worldof20something

The average American drives about 30 miles a day.  Combine a 45mph speed limit with stop signs, traffic lights and congested roads, and that can easily translate to over an hour behind the wheel.  If you’re going to be stuck in your car every single day – and let’s not calculate how many hours that would be per month or per year – you should really try to make it an enjoyable, stress-free experience.  Easier said than done, you might say… but here are a couple tips to de-stress driving.

1. Leave 5-10 minutes earlier than you think you need to.  Worrying about being late the whole time in your car can lead to a lot of unnecessary stress.  Leaving earlier can also lead to safer driving habits; if you’re not going to be late, you don’t need to weave in between traffic to pass people who are going 1 or 2 miles above the speed limit instead of 5.
2. Don’t be quick to criticize other drivers.  Whenever you do something like speed around a slower vehicle or speed up to a four-way stop sign intersection so you get to go first, you know that it’s because you’re in a hurry and have important things to do.  Whenever someone else does it, you ignore all possible reasons they might have and call them a __________ (fill in the blank with the worst word you can possibly imagine).  I’m not trying to call you a bad guy – what you’re doing is just a natural part of social psychology.  But for your own good, you should really try to stop the habit.  Some people think that saying bad things about other people makes them feel better, but it can also put you in a negative mind-set and get you stressed out for no good reason at all.
3. Find yourself getting frustrated when you can’t find anything good on the radio?  Make a CD of your favorite play list on ITunes and bring it with you in the car.  No more commercials!  And now you’ll have both hands on the wheel instead of one on the tuning dial.

Remember these tips.  Happy driving to all!

My search for the perfect bridal looks for my wedding happened mostly at two stores: David’s Bridal and Alfred Angelo.  These stores are very similar in terms of their price range and wide variety of dresses to choose from.  But there are differences, and it helps to be aware of them if you are about to start shopping for your wedding wear.

 BRIDAL GOWNS: Alfred Angelo wins!  I tried on dress after dress at David’s Bridal and was always left less than impressed.  At Alfred Angelo, on the other hand, I fell in love with every single dress I tried on.  While the dresses at David’s Bridal were affordable, I noticed that Alfred Angelo offered a higher quality for a lower price.

BRIDESMAID DRESSES: It’s a tie.  Both David’s Bridal and Alfred Angelo have a wide variety of bridesmaid dresses at affordable prices.  They both offer dresses of different lengths and styles, separates, and lots of trendy colors.

MEN’S FORMALWEAR: David’s Bridal wins!  David’s Bridal partners with a number of different men’s formalwear company to bring their customers closer to finding all of their bridal party’s needs.  Alfred Angelo, on the contrary, only covers the women’s looks.  You will find no men’s formalwear there.

CUSTOMER SERVICE: Alfred Angelo wins!  Everyone there was friendly, smiling, and extremely helpful.  The lady working with me helped me put on those tricky undergarments and dresses, took notes about what I liked or disliked about each dress, made suggestions, explained about the different types of fabrics, and encouraged my mom to take pictures.  My experience at David’s Bridal was a disaster.  I was sent around a corner to pick out shoes, then was shown to my dressing room where they expected me to figure out how to put on the bustier and dress.  The lady working with me hardly had any suggestions, other than, “Well… are you in love with it, or not?”  Then some other lady came over and started arguing with her about which dresses she thought would look good on me.  Lady #2 told me she would get me a certain dress but never came back with it.  Every time I was ready to move on to another dress, I had to wait 10 minutes for them to go get one.  Ridiculous.

LOCATION: David’s Bridal wins!  There’s more of them, so most of the time you’ll be able to find one much closer than Alfred Angelo.  If you’re lucky enough to live at least somewhat close to both, it’s probably worth the extra effort to go to both.

ONLINE SHOPPING: David’s Bridal wins, but Alfred Angelo still rates highly.  The feature that puts David’s Bridal over the top is something called “Dress Your Wedding.”  You get to create the people in your wedding, line them up next to each other, and pick out the exact outfits you think you would like them to wear.  You can change the dresses, the tuxes, the hairdos, the accessories, the shoes, and the colors.  It’s really helpful to see it all together before you make your final decision.

 So who wins overall?  That’s up for you to decide!  I will forever be inclined toward Alfred Angelo, where I found my perfect wedding dress… but for you, it might be different.

Sometimes it’s okay to pull out that trusty calculator at a restaurant to figure out how much you need to tip.  Close friends and family probably don’t mind.  But other times, it’s really not okay.  Certain circumstances where you need to impress your company, such as business outings, are definitely not the time to show off your new TI-91.

It’s time to learn how to calculate a tip using nothing more than the power of your brain.  And once you try it a few times, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to do.

Let’s start simple: the bill for dinner is $20.00.  Here’s what we do to get to 15%:

1. 10% of $20.00 can be found by moving the decimal one place to the left, which makes $2.00.
2. 5% is half of 10%, and half of $2.00 is $1.00.  Therefore, 5% of $20.00 is $1.00.
3. We’ve found 5% and 10%, so add them together to get your 15% tip!  $2.00 and $1.00 added together makes $3.00, which is a 15% tip on a $20.00 bill.

Let’s try something a little harder: the bill for dinner is $136.45.  Here’s what we do to get to 15%:

1. To get 10% of $136.45, just move the decimal one place to the left.  That makes $13.64… (you can ignore any numbers after the second one right to the decimal because that’s all we need for money terms).
2. 5% is half of 10%, so we need to find half of $13.64.  Instead of trying to figure out what this is, round up to $14.00.  Half of $14.00 is $7.00, so we can say that 5% of $136.45 is about $7.00.  (Just so don’t feel too cheated about rounding up, doing this increased the total by less than 20 cents.)
3. Now that we know 5% and 10%, just add them together to get the 15% tip.  Adding $7.00 to $13.64 is $20.64.  $20.64 is a 15% tip on a bill of $136.45.

Does 15% sound stingy to you?  If so, you’re lucky, because finding 20% is even easier.  Just find 10% by moving the decimal of the total bill one place to the left.  Take that number and add it to itself; that’s 20%.

This may all seem very complicated at first, but just try it a couple of times and you will get the hang of it!  I know you won’t mind leaving your calculator at home.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this is an understatement when it comes to photographs of your life.  The value of being able to see fond memories is truly priceless.

With ever-advancing technology we have moved rapidly into the era of digital photography.  I love digital cameras because they let you take hundreds of pictures without having to waste expensive film.  But there is an unrealized bad side to digital photography.

Digital cameras let you be lazy.  After you transfer the images onto your computer, that’s usually where they stay.  And how many times to you gather around the computer with loved ones to look at your favorite photos?  Life remembered turns into life forgotten.  Is that really why you took five hundred pictures when you traveled to
Greece?

Go through those picture files before the next time your computer unexpectedly crashes or randomly dumps half of its memory.  Pick out your favorite shots, copy and paste them into a separate file, and get to work!

There are three things you can do to turn your picture files into real photographs:

1. Print them onto photo paper with a high-quality printer.
2. Copy the files onto a flash drive and take them to a store like Wal-Mart, CVS or Walgreens, where you can use their machine to make prints for about fifteen cents each.
3. Upload the files to a website like Shutterfly that will ship prints to you.  These sites also often have options other than standard prints, such as photo books and collages.

Secret Tip: When you register at Shutterfly (which is free to do), you get twenty free 4×6 prints and free shipping on your first order!

Ok, so I’ll admit it…  I’ve watched it more than a couple times.  Every episode, Stacy and Clinton trash a person’s entire wardrobe, give them five thousand bucks to spend on “good-looking” clothes, and transform them into a fabulous new person.

See the problem here?  Let’s take a closer look.

The unsuspecting fashion disasters that star as subjects of the show don’t care about fashion.  They like being themselves, and haven’t wasted time worrying about how other people see them.  They dress in comfortable clothes or clothes that have sentimental value to them, instead of dressing in clothes that are geared towards being aesthetically pleasing to others.

By the end of the show, they’re not the same person.  They usually say something along the lines of, “Oh my GAWSH!  I never knew how AMAZING I could look with just a little bit of effort!”  And we viewers are left to think about what a wonderful deed Clinton and Stacy have done for this once-lost fashion diva.

But what they’ve really done is created another clone: another person that strives to be like everyone else; another person who feels that they will be judged solely by what they look like on the outside.

Contrary to the notion put forth by TV show, “What Not to Wear,” there’s more to life than looking good.  It’s your inner beauty that counts, and if any TV show tries to tell you otherwise, it’s time to find the remote!

I care about my health, but when it comes to exercising, I’m just plain lazy!  If you’re like me and have trouble finding the motivation to work out, read on.  I’m going to share with you a fun way to keep healthy that won’t eat up your time and doesn’t even require you to leave the house!

Look at the clock to see what time it is.  Put on your favorite fast-tempo soundtrack and start stepping side to side with the beat.  Once you get into the groove, try to pick up the pace a little – jumping from side to side is great if you have the energy, or you might prefer to just try lifting up your legs higher as you step side to side.  Adjust as necessary so that you feel your heart rate accelerating.

Remember what time it was when you started?  Just ten minutes later and you’re done!  A cool-down routine of one or two minutes will let your heart rate slow down gradually, so you may want to step side to side a little slower or do some stretches.

Here’s what I love the most about this routine: when I get into it, I usually don’t even want to stop when I get to the ten minute mark!  It’s me-time, in my own personal space, with my favorite music; and it makes me feel great.  Give it a try – what do you have to lose?  Ten minutes a day is just a little bit more than one hour a week.  You can’t tell me there’s not room for that in your schedule!

Extra tip: The website Youtube is a great place to find music that you may not own – you can listen to it right on your computer, and even watch the music video, while you give yourself ten wonderful minutes of you-time.

Sure, we’ve come along way in the past century.  From abolishing slavery to giving women the right to vote, Americans have come a long way in promoting equality.

But we’ve still got a long way to go.  And one of the areas that has a lot of room for improvement involves something that you can consciously try to control: your perception.

This issue has been brought to my attention by the ongoing media coverage of the 2008 presidential election.  If I had a nickel for every time they brought up “first black president” or “first female on the republican ticket,” …well, let’s just say I could retire early.

And politics isn’t the only arena in which you’ll hear things like this.  Think about it.  There’s the first person to play major league baseball… then there’s the first black person to play major leage baseball.  There’s the first person to climb a mountain… then there’s the first female person to climb a mountain.

For some reason we find it necessary to label people’s accomplishments as substantailly “different” because, this time, they’re being done by a different “kind” of person.

So what can you, as an individual, do to try to improve equality in the good ol’ U.S. of A?  You can be aware.  Be aware and help others be aware.  When you hear statements about the first black or first woman or first whatever, consciously challenge those statements to yourself and to others.  Also try to withstand from using these sort of statements yourself.  Yes, it is perfectly okay to acknowledge race or gender as one of the many traits of a person that makes them unique - but to view one another with equality, these irrelevant factors should not become their sole distinguisher.

Looking for an excuse to get away from it all?  Look no further - here are five reasons that you should go traveling ASAP!

1. Dealing with a lot of stress lately?  Do things in your life seem to be difficult to deal with lately?  Traveling actual has great health benefits with the potential to relieve stress, anxiety and emotional distress.  Do your health a favor!

2. Traveling is a great way to strengthen relationships between people.  Between work and school your family probably doesn’t have that much together-time.  There’s no better way to bond than to spend five days together in a relaxing or exciting new place.  This also goes for friendships and romantic relationships - even corporate getaways!

3. Traveling can also be a way to make new relationships.  Find a tour group that brings together lots of people just like you.  EF Tours, for example, offers exciting vacation packages for college-aged students.  There are also tour groups that cater to singles, seniors, couples, and certain religious groups.

4. During your usual daily routine, you probably don’t get the opportunity to take a minute to stop and really enjoy nature, or “stop to smell the flowers” as one might say.  Taking a vacation can really help you find or remember a deep appreciation of life.  And a little break from your routine will help you appreciate your routine when you return to it.

5. What is the point of life?  There are many speculations to the answers of this question, but I think you’ll agree that one of them is to fully experience the world you live in.  Believe it or not, the world is bigger than the area of the circle created with the radius of the distance from your house to your job, and there are a lot of different things out there.  See the world - learn from it - and enjoy it!