Play expert and game inventor Andrea Cuadra shares her favorite board games.
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My "thing" is playfulness -- which, according to dozens of young adults who participated in my research, often involves being silly. Makes sense. I love being silly! But sometimes, it's hard, right? Because it's easy to worry what people think?

I've written about three proven ways to stop caring what others think. Here's a fourth: find a legit excuse to be silly. Like... the entire month of October. Which ends in one of my favorite holidays: Halloween!

To that end, here are some perfectly silly and amazing Halloween shoes. 

Oh. My. Goodness. 

​Amazon's got this great little page called Interesting Finds, where they show you cute urban home and clothing items. They claim it's "updated daily," though I feel like I mostly see the exact same stuff every time I visit...

Until today, when I discovered Hot Chocolate Design, a Venezuelan shoe brand created by Carolina Aguerrevere and Pablo Martinez.

I ordered my FitBark (yes, it's a "FitBit for dogs") because I wanted to track Ruby Snoofer's activity. She's 11, and I wanted to make sure that a) she gets enough exercise when we're at home... and b) when we're out hiking or camping or backpacking, she's not getting too much.

I never imagined my FitBark, a tiny activity monitor that dogs can wear on their collar, would help me solve a mystery.

Basketball is a huge part of my life. I play several nights a week -- I'm even playing in a tournament this weekend! I've used basketball as a way to integrate into a new culture when I travel, and I've even made housing decisions around good pickup games. 

I consider myself quite knowledgeable about the game. But here's something I didn't know until last night: playing basketball in basketball socks -- as opposed to, say, biking socks -- actually makes a huge difference.

I know that most people aren't into mushy, over-the-top love stuff like I am. BUT IF YOU ARE! I Like You, I Love You, by Carissa Potter,  is an adorable "extended Valentine" you might really enjoy. 

Because, first of all, that cover is hilarious and amazing. (Even though I definitely wouldn't wear lacy underwear for someone I only liked -- it's still funny.)

I recently wrote 8 Good Reasons to Spend MORE, Not LESS, Money. If I were to go back and add a 9th reason, it would be: you only have one pair of feet.

In fact, if you're going to ignore everything in that whole blog post except for one thing, it should be that. It'a hard to be happy when you don't have healthy feet.

Behind every living man... is a woman who nursed him through his man flu.

In general, I hate gender stereotypes. But this one is definitely​ true.

I'm only in my 20s -- but I've spent a lot of time in the sun. As a child, my mom used to yank me out of school for a month each winter so we could travel in Hawaii. As an adult, I've spent at least a month or more each year near the equator.

This year, I returned from a several-week vacation to Costa Rica and Panama... with an unfortunate brown spot under my eye. It made me sad -- I'm still in my freaking 20s! Plus, it made it look like I had a shiner in all my photos.