lifestyle

Life finds interesting ways to bring people together.

My oldest, for example, met his wife in a bowling alley shortly before he landed a part on "Ed," a TV series that was set, I swear, in a bowling alley.

My youngest met his wife over a fence. She was visiting her grandmother, who lived next door, and he was playing basketball in our back yard.

I watched my three daughters sitting on our trampoline. It was late on a sunny afternoon the day before school started earlier this week. The girls, ages 13, 10 and 8, were simply talking. Endlessly -- about everything and about nothing, about feelings and dreams and about the end of summer.

I sat working in the yard at a distance and took it in and smiled.

If you are more prone to anxiety than those around you, it may be genetic.

Scientists have discovered a gene that creates an exaggerated "startle" reflex in the people who have it. This may explain why some of us are chronic worriers, jump out of our skins during a scary movie or find it difficult to heal from a traumatic experience.

Q: My fiance and I are writing our own vows. Can we read them off paper at our ceremony?

A: Of course you can! You'll already be so nervous about speaking in front of friends and family that no one expects you to memorize your lines as though you were in a play.

I've always wanted to be a morning person.

Well, that's not entire true. I've never wanted to be one of those people who are happy and chipper at ungodly hours of the morning. I don't think I'd wish that on anyone. No, I've only ever wanted to be consistently awake, pre-dawn, without feeling completely miserable for the rest of the day.

It was a rare, rainy weekend in the desert with lightning crackling across the sky and wind whipping the palm trees until they reared like horses.

My husband and I had just finished cleaning up the debris from the last storm when out of nowhere, another storm struck.

And there she was in all her glory: GI Jane on the front page of this past Sunday's New York Times. An American soldier in Iraq, huge assault rifle in her arms, a woman on a mission.

Maybe it's because I have three young daughters that I shuddered.

We all relate to one another in different ways. Some people are very independent in relationships, others are dependent and a number of people are co-dependent (which means they put aside their own well-being to maintain a relationship with another).

Q: What's a polite way for me to let my guests know that I want to be the only one wearing white at my wedding?

A: There's no polite way to do this, so don't. No rule says that only the bride can wear white at a wedding, but there's sort of an unspoken rule about this, and most guests are happy to oblige.

So you're getting a new kitten. And your current cat doesn't know it yet.

This should go well.