Category: Lifestyle

Rules of engagement

Jae-Ha Kim

Betsy Lancefield knew early on that she didn’t want to live with a man before getting married. But then she fell in love with a man who wouldn’t consider marrying a woman he hadn’t already lived with. She was torn. So they compromised. “Six months into the relationship, we got engaged,” says Lancefield, 37. “He went to work in Indonesia for eight months, and when he returned, he moved in with me. My family and friends were excited when we got engaged, but then when they heard we hadn’t set a date, they were sort of let down.”

The new rude

Jae-Ha Kim

Imagine finding strangers sitting on your lawn chairs, drinking beer and scarfing down sandwiches on your deck. You’d ask them to leave, right? Now imagine them telling you where to go. “Rude goes way beyond slamming a door in someone’s face or flipping them off on the highway,” says 48-year-old Wrigleyville resident Mike Porcaro, whose property has often been besieged by rowdy Cubs fans. “I had to chain my barbecue pit on the deck because people felt compelled to open the lid to look inside, as if they were going to find the Holy Grail or a mini-Sammy Sosa.”

It’s a small world after all at Disney

Jae-Ha Kim

Disney is suffering a bad spell of congestion. The crush of holiday visitors forced Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., to suspend ticket sales Thursday for the third time this week. The park took the action in the morning, planning to resume sales. But sales still were halted at dusk.The amusement park also stopped selling tickets Wednesday and on Christmas Day, spokesman Tom Brocato said.This is the first time it has done this in four years.

Are you in the mood for a little romance?

Jae-Ha Kim

You think romance and you think of New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, right? Fuggedaboudit. They’re long gone. But summertime’s here and that’s even better. Think about it. There’s no one pressure-cooker day on which to pin all your romantic hopes and dreams, and you don’t have to stroll arm-in-arm swaddled in down-stuffed outerwear. There are plenty of ways to spend an enchanted, summer evening in the Chicago area, whether it’s dining at a top-notch restaurant, gazing at the stars from the city’s most awesome vantage point or slow dancing with your sweetheart.

Single life `isn’t an affliction’

Jae-Ha Kim

Go ahead. Feel sorry for single people. View them as less than, as the smug marrieds do in Bridget Jones’s Diary. But guess what? There’s a growing contingent of folks out there who are single by choice, and loving it. “There’s no question that the pendulum is swinging in a different direction,” says Xavier Amador, co-author of Being Single in a Couples’ World (Fireside, $12). “Singles are happy being single. It’s a different world we live in these days.