spark Networks, the number one provider of niche singles communities such as JDate®.com, AmericanSingles®.com, ChristianMingle®.com and BlackSingles.com® to launch the “Live the Life You Love” three-part event series this fall at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.

The women’s only event series will address a range of lifestyle issues from a single woman’s perspective – from real estate and personal finance to health and career topics. Each event will feature an expert-led panel discussion, Q&A, after-hours shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue; as well as complimentary manicures, make-up applications, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Sponsors include New York Sports Club, Vitamin Shoppe, Vitamin Water, and Spark Networks.

As more individuals wait longer to marry, nearly one third all of Americans identify as “single” today, and yet single women are still waiting to make important life decisions. According to Sherri Langburt, founder of Single Edition Media, “Single Edition recognizes that life presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities for singles. Just in time for National Singles Week, the ‘Live the Life You Love’ series offers a fresh perspective, genuine advice, and some hands-on assistance to show single women that they shouldn’t have to wait to make important life decisions.”

The first event, held on September 15, addressed single-specific issues including: how to buy a house as a single; how to choose a smart insurance plan; if singles should have a will; and how to invest single-salary savings.

The second event will occur on October 6 and will cover sex, health, nutrition, and fitness topics; while the third event takes place on November 3 and will cover entrepreneurship, career, entertaining, and relationships topics. Tickets cost $25 online and $35 at the door; tickets to all three events cost $45. To reserve a spot, please visit www.spark.net/livethelifeyoulove

****** SingleWomenRule.com is pleased to give FIVE readers the chance to win tickets to the October 6 event.  Be one of the first five people to comment on this post by 8 AM EST on Mon. Oct. 5, and you will win a pair of tickets to Live Your Life, courtesy of Single Edition and Spark Networks!!!******

The awaited September issue.

And I’d say that’s certainly encouraging for women who stumble through their careers afraid to take a stand (“Don’t make waves,” my first boss,  a man, warned me).

A lot of us still want to be liked at all costs.

But, apparently, Wintour is not one of us. Today’s The Daily Beast features an article by another successful woman, Tina Brown (former head honcho at Vanity Fair, the now-defunct Talk, and The New Yorker)  who details how Wintour’s job was on the line only months ago (she wasn’t selling too many ads in this economy, and her boss, Conde Nast Chairman Si Newhouse wanted a replacement).

The ‘bitch’ managed to turn things around. Three months after the crisis, she’s back on top.  Read Brown’s article here.

Kimberly D. Neumann

Friend to SingleWomenRule.com, SingFabulous author Kimberly Dawn Neumann, (who featured us in a recent Match.com article, and co-authored the new book Sex Comes First) has got a once in a lifetime chance to win a $7000 a month apartment for $700 a month, and we can help her.

Click this link – http://www.daffys.com/#/the-apartment/the-finalists/ - and vote once a day from each computer from September 7- 16th.  She’s the ONLY girl in the contest!!!  So we HAVE to help her beat out all those stinky boys.    Plus, can you say cocktail party in a NYC highrise? 

Kimberly Dawn Neumann – who has been coined “The Carrie Bradshaw of Broadway” thanks to her two careers as a relationship writer and a Broadway performer – has been named one of the top 5 finalists out of nearly 3000 entries in the Daffy’s Apartment contest. To enter the contest where one lucky person will get the chance to live in a $7000/month apartment for $700/month for 10 months, contenders had to go to a Daffy’s store and record a 30-second video stating why they should walk away with the keys to the dream digs! Neumann, who wrote an original poem as part of her entry, was the only female to make the Top 5.

“I really thought this through before I went in to record my entry -I planned out what I was going to say and practiced since I knew it had to be under 30 seconds,” says Neumann. “I was actually laughing after I did it because I realized I’ve played roles on Broadway and yet I was completely nervous recording this video in the Men’s Department of Daffy’s! How funny is that?”

Neumann, the author of two books The Real Reasons Men Commit and Sex Comes First, was most recently seen on Broadway in A CHORUS LINE as the “Cassie/Sheila” standby. She’s currently reprising the role of “Cassie” at the Pioneer Theater in Salt Lake City. If she wins, she’ll move into the Daffy’s Apartment the day after the show closes.

“Wouldn’t that be just amazing?” says Neumann. “I think it would be an adventure in the Village for me for the next 10 months!”

A bombshell or a bomb? (Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty)

Hey, doesn’t everybody?

I woke up this morning and found NBC anchor Natalie Morales reading the news with fresh gold highlights. This would be fine if Natalie Morales were Scandanavian, I guess, but she’s a gorgeous Hispanic woman who looks best as God made her: A brunette.

Lately, the dark-eyed Kim Kardashian, formerly known as much for her glossy raven mane as for her volupuous figure, emerged with newly flaxen locks, effectively reducing herself to looking like everybody else.

And that’s the problem with these bottle blondes: They look like everybody else. They’re no longer unique individuals; they’re faces in a crowd.

Not long ago, I stood on a Manhattan street corner waiting for an artificially blonde friend. She’s average height, about 5’5, and I soon found out that a good percentage of women in that section of Manhattan are the same size and wear their hair exactly as she does: Blonde and blown out.

My friend, like the teenager I mentioned, has naturally dark and wavy hair, but it’s been tortured into another thing altogether. It made me kind of sad, standing on the corner watching all the clones walk by.

Several hairdressers have told me that I, who grew up auburn, have a “great base” for blonde hair before insisting I let them pour on the gold. I resisted. I was raised the only non-blonde in a house of natural blondes, and I plan to stay that way.

Besides, I liken hairdressers who push the blonde to drug dealers. Once you go for it it, you need a fix every few weeks, lest you show up at the office looking cheap. Touchups are pricey. Pushing the blonde is lucrative business.

But what do you think?

Does straight, blonde hair make us beautiful? Or just average?