How To Tell If Your Summer Fling Is The Real Thing

Summer is a prime time to fall in love. The days are long and the nights are warm. Your bronzed skin and beachy hair make you feel especially sexy. And, wearing skimpy clothing is perfectly dignified and socially acceptable. It’s no wonder that romance seems to particularly spark in this season. 

Is your summer fling meant to last?

However, not all summer loves are meant to last. Here are some tips to help you decipher if your relationship is built to endure through the fall and beyond, or if you should fling your beau to the curb on Labor Day.

It might be just a fling if: 

• You find yourself looking forward to your return to “real-life”
• You don't know his middle name, or other basic information about him
•  You can’t picture him without his tan and surfboard

It might be the real thing if:

• You have met his buddies, or better yet, his family
• You spend time together doing normal things, like cooking dinner or watching a movie on the couch
• You are already planning a couples Halloween costume 

So what are you going to do with your summer love?

Samantha's August Movie Pick: Savages

A great looking case

Savages tell the story of pot growing best buddies who fight against the Mexican drug rulers to save the gorgeous O, played by Blake Lively. The Gossip Girl princess is in a three-way relationship with the best buddies, Ben and Chon: played by Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch. After Ben and Chon refuse to sign a deal that would give the Mexican drug rulers huge percentage of their profits, the rulers kidnap O, and tell her protectors that they are going to abuse her until they can come up with enough money to buy her back. Trying to kill people for revenge, and raise $13 million comes as a challenge to the friends, and they go through various hardships to eventually save their treasured girlfriend.

This movie was a big deal for Lively as an actress, as it includes two lengthy sex scenes and shows her playing a totally different character to what people are used to seeing.

The ending of the movie faced criticism because of its easy way out approach. With a dark storyline, some bloody scenes and a beautiful cast, Savages is interesting and believable, and worth a visit to go see at your nearest movie theatre. Check out the times and places in New York.

Is Your Relationship Normal?

(Originally appeared in The Huffington Post, July 30, 2012.)

Everyone wants to be in a romantic relationship, and everyone has an idea in their head of what the perfect relationship should be. However, most of the time, we end up in relationships that never resemble what we thought we would have, and we start to wonder whether or not this is okay. Usually, the answer surfaces when we compare our relationship to other people's and try to figure out if ours is better, worse or the same. Of course, we can never make this determination because one never knows what goes on behind closed doors and what is actually normal. If you are wondering if your relationship is normal, here are some pointers so you can figure that out...

1. Relationships are difficult, no matter what. If someone tells you otherwise, they are lying, or they aren't in a relationship.

2. Your relationship is normal as long as it works for you and your partner. Talk to your significant other about what "normal" means to him or her. As long as the two of you are on the same page and being true to yourselves and what you really want, it doesn't matter what others think. In today's day and age, there is no normal; our society is all about "anything goes."

3. Don't get caught up in peer pressure. If marriage isn't for you, but a monogamous committed relationship is, go ahead and have that relationship. As long as you and your partner are being honest about what you both really want and you are not pressuring each other, embrace the relationship that you are choosing to have.

4. If you aren't in a relationship but you want to build a family, that is perfectly okay. Single parents are very of the norm today; if it works for you, go for it.

5. Look around you and really notice other people's relationships. Not what you imagine them to be, but what they really are. No one's relationship is perfect, so don't think that you are alone in the fact that you have some issues with yours sometimes.

6. Don't believe "the grass is greener" elsewhere. You might wish