Getting out of the house is the secret to staying alert through the droning hours leading up to the big meal, even if you don't go farther than 7-Eleven for another six-pack.

Worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.

For some Chicago expats, food is the medicine that blunts the pain of separation.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

TV happens. And once it's happened, it's gone. When it's gone, you move on, no tears, no tantrums, no videotape

In twenty years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.