It’s a grey, gloomy, and wet spring. In hopes of cheering us all up, I compiled my latest list of favorite things.

Let’s pretend we’re at the beach and the sun is actually shining. And as fantasy candy for all the single ladies, a gorgeous guy is walking toward us.

After you flirt with Mr. Gorgeous, chill out with some artichoke and asparagus lasagna and check out my list of favorites:

1. The Moth story telling radio show and podcast. I never got over the habit of having a bedtime story. First as a child who liked to have a story read to me, then as an avid young reader, and after that as a parent who made story time a nightly ritual for my two children. Now, my bedtime story is often courtesy of The Moth.  The stories vary in quality and in delivery but a good one will bring you back to “the olden days” of radio.   Listen to the Moth’s Valentine’s Day show for a powerful love story with a twist as told by Aryana Rose.  The Moth is available on iTunes or via Stitcher (see below for details).
2. Stitcher aggregates and organizes over 40,000 radio shows and podcasts for your listening pleasure on a phone, tablet, or computer. You can create or “stitch together” personal playlists or just browse for whatever you are in the mood for at any given time.
3. Thomas Edwards, The Professional Wingman, is a dating and lifestyle coach who helps men and women develop their social skills so they can improve their ability to attract the opposite sex, date, and have relationships. If you can’t or don’t want to hire him or his company, you can get some tips by watching his video interviews and television appearances, or reading his blog and print interviews.
4. Carolyn Hax, syndicated columnist and former Washington Post copy and news editor, dishes out on-target advice on a variety of topics. Not a trained therapist, she relies on common sense. Read a recent column on balancing “me” and “we” time in a relationship.
5. The Vows column in The New York Times brings you the story of “how couples get from dating to I do.” A good number of the stories are about older, boomer age couples. Reading this column gives me hope, even though I’m not necessarily looking for marriage. Here’s a sample.
6. The Mindy Project is an award-winning sit-com created by and starring Mindy Kaling. The storyline of the show, according to Hulu: “… a skilled OB/GYN navigating the tricky waters of both her personal and professional life, as she pursues her dreams of becoming the perfect woman, finding the perfect man and getting her perfect romantic comedy ending.” Mindy is a character and some of the dialogue and situations are outrageous but it’s great fun and a good escape from the often-difficult dating life.
7. A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance. I missed this book when it was published in 2007. Of course at that time I had no idea I would be having my own later-life adventures in romance. I’m not as bold as author and English teacher divorcée Jane Juska who decided at age 66 to place a personals ad in the New York Review of Books: “Before I turn 67—next March—I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.”  This memoir chronicles the author’s adventures with the men who answered her ad. I found it entertaining and revealing and often bittersweet.
8. Humans of New York began as Brandon Stanton’s project “to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street, and create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants.” He started interviewing his subjects and the project morphed into captivating profiles of thousands of New Yorkers. Many of the stories are about love.
9. Google Voice is a free phone number you can use from your cell phone and a great option if you don’t want to give out your mobile number to a relative stranger or new match. As someone who had a phone app called Burner a while back, Google Voice is much better – and there’s no cost. You will need a G mail account. Once you set up the number, you’ll also be able to text, use voice mail, and even reply to text messages using your G-mail account (it will appear as if you texted the message).
10. Melody Gardot, a singer-songwriter with jazz and blues influences, who grew a music career after a horrific car accident. Listen: Baby, I’m a Fool.

What are your favorite things? Write and tell me.

Until next week, happy dating or not dating.

XXXOOO

Nadia