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Do you remember the first friend you made? The first person I consciously remember calling my “friend” (and later, “best friend”) was someone I met in preschool. I was probably four years old. We had similar interests, and complementary personalities (he was the big picture idea guy , I was the detail-oriented do-er). As I’ve continued through life, my friendships have shifted . I’ve made new friends along the way, deepened my relationship with existing friend s, and fallen out of touch with others. When you look at it this way, it seems like friendship is something that just “happens. ” You can’t control it, it would seem, and maybe it’s better not to. After all, you can’t force friendship. Yet, what I’ve come to realize in the past couple years is that while you can’t force or manufacture friendship, you can   seek and cultivate it . It isn’t completely out of your control. In fact, since it’s such an important part of living a happy life, it’s something that you put on autopilot a...

If the showroom for Rachel Cohen and Andres Modak's home-goods line, Snowe, looks an awful lot like an actual living room— that's because it is. Welcome to a new level of experiential shopping. More From In the Mag 20 articles Aug 15, 2017 A couple of months ago, Rachel Cohen and Andres Modak threw a dinner party at their New York apartment to celebrate Cohen's birthday. The spread was what one would expect from a design- conscious, well-heeled, thirtysomething Manhattan couple : The 35 guests were served buffet-style at the dining table—a sleek ebony wood affair outfitted with chic, no- frills white serving platters and meticulously lined stacks of matching dinner plates . A friend came over beforehand to mix a special cocktail , which was doled out in on- trend stemless cocktail glasses . The only difference: The plates, the glasses, the napkins, and every fork and knife were all for sale. The couple's dining table set with Snowe tableware Advertisement - C...

August 16, 2017 Think you’re ready to own a dog? They make great pets . They’re adorable. They love to spend time with their humans, and they show affection in numerous ways. You can find a small dog if you live in the city or a big dog if you have more room to roam. Clearly, dogs are great. But what about you? Are you the kind of person who’s going to be a good dog owner ? Surprisingly enough, there are many types of people who really shouldn’t own a dog. Worried you’re one of them? Read on to learn about the kinds of people who don’t usually make good dog owners — and make sure you’re really ready to bring a puppy or an older dog into your home. ")}; 1. People who won’t take the time to properly train a dog Don’t have time for obedience training? Then, you probably shouldn’t own a dog. | iStock.com Dog training is difficult. It takes time. And it requires research into the methods that work best for different dogs in different settings. People who won’t take the time to proper...

© Getty I Spent a Whole Week Without Looking in a Mirror—And Here's What Happened You may remember Narcissus, the Greek mythological character who fell in love with his own reflection and eventually killed himself because it would never love him back. But...what if the guy was just obsessing over his pores? That's why I spend an extra half-hour staring in the mirror every day, after all. And yes, I literally mean 30 minutes, an inch from the glass, trying to get a look at the skin next to my earlobe to make sure an acne garden didn 't crop up over night. My pore ritual is just the beginning: Throughout the day, I quickly glancing at bathroom mirrors and high- shine Manhattan surfaces . These are not self-congratulatory damn-girl-you-look-great check-ins. Quite the opposite: Unlike Narcissus, I am not in love with what I see. Peering into the subway glass that goes dark between stops, I catch myself in 20-second fragments, enough time to confirm that nothing has shifted, ...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - There are two things that everyone can agree on: We need to protect children from abuse. And the current system, under the aegis of the city Administration for Children's Services, needs fixing. So where do we go from here? A series of stories in the Advance recently laid out many of the shortcomings in the system. ACS case workers are given ridiculously large caseloads to manage. Many of those workers come to the job fresh out of college, so they have little experience. The hours are long. The pay is low. It's not a pretty milieu. Case workers often see the worst of humanity. Parents who brutalize their children. Homes where drug abuse and domestic abuse are rife. Clients can be confrontational and violent. Some of the worst neighborhoods in the city are an ACS employee's workplace. Gut-wrenching decisions have to sometimes be made to remove children from their parents. It can be soul-killing work. The kind of work you bring home with you. It's...

Fans of best-selling crime novelist  Laura Lippman  will want to be sitting down for this announcement. Lippman’s next book, Sunburn ( William Morrow ), may come out in February 2018, but you can start reading it now. That’s right—Lippman, author of the acclaimed Tess Monaghan series , has exclusively shared the jaw-dropping cover of Sunburn for the very first time with  Parade , and she’s also giving us a sneak peek at the first few chapters. (Spoiler alert: We’re already hooked on Lippman’s newest characters, and you will be too.) When you’re done staring at the gorgeous cover, read on for an excerpt from  Sunburn . OneJune 11, 1995Belleville, Delaware It’s the sunburned shoulders that get him. Pink, peeling. The burn is two days old, he gauges. Earned on Friday, painful to the touch yesterday, today an itchy soreness that’s hard not to keep fingering, probing, as she’s doing right now in an absentminded way. The skin has started sloughing off, soon those narrow shoulders won ’t b...