Here's to Happy Women...

W hy is it that the invitations we don’t get can be as agonizing as the ones we do receive? We’ve all experienced the pain of not getting an invitation. Like the Christmas party that all of your friends were invited to, but not you. How about the time when severa l of your friends got together for a movie—without calling you? This always hurts, so we put on a good show and say that we were busy and wouldn’t have been able to go anyway—even if we weren’t and we could have. Sometimes not being invited is due to miscommunication. Someone was supposed to call, but forgot. Perhaps the invitation was truly lost in the mail. Other times, you just weren’t invited. As hurtful as this is, there are times that I wish certain invitations had been lost in the mail, or someone had forgotten to make the call. Holiday invitations may be the most hazardous of all. My Thanksgiving last year involved an invitation to a friend’s house. She said, “come for dinner, you’ll have fun.” I thought about it f

T eri Gray Franta is an alumna from the University of Southern California School of Journalism. For years she enjoyed a unique perspective observing the relationships—both personal and professional—between men and wo men. As the head of an advertising agency that specialized in the male-dominated motor sports field , Teri was considered “one of the guys.” Somehow she managed to retain her femininity, and most importantly, her sense of humor. She may have worked with the boys, but the sisterhood of “chicas” was always on her mind. As she wrote tirelessly about motorcycles, snowmobiles and all terrain vehicles (ATVs), another voice was silently screaming to be heard. This voice was finally unleashed when Teri decided to take a short break to concentrate on the homefront. After taking a leave of absence that included a month long European pilgrimage to “clear her mind” of 95-hour work weeks, deadlines that took priority over anniversaries, birthdays and other special occasions that “nor