The Soul Sorority

go ahead, cheat a little.

When it comes to life, there are advantages to playing it safe. The middle of the road is usually bullet proof. No chance of falling off a cliff or getting hit by a car. Playing it safe means life will most likely never be cruel. You will have a roof over your head, food on your table and a decent wardrobe. You will know the best restaurant to get sushi and the movie theater with the least crowded parking lot. You will be comfortable. Kind of like a nice 70 degrees, all the time. Every day, the sky will be clear and the weather calm. No thunderstorms in sight.

The only problem with that concept is that thunderstorms usually lead to beautiful, clean, fresh-smelling streets and the chance you could see Nature put on a wicked lightning show. Falling off a cliff might drop you into an amazing ocean, of a soft patch of grass where you could roll around for awhile. You might decide, one day, to walk past that decent sushi joint, and when you do, just two more blocks, you smell a mouth-watering Italian restaurant with the best garlic bread you've ever tasted in your life. And you might not even know you are a garlic bread girl.

Playing it safe is fine. There is nothing wrong with playing it safe. It's understandable and respectable. But sometimes, cheating on safe with a little adventure is fine, too. No one will tell.

Something to think about as you head into the weekend:

"It doesn't matter how fast you get somewhere,

                if you're heading in the wrong direction."

Bikini bonsai...

Ayayay! I haven't bought this yet, but I know I will. Anyone tried it?

The ingenious folks at Bliss paired with Philips to make a female-friendly, waterproof "personal trimmer"...in other words, to make sure no woman has to don a bikini at the beach with (ahem) those hairs. This handy-dandy kit, sold at Sephora, claims to be irritation free (red bumps, be gone!) and comes with six attachments, a trial size body butter and scrub, and pads to prevent ingrown hairs. Plus, it's SO chic.

A pregnancy pact? What happened to going to the movies after school?

Yikes. I don't even know where to begin with this one.

In the small fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, a number of girls -- most of them not any older than 16 -- decided to form a pregnancy pact, promising they would try to get pregnant by the end of the year. Apparently, the girls wanted to raise their children together and were enamored with the idea of young motherhood. Seventeen girls now have a bun in the oven and are happily planning their baby showers and looking up children's names while the girls who did NOT get pregnant are pouting...and probably still trying.

Oh, boy. Or girl. ;)

To make matters worse, one girl apparently had sex with a 24-year old homeless man, the principal said. (Anyone smell a made-for-TV movie in the works?)

This town, described as a "fiercely Catholic enclave," apparently embraces teen pregnancy, providing young moms with an on-site day care center and allowing strollers on campus. What this town (and school) does NOT do, if you haven't already guessed, is provide teenagers with birth control options.

Look...I know religion is religion, and people hold strong beliefs about premarital sex, but...if it hasn't been obvious before, it should be glaringly obvious now: Teenagers are having sex. That's nothing new. They're getting pregnant even when they DO have birth control options. But this situation reeks of negligence. I mean, I kind of don't get it. If the school is willing to accept that teenage girls are having sex, even supposedly devout teenage girls, then why isn't it able to provide birth control to these girls? If it can have an on-site day care center at the local high school, then shouldn't it be able to provide condoms? Or access to a women's health center? (The closest one is about a half-hour away.)

I know babies are a blessing, but in this case, I can only hope that these 17 teenage girls have an amazing support system of family members willing to help raise these kids. I don't want to be judgmental, but this is sad, on so many levels...it's sad that these girls feel they have no other options in life but to rear children at a young age, when THEY themselves are still children; it's sad that schools and parents won't open their eyes and take responsibility; and it's sad that 17 infants will be brought into this world to be guided, and raised, by children who have no income, no steady job, and possibly no guidance.

Read the story here.

Get busy.

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

--Dale Carnegie

Mommy dearest...

You can thank your mom for your long legs and strong nails, or groan over the slow metabolism and grey hair genes you got stuck with, but either way, mom's a wealth of information when it comes to your health.

Here are five questions you should ask her for your own well-being:

1. How tall was mom at 21?
2. Did she have a rough pregnancy?
3. How are her eyes?
4. Any mental health problems?
5. What about her skin?

For more explanation, watch the video, where Women's Health Editor-in-Chief Tina Johnson talked to Natalie Morales on the Today Show.

Hot bachelor alert! Hot bachelor alert!

I hear the Chippendale sirens ringing now. Single women, unite. There's still hope. ;)

Mario is number one on People Magazine's Hottest Bachelors 2008.

Anytime you need a pick me up, just look at the photos...good lord.

(p.s. -- check out Britney's bro...did you even know she had a brother? I didn't. He looks...normal.)

Women of the world.

I am a huge believer in travel. I don't do it as often as I would like, but I dream about it constantly. I've found that anytime I travel, I learn more about myself than when I'm stuck in my routine at home, and I learn more about the world and how I am just a tiny, tiny speck in it. Travel is humbling, satisfying and like pizza...or, as my manfriend says, sex: Even when it's bad, it's good. Even if you have a nightmare experience, you come back with the smart, witty "I can't believe that happened" stories to tell all your friends for months, (maybe even years!), to come.

But traveling SOLO? You mean, without your family, friends or a luvah by your side? Yes. Traveling solo is exhilarating. You pick your schedule, you pick what you want to see (No beer museums for me, not on this trip, thank you very much), you meet new people and create your own adventures. Traveling solo gives you such a sense of confidence, too, this sexy, "I-am-a-world-traveler" swagger, that can't be found or bought at your nearest Cost Plus store.

Here's a list of top travel destinations for women traveling solo:

• Europe
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Canada
• India
• Morocco
• Iceland
• Vietnam

Satisfy your curiosity here.

Words of wisdom from Craigslist founder...

Craig Newmark. Newmark is the Internet entrepreneur who founded Craigslist, was recently interviewed for an article in The Boston Globe. Here are some snippets:

**ON SELLING THE COMPANY FOR A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY:

"Jim and I know some of these really rich guys," Newmark says. "They're not happier than anyone we know. So what's the point?"

**ON PUTTING ADS ON CRAIGSLIST TO MAKE A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY:

"There's nothing noble or altruistic or pious about what we're doing," Newmark says. "Once you make enough money and provide for your future, it's more satisfying to change the world a little bit."

The one thing to remember, here, is that Craigslist is expected to bring in $81 million this year. So...Newmark has already made a ridiculous amount of money. ;) But, to his credit, the genesis for Craigslist was, essentially, an emailed list of events in San Fran that Craig would send to his friends. That's the beauty of ideas, sometimes. They are so simple, but when they're right, and you see them through to their potential, ideas become dreams.

Beauty, revisited...

I am the first to admit when I'm wrong, and ladies and gents, I was wrong.

A good friend of mine, who shall go unnamed, made a comment to me the other day that investing in herself IS worth it, because of the way it makes her feel. When she takes care of herself, she feels more confident, more self aware, more ready to tackle the world. So although she respected my views on beauty's fickle fate, she disagreed. (Yay!)

Here's the deal: I think I was a little too harsh in that post. Let me back up. First, let's take a little trip into my bathroom drawers -- all inhabited by my little friends, known to me as Sephora, Mac, Philosophy and Urban Decay. Among others. I am fanatical about makeup. I LOVE IT. In another life, I know I was supposed to be a makeup artist. I don't love it for it's masking qualities, as much as I love it for the way it makes me feel, and the way I can get creative with it. I could spend hours putting on different color eye shadows. If something happened and there was only one small slice of refrigerator real estate left, and it was a duel between cold cream and cold cuts, the cold cream would win every time, hands down.

My point is that I buy into beauty. I love facials. I love skincare. I buy beauty mags. I look for an antidote to my frizzy, curly hair. But what I DON'T do is put all my eggs into the beauty basket. That's the point I was trying to make. Like Valerie said, gorgeous is a bad stock to invest in. Now, is it good if it's part of a mutual fund? Absolutely. But throw intelligence, humor, optimism, balance, health, exercise, friendship, family and self confidence into that pot, too.

And I absolutely agree with my friend, that an investment into YOURSELF -- whether it's with makeup, exercise, alone time, massages or eating healthy -- is worth every penny. The feeling of confidence...priceless.