A few days ago, we asked this poll question on our website: How long should a man wait after the first date to give a woman a call if he enjoyed her company? A whopping 83% said the NEXT DAY!! 

    Do you hear that, guys?? Women don’t often reveal their secrets so blatantly to you early on in the dating game, so this little peek inside our craniums is HUGE, and you best listen up!

    Here’s the way we see it: If you really like us and want to see us again, then you need to “be a man” and call us the next day and tell us so! Forget this “wait three days to call” rule. So what if you look anxious? We like that! Women want to feel like men can’t live without us, that we’ve bewitched you somehow and that you can’t spend another day without basking in our glorious company.

    Chances are, if you enjoyed the date, we did, too, and would welcome your call. So please, stop the game-playing. Let your heart “rule,” period. It’s called romance, and we like that.

    Any Harry Potter fans out there? Well, we just finished reading the “seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series” and Hogwarts is officially closed for good. I say “we” meaning my daughter did all the work and I let her tell me about it. She’s the one who is well-read; I’m just a good listener. 

    What I loved most about this book is its length – 759 teenager-muting pages. It’s been wonderfully quiet around this house for two days while my daughter has been glued to its pages. No fights with her sister, no calcifying in front of the computer IMing her friends. Thank you, J.K. Rowling – you’re brilliant!

    I guess you would call me a muggle. I have no magic powers beyond the scope of a woman’s mind-boggling ability to multi-task every day. And I have never read even ONE Harry Potter book. I saw one movie, the first, so I do know the basic premise and who all the characters are. What I’ve been most amazed about, however, is how the Potter series has been able to unite an entire world. Maybe that should be part of our Iraqui military plan . . . drop thousands of Harry Potter books over enemy territory and surely, it will get everyone talking. (When it comes out in paperback, that is. We don't want to kill anybody!)

    I don’t want to brag, but I know how the book ends . . . na na na na na na! I could be when of those rude bloggers who reveals the ending to you before you get a chance to read it.  Does Harry live or die? Does he finally avenge the death of his parents who were killed by Voldemort? Will J.K. Rowling become the wealthiest woman in the world? (people.com/people/article/0,26334,625989,00.html)

    But my lips are sealed. Instead, I thought it would be more fun if you tried to GUESS what happens at the end. Come on . . . give it a shot.

    This past weekend, I went to an Incredible Women party. The first of what we decided will be a quarterly event. It was the brainchild of a woman who is both a colleague and friend. As she tells it, she has come across so many inspiring women in her life, each with a special spark, that by bringing us together, she thought we would ignite a powerful dynamic. 

    And she was right. For three hours, nine women of all ethnicities (Spanish, Caucasian, Indian and Hispanic) and walks of life sat in her living room sipping wine and taking turns recounting our life stories. There was a landscape architect, a “Super Mom,” a probations officer, two nutritionists, a CEO of a clinical trials company that is doing research on Alzheimer’s and Fibromyalgia, a retired Hewlett-Packard executive who has just embarked on a long-distance relationship with a man she met on Match.com, founder of a national nonprofit organization and me – a writer, editor, blogger and single mom. We were all strangers at first, but the successes and heartaches we shared with each other have become the blood of new friendships.

    I tell you this story because I think it’s important that women come together on common ground – or in a living room – and lift each other up. Too often, I think we try to compete with each other – for men, power, attention, success – and while it makes for entertaining reality TV shows (“America’s Top Model,” “The Bachelor,” etc.), it’s really all so negative and self-defeating in the end.

    Each and every woman is an amazing creature, biologically. I have always loved what Gloria Steinem once said: “Of course women are superior to men. We can lactate, menstruate and procreate. Men can merely inseminate.” But when we put aside our petty jealousies and work together as one collective, positive force, I believe we can change the world.

    So here’s your homework assignment: Today, go up to a woman you admire or respect or are even a little jealous of, and tell her you think she is INCREDIBLE! Then report back to us. You’ll be amazed at how good it makes YOU feel!

    This blog will be short and sweet. Mostly because I was out late last night at a business function and every time I pound a key on the keyboard, my head throbs. Let me just throw out this question to all you wise Body Beautiful readers: What do you do when a colleague hits on you? Not someone with whom you work directly, but someone who is in the same industry, who you see on occasion at random industry events. 

    I ask this because there all kinds of laws protecting us from sexual harassment at work, but not any laws I know of that protect us from sexual harassment at after-work events. When a colleague makes flirtatious, borderline off-color remarks to you at a mixer, what exactly are you supposed to do, given the buttoned-up professional environment? Slap him and make a scene? Or, as I did, smile and laugh as though you think he is the most engaging person in the world and then look for an escape hatch: “I have to use the ladies’ room. I’ll be right back.”

    It’s especially delicate if this person is very well-connected in the business community. You certainly don’t want to make an enemy out of him – or her!

      Has anyone out there experienced this same problem? If so, do you have any sound advice?